Pixel Pals 2 Brings an Interactive Friend to Your Home Screen Widgets

Apple in iOS 17 added interactive Home Screen widgets for the first time, and developer Christian Selig is using the new functionality to make his Pixel Pals app better than ever.

pixel pals widget
With Pixel Pals 2.0, you can adopt a digital pet that lives on your ‌Home Screen‌, and you can interact with it in all new ways without the need to open up the app.

You can feed and play with your Pixel Pals, and add your friends so their Pixel Pals can visit your ‌Home Screen‌. Two Pixel Pals together can battle one another, and in StandBy mode, your Pixel Pal can hang out next to you or you can use a new sheep counting feature.


You can also plant seeds on a farm to grow food for your pet, and there are new animals and morphs to unlock. As your friendship with your Pixel Pal grows, you will unlock more morphs. Selig has also added in full games that can be played on the ‌Home Screen‌ in a widget, including PixelQuest, 2048, and Eternal Scroll.

Christian Selig is the developer behind the now-defunct Apollo app for Reddit, which was removed for sale earlier this year. He is now focusing his attention on Pixel Pals.

Pixel Pals is free to download, but unlocking the app's full feature set requires Pixel Pals Premium, priced at $9.99 per year or $1.49 per month.

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Top Rated Comments

DinkThifferent Avatar
16 months ago
Why does everything have to be a subscription? I mean, it looks like a fun app but having to subscribe to it rather than to do a one time purchase (for the full thing) is a major downside.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mdnz Avatar
16 months ago

Why does everything have to be a subscription? I mean, it looks like a fun app but having to subscribe to it rather than to do a one time purchase (for the full thing) is a major downside.
Proud 0 subscription app user here and will continue to do so forever :)
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rockondevil Avatar
16 months ago

Why does everything have to be a subscription? I mean, it looks like a fun app but having to subscribe to it rather than to do a one time purchase (for the full thing) is a major downside.
Completely agree.
For a one time purchase I probably would’ve considered it for the right price.
Subscription though, you’ve lost me immediately.

The App Store is just plagued with apps that should be one time purchases but now are subscription.
Apps for kids like games or learning are some of the worst I’ve seen.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
erikkfi Avatar
16 months ago
I haven't actively used Reddit since June 13th or so because of the loss of Apollo.

Dear Christian, please make a Kbin/Lemmy app. Sincerely, everyone.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tomnavratil Avatar
16 months ago
Great news, Christian is a wonderful developer and one of the developers worth supporting! And yes, I definitely miss Apollo.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zach-coleman Avatar
16 months ago

Because running a server for the app costs lot of money. (Yes, this app requires internet connection meaning it’s connected to a server) Subscription keeps the servers running.

Also Apple really wants developers to move away from one time purchase and then upload a whole new app when they update to major version and charge upgrade. They want to keep App Store clutter free by asking developers to just update their existing app and charge subscription.
Making the game require a server was an unforced error. Nobody made him do it.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)