Back in Time vs Universal Zoom
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Back in Time
Explore the history of the Universe, Earth, Life, and Civilization through an immersive, interactive journey. This app uses custom animations, timelines, and interesting facts to bring historical events to life. It's designed to help users understand the connections between events and see the bigger picture.
- Interactive timeline of events
- Custom animations and videos
- Over 350 remarkable images
- Little-known interesting facts
- Offline access
- Multilingual support
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• "The coolest history textbook you’ll find on the iPad" - The New York Times • Winner of the WSA Mobile Award • Top1 iPad Book in US, UK, FR, ES, China… and 34 more Countries • Featured by The New York Times (Top10 iPad Apps of the year) • Featured by the American Photo Magazine (Top 10 Photo eBooks of the year) For iPhone/iPod touch download - Back in Time for iPhone Back in Time will take you on a stunning exploration of the history of our Universe, Earth, Life and Civilization. A journey through time where each event is documented with social and historical context, several images, an illustrative timeline and little-known interesting facts. Custom made animations bring those events to life, creating an interesting, immersive learning experience. An imaginary clock will guide you through this quest, proposing a simple analogy: the entire Universe started 24 hours ago. The Big Bang, the source of time and space, is the first event in our journey – the clock reads 0:00 hours. Today, 13.7 billion years later, the clock reads midnight. In between is a sequence of key events that has brought us to where we are today. Explore them, place them in perspective, see how they relate and understand the connections. We invite you to take a step back and see the whole picture. :::: REVIEWS :::: “...a beautifully executed lesson on the history of the universe and the evolution of life on earth. Great for high school students or parents who’d like to tutor younger children and enjoy a first-rate experience of their own...” - Bob Tedeschi, The New York Times “The iPad could use more apps like this one.” - The Daily “...the best iPad apps are those that combine coffee table-styled books with the fluid nature of the iPad’s interface. Back in Time is just that, it’s the story of the entire history of our universe made interactive on the iPad.” - Casey Chan, Gizmodo (App of the Day) “Back in Time is utterly gorgeous in its presentation. (...) The app is so easy to navigate that it is a delight to explore. Landka could scarcely have done a better job in putting everything together.” - Gwen Phua, Appmodo :::: FEATURES :::: Designed for iPad; 47 chapters; Over 350 remarkable images; 60+ amazing animations and videos; 40+ illustrated timelines; More than 200 little-known interesting facts; Music by the composer Rodrigo Leão; Developed in 7 different languages (English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese); No internet connection required.
Universal Zoom
Explore the universe's vastness and intricacy through interactive visual comparisons. Seamlessly zoom from subatomic particles to the observable universe, gaining intuition about scale and size with stunning imagery and clear explanations.
- Seamless zooming across scales
- Visual comparisons of objects
- Jargon-free scientific explanations
- Audio narration
- Over 270 objects presented to scale
- Multi-language support
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The universe is endlessly vast. A single atom is impossibly small. And somewhere between those two extremes lies everything that has ever existed. We believe that feeling — the electric, spine-tingling sense of scale — belongs to everyone. Not just scientists. Not just students. Everyone. That's why we built Universal Zoom. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Zoom seamlessly from the Planck length to the edge of the observable universe — about 300 objects presented to perfect scale. • Compare any two objects side by side: how many Earths fit inside Jupiter? How does a virus measure up against a skyscraper? Instant, visual, intuitive. (No other scale app lets you do this.) • Go deeper with audio narration and short, accessible explanations — the facts that matter, in plain language. WHAT YOU'LL EXPLORE • Elementary particles — quarks, leptons, and bosons. Atomic nuclei, atoms, and DNA. Living cells. Animals and landmarks. Planets, stars, and galaxies. A deep dive into physics, biology, and astronomy — with short, plain-language articles that make even particle physics easy to grasp — in 40 languages, with metric, imperial, or powers-of-ten units. • Real high-resolution photos and electron microscope images, where possible. Original artwork for things that can't be photographed — like elementary particles and DNA structures. • No ads. No in-app purchases. Pure discovery. BUILT WITH YOU We're a team of two (Andrey and Oksana) from Canada who have poured a decade into this app because we genuinely love science. Most objects come from community suggestions — carefully fact-checked and updated with every new discovery. Over 200 more are already in the queue. FOR EDUCATORS Used by teachers worldwide to visualize scale, build measurement intuition, and turn abstract numbers into "aha" moments. Available at 50% off for schools via Apple School Manager (20+ copies). FOLLOW THE JOURNEY Sneak peeks and upcoming additions: @gamifyitapps on X, YouTube, and TikTok. Feedback and ideas: gamifyitapps.com/contact
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Universal Zoom at 356 against Back in Time's 25. Universal Zoom also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (97% vs 84%). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Back in Time costs $7.99 and Universal Zoom $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Universal Zoom holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Universal Zoom has 356 ratings behind it against 25, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 84% of Back in Time's written reviews are positive against 97% of Universal Zoom's.
Back in Time ships an update every 7 months, Universal Zoom every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Back in Time | Universal Zoom |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 | $5.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (25 ratings) | 4.8 (356 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 83.7% of reviews | 96.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 25 | 356 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.5 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 836 MB | 175 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Landka | GamifyIt |
Customer experience
Back in Time
Universal Zoom
Bugs and requests
Back in Time
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Universal Zoom
Reported bugs
3 issues- Incorrect information for some objects
- Compatibility issues on older devices
- Typos and minor errors in text
Requested features
5 requests- Add more objects and comparisons
- Customizable object feature
- Support for more languages
- Ability to toggle between metric and imperial units
- Search and filtering options
In-app purchases
Back in Time
No in-app purchases
Universal Zoom
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Back in Time free?
Is Universal Zoom free?
Which has better reviews, Back in Time or Universal Zoom?
Do Back in Time or Universal Zoom have ads?
Which is updated more often, Back in Time or Universal Zoom?
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