2025 in Review: A Year of Growth at GamifyItApps + Bold Plans for 2026 🚀

Hey everyone! 👋  

2025 was our most productive year yet. We shipped a brand-new app, delivered two major updates to Universal Zoom, and laid critical groundwork for even bigger things ahead.  

It wasn't always smooth — indie dev life rarely is — but the progress feels incredible, and your feedback and suggestions made it all possible. Thank you ❤️  

Here's a quick look back… and a peek at what's coming in 2026.

Universal Numbers: Our New Free App for Visual Math

We launched Universal Numbers (originally called NumberLine) in February 2025, with a major v1.1 update in July.

Key highlights:

• Built almost entirely in SwiftUI (with just a touch of UIKit) — all manual coding, before AI tools became a big part of the workflow.

• Took over a year of on-and-off development to nail the smooth custom animations and intuitive design.

• Localized into ~40 languages from day one — and so far, zero complaints about translations 🙌

• Packed with features like language-specific number formatting, thousand separators, enhanced voice selection with flags, and proper RTL support (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian).

We released it free (for now) because it started as a prototype to test ideas and sharpen SwiftUI skills. The response has been awesome, and it's already helping kids visualize big numbers up to a million.

Universal Zoom: Two Major Updates & Strong Foundations

Universal Zoom got some serious love in 2025 with v2.7 (April) and v2.8 (July).

v2.7 additions & improvements:

18 new objects, including:

• Formula E car

• The Shard (London)

• Boeing Everett Factory

• Phoenix A* black hole

• 7 stunning nebulas (Cat's Eye, Boomerang, Helix, Horsehead, Crab, Orion, Tarantula)

• 4 galaxies (Small & Large Magellanic Clouds, Triangulum, IC 1101)

• 2 gravitational lensing miracles (Einstein Cross, Cosmic Horseshoe)

• Phoenix Cluster

• Improved graphics for Andromeda, Neptune, and Venus

• Updated info across several objects

v2.8 additions & improvements:

Brand-new SwiftUI Settings view (replacing the old one) — this unlocked access to all Apple system voices, including Enhanced and Premium quality.

New objects:

• Quectometer & rontometer (the smallest official units of length)

• Tesla Model Y RoboTaxi

• Uluru

• Mount Fuji

• Rheasilvia (one of the tallest "mountains" in the Solar System)

• Antarctica continent

• Better, more realistic image for the Large Hadron Collider

• Info updates for Arrokoth, Olympus Mons (and we removed UY Scuti after its radius was revised)

These updates added ~25 new objects total and refreshed many others — all thanks to your amazing suggestions!  

The SwiftUI Settings rewrite was a huge milestone: most of Universal Zoom is still Objective-C (we started before Swift existed!), but this move sets us up perfectly for the next big leap.

Looking Ahead: Ambitious 2026 Goals 🌟

We're going all-in on growth and reach this year. Here's the roadmap (some timelines are aggressive — we'll push hard but stay realistic):

• Localize Universal Zoom into ~40 languages — full throttle right now, targeting end of February release (v2.9).

• Gradual rewrite of Universal Zoom in SwiftUI — modern design, smoother performance, and room for new features.

• Launch Universal Zoom on Android — aiming for the end of April (very ambitious, but we're motivated!).

• Bring Universal Numbers to Android, too.

• Add more math functionalities and polish to Universal Numbers.

• Release at least 2 brand-new apps by year-end.

2026 is about reaching way more people — across platforms and languages — while keeping the educational magic intact.

Final Thoughts

None of this happens without you: the reviews, suggestions, bug reports, and encouragement keep us going. Thank you for being part of this journey 🙌  

What are you most excited about for 2026? Any features or objects you'd love to see? Drop them below — I read every comment!  

Follow @GamifyItApps for updates, and let's make 2026 epic together 🚀