How to play Magic

Open Magic in the phone's browser — Safari on an iPhone, Chrome on Android — nothing to install. Start with camera begins; after loading, pick an effect from the tiles, and Objects, Frame and Mask then ask whether to bring a picture (Objects also a 3D model), the other effects ask nothing. Check my device says whether this phone will keep up, and How it works says what happens before you allow anything. An account is asked for only when you record or add your own picture or 3D model.

Hold the phone at arm's length or prop it up, and keep your whole hand inside the frame, roughly 30 to 60 cm from the camera. Good, even light on your hand matters most: a window behind you is the number-one reason nothing happens. In a dark room the app brightens the camera image for tracking (never your clips) and lights the screen edges so your hand is lit by the display — the chip under the hint cycles edge light, full light, off; turn your brightness up and hold your hand closer.

The bigger, closer hand when the app first sees you is the one in charge, and it stays so while both hands are visible. The image is mirrored like a selfie: move right, the object moves right. No hand for a few seconds and a ghost hand reminds you; if the phone struggles, a note says so once.

The bar at the bottom has three: on the left a tile with the current object (in Frame it reads Pictures; other modes have none), in the middle Record, and on the right Mode, which opens all eleven tricks as tiles, each with a small moving drawing. A trick's options sit on the stage as pills — Neon's style, the element, the Frame look, the mask.

Every mode starts with a short lesson on the camera: a ghost hand, a word or two, and a tick when the camera sees you do it. Skip it, or Don't show again for that mode; Help › Show me plays it again.

• Objects. Summon a shape, a 3D model or your own picture, made of particles. Grab it, throw it, spin it.
• Frame. Make two Ls with your hands and a window opens: the room through a look, or your own picture.
• Vanish. Step out once so it learns the room, then hold a V sign and dissolve out of the picture.
• Spook. Your hands turn to bones and you turn into a ghost.
• Neon. Sparks pour from your palm and lightning jumps between your fingertips.
• Trail. Point your finger and write in light.
• Elements. Pour fire, smoke, embers, plasma or ice from your hands, or hold a ball of it.
• Lasers. Close your eyes to charge, open them and lasers fire from your eyes.
• Smash. Punch the camera: the glass cracks, and a few more punches shatter it.
• Light. Open your hand and a coloured light glows from your palm, like a torch in a dark room.
• Mask. Look at the camera and wear a mask that follows your face.

• Make a fistIt comes to your hand
• Open your handIt flies off
• Snap your fingersNext object (a flick works too)
• Palm under itIt floats with your hand
• Twist your wristIt spins
• Pinch itDrag it around
• Both hands openApart is bigger, together smaller
• Swipe fastIt blows away as dust

Watch it: Your own magic show ↗

Tap the object tile, bottom left, to pick one, or snap: touch your thumb to your middle finger and let go — or flick your index finger while your palm stays still. If nothing is out, the next object previews above your palm for a couple of seconds: open your palm to levitate it, make a fist to grab it, or let it fade. If an object is already out, a snap morphs it in place into the next one.

Add a picture turns any photo, flyer or painting from your phone into a particle object (the app offers it once, after the first lesson). It stays on your phone, your photos become the snap cycle, and your newest one greets you as the launch object next time. Add a 3D model imports a .glb file. The badge on each tile picks what a snap cycles through; with Sharp photos on, a floating photo turns into the real, full-resolution picture — grab, throw or sweep it and it is particles again.

Close your fist and the object, wherever it is, is pulled into your hand. Power builds while you hold, over about a second and a half — a quick fist gives a gentle release, a full hold a strong throw; past the halfway point the particles hide completely until you let go. A clear, fully closed fist: a half-closed hand reads as letting go, not as a grab.

Open your hand and it flies out along your motion — faster is farther; open without moving and it pops straight out of your palm — then settles and floats inside its wireframe cage. A fist the camera loses, pointed at the lens, still counts as held for a few seconds: re-open your hand in view to release. A fist works from anywhere — it is also how you recall a floating object back to your hand.

With an object floating, put your open palm just below it: it lifts, hovers above your palm and follows your hand. Twist your wrist to spin it; half-close your hand to set it down where it is; move your hand fast and it keeps your motion and flies off.

Pinch your thumb and index fingertip together on the object and move: it follows your pinch; release to place it, a quick release gives it a small toss. Show both hands open and the object moves between them — pull your hands apart to enlarge it, push them together to shrink it, close either hand and it floats at the new size.

A fast, sideways sweep with an open hand blows the object away as dust. It needs speed and a mostly horizontal path, so a slow or diagonal wave does nothing and you will not vanish it by accident. Then a fist or a snap summons the next one.

• Make two LsA window opens above your hands
• Snap your fingersNext picture in the window

Watch it: Frame mode ↗

In Frame mode there are no objects. Make an L with both hands — index fingers up, thumbs pointing at each other, the other fingers curled, like |_ _| — and a window opens above your hands, as wide as your hands are apart. Turn one L upside down and your hands become opposite corners instead. The window shows the camera through the look picked on the stage — Solarise, Thermal, Invert, Poster, Anime (a cartoon you, a short download the first time) or ASCII — or your pictures: check them under Pictures, and a snap flips between them. Drop the L, or a hand, and it fades. The window is in every clip.

• Step out of frameIt learns the room
• Hold a V signYou vanish

The trick that wants a still phone. Prop the phone up and, when the hint asks, step out of the frame for a second: the room is learned only while nobody is in it, never from frames with you in them, and it keeps refreshing on later empty moments. Then hold a V sign — index and middle finger up and apart, ring and pinky curled, palm to the camera — and you dissolve out of the picture, grain by grain, the room showing through where you stood. Drop the hand and you are back. Moved the phone? Switch the mode off and on. What helps most: light yourself from the front and keep the background still.

• Make a fistYour bones crumble
• Open your handThey grow back
• Hold a V signYou vanish, the bones stay

Watch it: Halloween special ↗

Your hands turn to bones and your body to mist: the app learns the room when you step out of frame, or tap Black on the stage for bones on a dark background with no room to learn. A fist crumbles the bones, an open hand grows them back, and a V sign leaves only the bones.

• Open your handSparks fly
• Make a fistThey fall
• Almost touch your fingertipsLightning jumps across
• PinchA ring of light

Watch it: It's alive ↗

Sparks pour from an open palm and fall when you make a fist. Bring the fingertips of both hands almost together, without touching, and lightning jumps the gap; a pinch sends out a ring of light. The style on the stage changes how the sparks move: Basic, a whirling Vortex, or a Spiral of rainbow arms.

• Point your fingerIt writes in light
• Open your handIt stops

Point with your index finger, the other fingers curled, and it writes in light that stays for a few seconds. Open your hand or make a fist to lift the pen. It writes only while you point.

• Open your handIt pours out
• Make a fistIt stops
• Bring your palms closeA ball forms

Open your hand and the element pours from your palm and fingertips; a fist stops it and what is lit burns out. With the Ball style, bring both open palms close and a ball forms between them. Pick the element on the stage: Flame, Smoke, Embers, Plasma or Ice.

• Close your eyesLasers charge
• Open your eyesLasers fire

This one reads your face, not your hands: look at the camera, close your eyes for a moment to charge, then open them and lasers fire from your eyes. Face the light so your eyes are seen.

• Punch the cameraThe glass cracks
• Keep punchingIt shatters

Punch toward the camera — a real fist, coming straight at the lens and ending close — and the glass cracks. Keep punching and it shatters and falls away.

• Open your handA light comes on
• Make a fistIt goes out

Open your hand and a coloured light glows from your palm, lighting the room around it like a torch; make a fist and it goes out. Open again for the next colour. The pill on the stage picks the colours: one, a few, or all.

• Look at the cameraA mask appears

Look at the camera and a mask settles on your face and follows it: Smiley, Disco ball, Carnival, Pixels, or one made from your own picture. More than one face, more than one mask.

Record, in the middle, records the stage without the buttons, upright in 9:16 by default (1:1, 16:9 and 4:5 under Settings › Clip format); tap again to stop. The sheet then offers Share (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messages…), Save, Copy caption and Copy link; Exit discards the clip unless it was saved or shared.

Your voice goes in the clip — say your spell — and the microphone asks for permission at your first recording; Settings › Sound turns it off. On a computer the same row records the music you are playing instead. Settings › Clip background › Black is record on black: only your objects on a black background, while you still see the camera on screen to perform. Every clip carries the small bloomalizer.xyz mark. In the preview you keep five of your own pictures and two 3D models; an invite code lifts both and takes the mark off.

The ≡ menu, top left, holds the way back to Bloomalizer, the Studio, this guide, your account, Settings and Help. Settings: Clip background, Camera (on or off), Clip format, Sound (microphone, system audio on a computer in Chrome or Edge, or off), Gesture hints (the line at the top of the stage), Cage (the wireframe cube your hands hold), Tracking details and Mark. Help shows the current mode's moves as pictures, with Show me to replay the lesson; the long explanations and the live frame rate are under Details.

• “Show your hand” never goes away — the hand is partly out of frame, too close, or backlit. Step back a little and face a light.
• Too dark — face a lamp or window, raise screen brightness to the maximum, tap the light chip for full light, hold your hand closer.
• The fist does not grab — not closed enough; curl all four fingers.
• The snap is not detected — you are touching thumb and index, which is a pinch. Use the middle finger and release clearly.
• It will not levitate — your palm must be below the object, close to it, and open wide with all fingers extended.
• It vanished when you did not mean it — that was a sweep, a fast sideways motion with an open hand. Move a little slower while levitating.
• Two hands, the wrong one is in charge — the first, bigger hand stays primary. Hide it for a moment and the other takes over.
• The V sign is not detected — spread index and middle apart, curl ring and pinky fully, palm toward the camera, hold still for a second.
• Vanish: the room behind you looks smeared — it has not seen that part yet. Step fully out of the frame once; moved the camera? Switch Vanish off and on.
• Trail does not write — point with the index finger only, the other fingers curled; an open hand lifts the pen.
• No ball in Elements — pick the Ball style on the stage, then bring both open palms close together, facing each other.
• Lasers or Mask do nothing — they read your face: look straight at the camera, face the light, nothing covering your eyes.
• Smash does not crack — punch toward the lens with a closed fist and end close to the camera; a wave or an open hand does not count.
• Record is greyed out — the browser cannot record the canvas. Use Safari on an iPhone or Chrome on Android.

Camera and microphone are processed on your phone, inside the browser; no video, audio or photo is uploaded anywhere. Photos and models you add stay in this browser's storage on this device — remove them from Objects. Recordings stay on your phone until you share them yourself.

A recent iPhone (Safari) or Android phone (Chrome), up to date. Allow the camera when asked, and the microphone only if you record with the switch on. Refused the camera by mistake? Tap Try again — the page reloads and asks again. Only if no prompt ever appears: iPhone Settings › Apps › Safari › Camera; Android Chrome, the lock icon › Permissions.

Bloomalizer runs in your browser and works best in Chrome. Safari works too, except sharing a screen or a tab. Phones work today, right in the browser; an iPhone app and an Android app on Google Play are on the way.

For the flyer alone, in your hand, there is Flyer: add the picture, press record and talk to camera; a fist hides it, an open hand reveals it — two moves, no account, nothing uploaded. Its walk-through is the Flyer guide.

The Flyer guide

The same hands drive the studio on a laptop — an open palm carries the particles, a fist hides them, a snap brings the next shape, and Neon, Trail and Elements are there too — over your music, with twelve shapes, your photos and videos, clips for reels and a projector output. Its walk-through is the Studio guide.

The Studio guide