AstroShort vs Galaxy AR Augmented Reality
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AstroShort
Explore the entire universe from your fingertips, flying between planets, moons, and even black holes. Dive deep into factual information sourced from NASA, with interactive real-world locations and animated scenes. Offers both an explorer and a kid-friendly mode for all ages.
- Interactive solar system exploration
- Detailed planet and moon information
- Real-world location exploration
- Animated scenes and landmarks
- Explorer and Kid modes
- Offline functionality
- User-submitted feature ideas
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Astro Explorer was built together — with curiosity, a sense of social connection, learning and education at its heart. It began as a gift from a dad to his kid, and grew into a hand-built universe for curious minds of every age. THE WHOLE UNIVERSE, BY TOUCH Fly between the Sun, all eight planets and the Moon. Zoom from a planet up close all the way out to the Milky Way — and the real black hole at its heart, Sagittarius A*, shown as the 2022 Event Horizon Telescope image. Nothing here needs reading to explore — a child who can't read yet can pilot the entire universe with a fingertip. DEEP FACTS ON EVERY PLANET Tap any planet — all eight, plus Pluto — to open its observation plate: its moons, its weather, the missions we've sent, and how it truly sizes up. The facts go deep, in plain language, and every one is sourced straight from NASA fact sheets and JPL. GO INSIDE REAL WORLDS Earth, Mars and the Moon aren't just spheres. Drill down to real places — the Grand Canyon, Olympus Mons, the Sea of Tranquility — meet animals, visit landmarks, and watch each place come alive with its own animated scene. Every fact carries its source, straight from NASA planetary fact sheets and the International Astronomical Union. TWO WAYS TO EXPLORE - Explorer mode (the default): a clean, premium look where grown-up facts, side-by-side planet comparisons and a daily discovery feed are one tap away. - Kid mode: a playful skin made for little hands — bigger buttons, a gentler pace, and deeper content tucked safely behind a parent hold-gesture. BUILT BY ITS EXPLORERS Here's the part we love most. Have an idea for the app? A child can simply say it out loud. Their words are turned into text right on your device, a grown-up reads it and decides whether to send it — anonymously, never any audio, never any account. On the Builders Board inside the app you can watch ideas from explorers around the world come together: what's being considered, what's being built, and what just shipped. Great ideas can become real features in days. This app is built by its explorers. HONEST BY DESIGN - Works fully offline — every planet, place and fact, with zero connection. - No accounts. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. Ever. - The only thing that ever touches the internet is the daily discovery feed: a single anonymous download of the same public file everyone gets, with no identifiers and no cookies. Offline, it shows the last feed with a visible date. - Facts are sourced and scale is honest: planets are stylized so small worlds stay visible, but the truths always hold — Jupiter is always the biggest, Mercury always closest to the Sun. Made for families. A friendly narrator reads names and facts aloud, so a pre-reader can explore and learn by ear. Safe for the youngest explorer to use alone, deep enough for the most curious adult.
Galaxy AR Augmented Reality
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Step inside a galaxy in augmented reality. Place a compact Milky Way-inspired galaxy in your room, explore an immersive room-scale galaxy, focus on planets, visit stylized planetary surfaces, guide interactive meteor fields with hand gestures, and arrange illuminated constellations in your environment. GALAXY EXPERIENCES • Place and reposition a compact galaxy in augmented reality • Switch to an immersive room-scale galaxy • Focus on the Sun, planets, and Moon • Visit artistic planetary-surface panoramas • Adjust galaxy density, scale, motion, audio, and visual settings INTERACTIVE METEORS • Place fields of textured 3D meteorites • Move them by pointing with one finger • Gather them with a fist • Spread them apart with an open hand • Change quantity, size, variation, speed, color, and sound CONSTELLATIONS • Explore Aries, Cancer, Cassiopeia, Orion, Sagittarius, Scorpius, and Ursa Major • Display animated stars, constellation lines, and illustrated figures • Position, scale, and rotate each constellation in your surroundings Compact Galaxy is free to explore. A one-time Full Unlock purchase opens planets, the room-scale galaxy, meteors, constellations, and advanced settings. Galaxy AR requires camera access and a compatible iPhone or iPad. Visualizations are artistic and educational approximations and are not intended for navigation, scientific measurement, or safety-critical use.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: AstroShort at none against Galaxy AR Augmented Reality's 1. AstroShort also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price and device support 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
Both are free to download. Galaxy AR Augmented Reality sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. AstroShort asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | AstroShort | Galaxy AR Augmented Reality |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | — |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 120 MB | 78 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Edon Zogaj | Wade Sisco |
In-app purchases
AstroShort
No in-app purchases
Galaxy AR Augmented Reality
- Galaxy AR Full Unlock$4.95





