Veila, an iPhone app built around short moments of calm, is free to download on the App Store right now. Tip site New Mobile Life listed its usual price as US $0.99, and the US App Store listing showed Veila as Free when we checked. The developer, Aleksei Bonch Osmolovskii, has not stated when the free price ends.
Three tactile worlds
Veila is not a game in the usual sense. The App Store listing stresses that there are no scores, no levels and no pressure. Instead it offers three spaces that respond to touch with subtle sound and haptic feedback:
- Mirror: wipe a fogged mirror with your finger to reveal the live view from the front camera, hold to clear a wider area, and watch the glass slowly mist over again.
- Ice: touch a frozen surface and watch cracks spread under your fingertip; repeated taps break deeper into the ice.
- Night: a field of real stars where you connect points by touch to find real constellations, or recognisable parts of them, across several star maps. Subtle hints help if you get stuck.
The official screenshots show Ursa Major and Cassiopeia traced in the Night world, and words written in the misted Mirror glass.
Requirements
- iPhone only, iOS 16.6 or later, which makes it one of the easier apps to run on older phones
- 13.1 MB download
- English, age rating 4+
Privacy
The App Store privacy label says the developer does not collect any data from this app. Veila’s privacy policy goes further: it asks for camera access only the first time you enter Mirror, processes the camera image on the device and does not capture, record, store or upload it. Ice and Night do not use the camera at all. The policy also says there are no analytics, no advertising, no tracking and no third party SDKs that collect data. If you decline camera access, the other two worlds still work.
How to get it
- Open the App Store on your iPhone and search for “Veila” by Aleksei Bonch Osmolovskii.
- Check that the button says Get, not a price.
- Tap Get, open the app and pick a world. Allow camera access only if you want to try Mirror.
The listing shows no in-app purchases, and no end date has been given for the free price, so it may return to paid at any time.
Who it suits
Veila suits people who reach for their phone when they feel restless and want something slower than a feed or a game: a minute of tracing stars before bed, or cracking virtual ice during a break. Anyone curious about the night sky may also enjoy finding familiar constellations by touch. It is a small, focused app, so do not expect long sessions or progression; the point is to put it down when you feel calmer.
