Uzu, An Interactive Light Show vs Magic Fluids
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show
Explore a generative design playground that combines math, physics, and art. Create dynamic light shows with interactive particle systems, customizable animations, and drawing modes. Experience endless possibilities for visual creation and interaction.
- Generative particle system
- Real-time animation modes
- Interactive 3D manipulation
- Drawing mode
- Microphone input response
- Customizable presets
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"This is doodling for digital natives . . . mind blowing." — Wired Magazine "Uzu for iPad is endlessly complicated, simply fun." — Ars Technica Uzu is a generative design playground — a math-physics-art toy for anyone who ever loved spirographs, fireworks, planetariums, lava lamps, light painting, kaleidoscopes, or graphing calculators. Touch the screen and watch thousands of particles swirl, spiral, and bloom in real time. Change the entire feel by simply changing how many fingers you use. Relax. Play. Meditate. Create wallpapers. Or lose yourself for an hour tweaking symmetry, animation modes, and effects. Uzu is endlessly deep and simply fun. Now completely rebuilt with a native Metal engine and a beautiful SwiftUI interface — smoother, richer, and more powerful than ever. FEATURES • Fully dynamic generative particle system • 21 animation modes for each touch count (0 through 10) • Rotational, translational, and reflective symmetry • 122 factory presets plus unlimited user presets • 10 visual effects: Glow, Warp, Kaleidoscope, Sparkle, Feedback, Color, Gradient, Pixelate, Scanlines, and Vignette • Export and import presets — save, share, and back up your creations • Fast preset switching, shake to hide the menu, adjustable quality settings • Freeze mode, microphone reactivity, and thousands of possible combinations • Create stunning backgrounds for iPhone and iPad ACCLAIM • Winner of Apple's "App of the Week" • Apple Rewind: Best Generative Art and Sound App • Reached #1 on the App Store • Featured in Apple's "App Store Essentials Hall of Fame" • Seen in the "Year of the iPad" video at the iPad keynote • Featured as an Apple Staff Favorite SUPPORT Questions or stories? We'd love to hear from you. jason@colordodge.com www.colordodge.com
Magic Fluids
Experience a calming and creative fluid simulation. Interact with mesmerizing, colorful swirls that evolve into beautiful digital art. Ideal for relaxation, stress relief, and artistic expression.
- Fluid flow simulation
- Hypnotizing motion of fluid swirls
- Stress and anxiety relief
- Create abstract digital art
- Configurable fluid behavior
- Save custom presets
- Pause animation and save screenshots
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Magic Fluids is a relaxing, colorful fluid simulation app that will help you calm down and relieve stress, or be creative and make aesthetic digital art. It is based on algorithms of fluid flow simulation and features fluid (pun intented!), beautiful graphics. It is the best time waster! TOUCH THE SCREEN and enjoy hypnotizing motion of fluid swirls moving around, sometimes slow, quiet and elegant, other times dynamic, satisfying and trippy. CALM DOWN AND RELAX as you draw and watch peaceful flows evolve in space and eventually settle down into colorful patterns. Magic Fluids will help you sleep, meditate, restore balance, relieve stress and anxiety. GET CREATIVE and, with a touch of your finger, bring to life stylish patterns of paint and particles. If you like abstract digital art or acrylic pour painting, you'll love Magic Fluids! You can create impressive eye-catching designs that look like swirls, galaxies, liquid, fire, light, smoke, lava and much more! KEEP YOUR KIDS BUSY - they love to doodle and watch the fluid move around! We hope that Magic Fluids can also help children with anxiety, autism and sensory issues. Please note: This is NOT a live wallpaper! Key features of Magic Fluids: - Highly configurable fluid behaviour and look - 70+ predefined configuration presets to get you started - Save your own presets - Pause the animation anytime and save screenshots - NEW: Record videos straight from the app! - Smoke, water and jello animation - 10 fluid textures that add fine detail to the fluid - Amazing light and shadow visual effects - Thousands of particles moving with the fluid - You can load photos and images as backgrounds - Highly optimized, multiple quality settings Fluid animation in your pocket! Touch the screen and create beautiful motion of colorful smoke and water. Calm down and relax as you watch trippy, magical swirls of flowing colors. Get artistic and design creative, satisfying patterns of paint and particles.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Uzu, An Interactive Light Show at every 2 months against Magic Fluids's every 4 months. Uzu, An Interactive Light Show also leads on price ($3.99 vs $4.99). Magic Fluids's advantage is chart position (#72 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.6). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show costs $3.99 and Magic Fluids $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Uzu, An Interactive Light Show against 4.8 for Magic Fluids. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 265 and 579 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 91% of Uzu, An Interactive Light Show's written reviews are positive against 97% of Magic Fluids's.
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show ships an update every 2 months, Magic Fluids every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Uzu, An Interactive Light Show | Magic Fluids |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (265 ratings) | 4.8 (579 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 91.1% of reviews | 96.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 265 | 579 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #72 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Colordodge Labs | Mad Scientist |
Customer experience
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show
Magic Fluids
User reviews
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show
From 265 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Mesmerizing visuals
- 🎨 Endless creative possibilities
- 💡 Great for relaxation and meditation
- 🎨 Impressive color and pattern generation
- 👍 Fun and engaging for all ages
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues on some devices
- 🔧 Limited customization options
- 🔧 Lack of music/sound integration
- 🔧 Outdated UI on newer iPads
Magic Fluids
From 579 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Calming and relaxing
- 💡 Highly customizable
- 🎨 Beautiful visuals and fluid dynamics
- 🔍 Lots of presets and options to explore
- 💰 Worth the price
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes or freezes
- 🔍 Difficulty accessing menu buttons
- 🔋 Battery drain issues
Bugs and requests
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes on iOS 4.2 and newer
- Menu controls not working on iPad Pro
- Screenshot feature not functioning properly
Requested features
5 requests- Add music/sound reactive features
- Implement full-screen mode without UI
- Introduce more advanced preset options
- Add ability to save and share custom presets
- Optimize performance for latest iPad models
Magic Fluids
Reported bugs
2 issues- Presets not saving properly
- Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to import custom background images
- Screen recording functionality
- More sound and music options
- Improved interface and UI
In-app purchases
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show
No in-app purchases
Magic Fluids
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Uzu, An Interactive Light Show free?
Is Magic Fluids free?
Which has better reviews, Uzu, An Interactive Light Show or Magic Fluids?
Do Uzu, An Interactive Light Show or Magic Fluids have ads?
Which is updated more often, Uzu, An Interactive Light Show or Magic Fluids?
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