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Artqlo Support
A generative artwork and the time. Nothing else. An app for iPhone and iPad.
None of the twelve works is a video. Each one is a small program that draws itself while you watch, so it never loops and no two moments come twice. Leave it running and it keeps going.
- Twelve artworks, all of them free, each still being drawn
- The time, in a thin quiet face over the work
- No feed, no notifications, no interface. Tap once and two controls fade in; leave it alone and they fade out again
- Stays on, with burn-in protection, so it works as a shelf or bedside piece
- Brightness, adjustable without touching your system setting
No. All twelve artworks and the clock are free, with no limits and no ads. A one-time purchase ("Unlock everything") adds five typefaces and five colours for the clock, night dimming, and control over whether the clock is shown and where it sits. It's a single purchase, not a subscription, and there is nothing further to buy.
The twelve works that are free today stay free. If works are added in a later version, some of those may be part of the purchase, but nothing that is free now will be taken away.
Open Settings and tap any locked row to bring up the purchase screen, then tap "Restore purchase". This re-checks your Apple Account for a previous purchase. The purchase is tied to your Apple Account, so it carries over automatically when you reinstall the app or set it up on another device signed in with the same account.
That's intentional — at rest there is nothing on screen but the work and the time. Tap anywhere and two icons fade in: brightness on the left, settings on the right. Leave it alone for a few seconds and they fade out again.
No. Each work is a small program that computes what to draw, frame by frame, while you are looking at it. Nothing is played back, so the picture never returns to a starting point and the same frame never comes twice. Switching works and coming back starts that work over from the beginning.
The clock is deliberately quiet, and its colour is chosen for each work — white over the dark ones, near-black over the pale ones. If it still doesn't suit your room, the one-time purchase lets you pick from five colours, move the clock up or down, or hide it completely.
That's intentional, so it can be used as an ambient or bedside display. The whole image drifts very slowly — a few pixels over several minutes — to protect OLED screens from burn-in. You can turn "Keep the screen on" off in Settings, and the screen goes back to normal as soon as you leave the app.
The works are drawn continuously, which is what the app is for, so it does use the processor the whole time it is in front of you. For long sessions on a shelf, keep the device on a charger. The app stops drawing as soon as it goes to the background.
Not at the moment. The clock is 24-hour with a leading zero so that the digits never shift sideways when the time changes, which matters for something you leave in view. If you'd like a 12-hour option, please say so in Issues.
Artqlo has no accounts and never asks for your location. The works run entirely on your device and download nothing. Basic usage reporting — which screens are opened, which work is chosen, and how often — is sent to Firebase Analytics, with no advertising identifier and nothing that identifies you. You can turn it off under Settings → Privacy → Share usage data. Your settings are stored only on your device, and your purchase is verified directly with Apple through StoreKit, so the developer never sees your personal data.
All twelve are original works by the developer, written for the browser and included in the app as they are. There is a note about this in the app under Settings → About the artworks.
Possibly, in later versions. Which works people actually choose is the only thing guiding that, so if one of the twelve is your favourite — or if you'd like something quite different — please say so in Issues.
Please report bugs and requests through Issues.
It helps if you include:
- Your device (e.g. iPhone 15 Pro) and iOS version
- What you did, and what happened