The creator of Apollo for Reddit has moved onto smaller and weirder issues

Christian Selig is probably not engaged on Apollo for Reddit anymore, but it surely appears he’s doing simply advantageous. Since shutting down Apollo due to the potential prices of Reddit’s usage-based API pricing, Selig has poured his power into Pixel Buddies, a widget-focused app that takes benefit of many iOS options in some shocking and pleasant methods. In accordance with Selig, the app is proving to be profitable, too.

For example of what Pixel Buddies is now able to, look no additional than Language Pal, a language-learning widget that just launched for free. With Language Pal, you’ll be able to follow vocabulary throughout 10 completely different languages (together with, hilariously, “Canadian”) by a guessing recreation widget proper in your homescreen.

Language Pal is only one of many widgets you’ll be able to decide from. There are extra conventional widgets like calendars, clocks, and battery percentages. You’ll be able to take care of the lovable pixel animals as a part of a Tamagotchi-like digital pet recreation. I’ve been impressed by the opposite video games — you’ll be able to play a full model of 2048 as a widget, although it’s a little finicky. And there are extra widgets within the works, too; Selig tells The Verge he hopes to launch a trivia widget (“Trivia Pal”) by October twenty seventh.

Pixel Buddies is free, and also you don’t need to pay a dime to have the ability to use the overwhelming majority of what the app provides. Nevertheless, there are a couple of methods Selig makes cash from it, together with an an choice to pay actual cash for digital meals on your pixel buddies and a premium subscription ($1.99 per thirty days or $14.99 per 12 months) that offers you entry to issues like extra pixel animals.

Pixel Buddies has been an enormous success for Selig, and he says it was even earlier than Apollo shut down. “Pixel Buddies does weirdly nicely,” Selig tells The Verge. “Even when Apollo was in its heyday, Pixel Buddies was about 40 % of my general income, and it’s solely gone up from there now that I’ve had extra time to concentrate on it.” He says he may see Pixel Buddies approaching $1 million in annual recurring income by the tip of the 12 months, “which might undoubtedly exceed Apollo.”