Comparison

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.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Generative particle system
  • Real-time animation modes
  • Interactive 3D manipulation
  • Drawing mode
  • Microphone input response
  • Customizable presets
Features
Read full description

"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

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

Uzu, An Interactive Light Show4 screens
Magic Fluids4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show versus Magic Fluids: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUzu, An Interactive Light ShowMagic Fluids
Price$3.99 — better$4.99
Rating4.8 (265 ratings)4.8 (579 ratings) — better
Positive reviews91.1% of reviews96.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings265579 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank—#72 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.615.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB40 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperColordodge LabsMad Scientist

Customer experience

Uzu, An Interactive Light Show

All ratings261 ratings
Positive95.0%
Neutral2.3%
Negative2.7%
Written reviews369 reviews
Positive91.1%
Neutral4.1%
Negative4.9%

Magic Fluids

All ratings575 ratings
Positive97.6%
Neutral1.7%
Negative0.7%
Written reviews181 reviews
Positive96.7%
Neutral1.7%
Negative1.7%

User reviews

Uzu, An Interactive Light Show

From 265 App Store ratings

What 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 ratings

What 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

None

Uzu, An Interactive Light Show

No in-app purchases

None

Magic Fluids

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Uzu, An Interactive Light Show free?
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Magic Fluids free?
Magic Fluids costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Uzu, An Interactive Light Show or Magic Fluids?
Magic Fluids is rated higher. Uzu, An Interactive Light Show averages 4.8 out of 5 from 265 ratings, while Magic Fluids averages 4.8 from 579 ratings.
Do Uzu, An Interactive Light Show or Magic Fluids have ads?
Neither Uzu, An Interactive Light Show nor Magic Fluids shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Uzu, An Interactive Light Show or Magic Fluids?
Uzu, An Interactive Light Show ships an update every 2 months, and Magic Fluids every 4 months. Most recently, Uzu, An Interactive Light Show was updated on November 1, 2026 and Magic Fluids on October 29, 2026.

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