Free forever
The Reef
Warm shallow water. Whatever they draw swims in it, and this world never costs anything.
Doodlings
They draw it on paper.
They draw it on paper.
It swims off the page.
A child draws something. You take a photo of it. It lifts off the page and starts moving, in a world of its own, the way the thing they drew ought to move.
The Reef is free. iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 or later.
Paper, a photo, and it is alive.
Draw on any paper, with anything. Doodlings finds the drawing, lifts it off the page and puts it in the world you picked.
They draw
Any paper, any pen. Lined paper is fine, the ruling comes out on its own.
You photograph
On the kitchen table, in ordinary light, at whatever angle you happen to hold the phone.
It swims
A fish swims, a bird flits, a dinosaur walks. It keeps their colours and the wobble in their line.
Four worlds to fill.
Nothing has to be finished in one go and nothing expires, so a reef drawn over a winter is still there in the spring.
The Jungle
Hot and green, full of leaves. Things flit between the trees rather than swim past them.
Deep Space
No floor and no gravity. Everything drifts and turns, and nothing ever settles.
The Valley
A long time ago, under a low sun. Big things walk across the ground here.
It keeps their line.
The drawing is lifted off the page as they made it, not redrawn, not tidied up, not made neat.
The wobble is the point
Doodlings keeps the colours your child chose and the wobble in their line, because that is the bit worth keeping. A straighter version of their fish is somebody else’s fish.
It works on ordinary paper, in ordinary light, on the kitchen table. Hold the phone at an angle and the page is straightened out. Draw on lined paper and the ruling is removed on its own.
The bits that matter.
Small app, short list. It is meant to be opened for five minutes after something gets drawn.
Any paper, any pen
Crayon, felt tip, biro, pencil. Plain paper or lined, and the ruled lines come out on their own.
It works offline
Doodlings makes no network requests at all, so it works on a plane, in the car and in a cottage with no signal.
Nothing expires
The worlds fill up over months. A drawing put in today is still swimming a year from now.
No account to make
No email address, no password, no sign-up. You open it and photograph a drawing.
Your photo library stays shut
Doodlings never asks for it. Picking a drawing goes through Apple’s own picker, which hands back only the image you tap.
iPhone and iPad
The same worlds on both, and the iPad is the better one to hand a child once the drawing is in.
Nothing leaves the phone.
A photograph of a child’s drawing is about as personal as a family gets. So the honest answer to where it goes is that it does not go anywhere.
No server to send it to
Doodlings has no account, no sign-up and no backend. It makes no network requests at all, so there is nowhere for a drawing to go.
The cutout happens here
Finding the paper, lifting the drawing off it and animating it all run on the device, in about a third of a second.
Nothing sold, nothing tracked
There is no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Nothing is measured, because nothing is sent.
The subscription is the one exception, and it is handled entirely by Apple: Doodlings checks it on the device and never sees your payment details. The privacy policy says the same thing at greater length.
Questions, answered.
What does Doodlings actually do?
A child draws something on paper. You photograph it. Doodlings finds the drawing, lifts it off the page and puts it into a world where it moves: a fish swims, a bird flits between the leaves, a dinosaur walks across the ground.
Does it redraw the picture with AI?
No. Their drawing is the thing that moves, exactly as they drew it, with their colours and their wobbly line. Nothing is generated and nothing is replaced, which is also why the app costs nothing to run and works with no signal.
Will it work on lined paper, or in bad light?
Yes to both. The ruling on lined paper is removed on its own, and the lighting in the room is divided out before anything is cut, so a kitchen table under one bulb is fine. Hold the phone at an angle and the page is straightened out for you.
Where do the photos go?
Nowhere. Doodlings has no account and no server, and makes no network requests at all. Everything happens on the phone. It does not ask for access to your photo library either: choosing a drawing goes through Apple’s own picker, which hands back only the image you tap.
What does it cost?
The Reef is free forever, along with your first three drawings. Doodlings Plus opens the Jungle, Deep Space and the Valley and takes the limit off how many drawings can come to life. It is 4.99 pounds a month or 29.99 pounds a year, and it renews until cancelled.
How many drawings can go in?
Three on the free app, and as many as you like with Plus. The worlds are meant to fill up slowly: nothing has to be finished in one sitting and nothing ever expires.
Which devices does it run on?
Doodlings runs on iPhone and iPad and needs iOS 18 or later.
There is a drawing on your fridge.
Put it in the water.
The Reef is free forever, and so are your first three drawings.