FREETAIL
Fly a Mexican free-tailed bat
through the dark, by sound and touch.
Want to fly under the Congress Avenue Bridge? Freetail is free on TestFlight: chirp, listen, and dive. Join the beta (version 1.0 (12); this invitation is good through February 10, 2027).
This build, tell us about: Fly as deep as you can and tell us where the cave feels unfair. · On an Apple Watch Series 4 to 8, SE or first-generation Ultra: fly Freetail and tell us if it ever closes by itself. · On iPhone, turn the phone sideways during a flight: does the cave look right, and does the bat follow your finger? · On iPhone, tap the small i on the start screen: does the thanks page read as a hat tip, or as a plea? · On iPhone Duo: does Freetail fill the whole screen?
You can play on iPhone or Apple Watch, and on Apple Watch without an iPhone. Lay iPhone Duo flat and the cave widens, so you see more of it ahead.
HOW TO FLY
Tap to chirp
A ring of sound lights the cave walls for a moment.
Feel the echo
It comes back as a tap on your wrist. The sooner it comes, the nearer the wall.
Climb and dive
Turn the Crown on Apple Watch, or drag up and down on iPhone. Eat moths. Go deep.
UNDER THE BRIDGE
- Echolocation you can feel, so you can fly with your eyes shut
- Ten moths mend a bruise, or keep you shielded if you have none
- Three bumps and Echo hangs up for the night
- Sound: a flutter as you take off, your chirp coming back off the walls, a note for every moth
- Plays fully on Apple Watch
- Free, with no purchases, accounts, ads or tracking
Freetail is free, and the bats are its teachers: they find their way in the dark by the echo of their own chirps. Austin Bat Refuge, a nonprofit here in Austin, rescues, rehabilitates and releases bats in Central Texas, and its own pages, not ours, are the place to learn about them. If you would like to give something back, their donation page is the place; Freetail never takes money.
The cave, the bridge, the moths and the bat are drawn in code. Every sound is made on the spot by the studio's own synthesizer, and the words are set in the system's monospaced type, which comes with your iPhone.