■ Added some lovely gentle nudges to help new players who get stuck ■ Tweaked the starting sequence for some new players ■ Permission prompts now explain Blackbox’s approach to privacy more clearly ■ Polished how buttons on the grid appear, disappear and tease ■ Refreshed a few translations

■ New here? I may ask you to share the game with someone you hate/love to earn yourself a new meta challenge

■ Sometimes Blackbox thought you were higher than you were—no more ■ A smoother experience when you need a parent’s approval ■ Combo packs now give you their hint credits in rarer situations ■ Other little fixes that help me sleep at night :)

Remember the important thing I told you? Of course you don’t, because some push notifications were broken… but not anymore

Need to stop playing Blackbox for longer than a minute? I’ll pick up right where you left off when you’re back.

Good old under-the-hood tweaks for your frustration and pleasure

Does anyone still read these? blackbox://meta ■ Continuing my work of getting people who enjoy Blackbox to please pay for it :)

■ Blackbox supporter? You can now add your name and face to the credits :) ■ Not a Blackbox supporter? You might start seeing banner ads encouraging you to change that ;)

Fixed a bug that made it harder for new players to unlock the full game

■ Added a few gentle nudges to help new players get started ■ Shuffled the timing when a couple of surprises pop up ■ Tuned the wormhole so it feels less wobbly ■ Other fixes to help me sleep at night

- Added some stylish new nudges to help new players get started - Fixed the TikTok share button, which was sometimes temperamental about displaying its icon - Fixed the screenshot share button not working reliably from within a challenge

Fixed some issues with sharing the game

Fixed the screenshot for the “React on TikTok” flow

■ Share to TikTok! Take a screenshot, react, win a prize? ■ Long-press the app icon for a gift ;) ■ A very frustrating red meta challenge now gets a visual boost and is easier each time you “die” ■ Fixed a related red meta challenge sometimes not noticing you’d completed it (sorry!) ■ Smoother wormhole transitions ■ Replaced the old loading spinner with something nicer ■ Fixed a handful of crashes ■ Various store and purchase polish

■ Stuck on the tutorial? You can now skip it and come back later

■ Important fix for a crash affecting completionists! (Players who’ve finished every challenge)

3.0! Blackbox turned ten this week! An incredible milestone I never imagined when I first hit submit a decade ago. The game has become so much nicer since 2.0 and, even though this update only includes some of that work, it still feels like the right moment for a big version number. Plenty more to come throughout the year ;) The New ■ Liquid Glass in delightful places ■ Smoother, curvier light transitions ■ The wormhole for leaving challenges is much smoother and now politely closes itself if you leave it open too long ■ Tutorial is a bit more forgiving now (for some) ■ Social buttons now beg to be tapped even more The Fixes ■ Fixed the hint store button sometimes disappearing when hint credits are awarded ■ Fixed hint purchase buttons not showing up after you run out of hint credits ■ Fixed a purple challenge not hearing you the first time you opened it ■ Fixed an orange challenge skipping frequencies in its volume steps ■ Fixed camera preview freezing in a couple of scan challenges ■ Fixed a pink challenge stubbornly snapping its lights to the wrong spots on first open ■ Improved accuracy handling for a blue challenge that cares about where you are ■ Fixed push button animation flickering when leaving challenges ■ Better VoiceOver support across several challenges ■ Squashed a handful of crashes ■ Lots of behind-the-scenes polish and performance work

■ Added Traditional Chinese localization! ■ Fixed a purple challenge that wasn’t behaving properly ■ Improved an orange challenge that was causing some altitude sickness ■ Fixed some animation issues with the push notification button ■ Squashed a few crashes

■ Now asking key questions at even better moments

New challenges are on the way, but for now… ■ Fixed several audio-related crashes ■ Added a new 3D glass tilt effect on Barriers ■ A certain dark-red meta challenge no longer crashes at the end of the month ■ A dizzying red challenge behaves better if you exit part-way through solving ■ A certain sticky challenge now has clearer visual and audio feedback ■ A 6 Light lavender challenge now uses far less battery ■ Fixed some AirPods audio routing issues ■ Fixed an infinite hint-credit glitch between shared devices ■ Fixed an issue that could cause players to lose progress after reinstalling

Hello! Arabic has arrived! (with full right-to-left support) ■ Lights now flash with a subtle HDR-style effect when they switch on ■ App launches are now noticeably faster ■ Fixed an orange challenge that sometimes stubbornly refused to accept the final signal ■ Fixed a rare edge case with the two-part red challenge near the top ■ Fixed QR challenges staying paused after closing the hints screen ■ Fixed the credits heart icon not filling in after you’ve read all the credits :) ■ Squashed a handful of crashes ■ Arabic and right-to-left improvements: hints now display correctly, buttons no longer get cut off, and credits scroll in the proper direction

■ Fixed several audio-related crashes (Core Audio, you keep me humble) ■ Cut CPU use with VoiceOver from “space heater” to “sensible” ■ Stopped screen rotation acting up on iOS 26 ■ Tutorial is now a bit more forgiving on iPad ■ Smoother barrier animations ■ Credits names now scroll more consistently across devices ■ iPad improvements: better text scaling, nicer store layout, fixed layout on iPad mini, fixed clipped launch image on those new massive iPads ■ Updated loads of localisations so they’re more complete!

■ Fixed a crash affecting players using the grid ■ Smoothed out wormhole transitions back to the grid (buttery once more) ■ Reduced small delays while moving around the game ■ Tried to squash yet another audio-related crash (where does it end?)

■ Slick, playful new grid ripple animations (tap, hold, and drag!) ■ Faster app startup ■ Fixed occasional stutter when opening puzzles and tapping the grid ■ Fixed a bug where sound effects sometimes only played once ■ Fixed several crashes

■ Resolved an unruly challenge near the notifications icon (properly this time!) ■ Fixed an issue where the screenshot UI wouldn't close on some devices with iOS 26 ■ Enhanced the way I request support with a nod to Alex and Yo-Wei from Hyperfixed and Proxy for the push to complete this redesign