PipNoc

A pop-it is a stupid toy, and that is exactly the appeal. You press a silicone bubble in, it goes plop, and at some point you turn the mat over and start again. The whole point sits in that one moment.

An app cannot replace the silicone. It can take the moment seriously, though. PipNoc is an attempt to build a game around the plop without losing the plop. Bubbles light up, you clear them before the clock runs out. String hits together quickly and a multiplier builds, with the pitch climbing along with it. Those tones are not files sitting in the app, they are calculated at launch. That sounds like a stunt, but the reason is dull enough: eight pitch steps as audio files would be dead weight in a game that is over in a minute.

The phone lies on its side. The bubbles sit in two clusters, left and right, where the thumbs already are, and the middle stays clear for the score and the clock. Everything is close to black, the type is monospaced throughout, and colour carries meaning: green means live, red means hands off, amber belongs to the second player in a duel. None of it is decoration.

One board for everyone, without a server

The daily challenge is the only part that reaches past your own device. It still works without a server. The date in UTC becomes a number, and that number becomes the board. Every phone works out the same sequence, in Berlin as in Auckland, without asking anyone first. There is one attempt a day, and it counts from the moment it begins. Quitting and starting over is not on offer.

The rest is deliberately small. No account, no ads, nothing watching what you do. Scores stay on the device. Game Center can be switched on if you want the worldwide list, but nothing needs it.

At the bottom of the info screen sits a number few apps volunteer: how much of your life went into the last game, and how much in total. A real pop-it will not stop you either. It just never tells you how long you have been at it.