Help center · Glass Colony · Last updated: October 4, 2026
Welcome to the Glass Colony support center. On your Home Screen the App appears as Formicarium. Here you'll find how-to guides, answers to the most common questions, and a direct way to reach the developer.
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @chrisifm
We reply within 48 business hours, Monday through Friday (Mexico City time). You can write in English, Spanish or Portuguese.
Glass Colony runs full screen so the formicarium fills your iPhone. Tap the glass in the Colony tab to show the controls — Feed, Magnifier, Red light, Share and Settings — along with the colony's name, day and population. They hide again on their own after a few seconds. The Journal and About tabs are at the bottom.
The food lands in the foraging area on the surface. Scouts find it and lay scent trails, and the trail grows stronger as more ants follow it. If you see "They're still eating; check back soon", the colony is still working on the last meal.
Tap Magnifier again to close it. While it watches, a "Did you know?" card may appear about the behavior it sees.
More than 40 cards explain real ant biology, each one with its source. They appear when the magnifier sees the behavior a card explains, and when you tap the wooden frame. On a card, tap Another fact for the next one, Source to open the publication it comes from in your browser, or Close.
Tap the wooden frame around the glass and the ants nearby raise the alarm, as they would if something knocked on their nest. The App shows "The ants feel the vibration", and a "Did you know?" card may explain what is happening.
Keepers watch real colonies at night under dim red light, and Glass Colony does the same. By default the red light turns on at 10 PM and off at 7 AM. To change it, open Settings → Red light and choose Scheduled (with your own From and Until hours), Always or Never. The Red light button in the controls turns it on or off right away.
Close the App and the colony keeps going. When you open it again, the App works out what happened while you were gone and shows a card with the workers born, the centimeters of new tunnel and the food eaten. Time away is counted up to 7 colony days; a longer absence counts as 7. Tap Back to the glass to keep watching.
The Journal tab shows the colony day, the population by stage (eggs, larvae, pupae and workers), tunnels, food stores and moisture, plus the milestones of your colony's life — the first egg, the first worker, new chambers. To give your colony a name, tap Rename in the Journal. The name stays on your iPhone.
Starting a new colony replaces the current colony and its journal, and it can't be undone. Species and substrates with a lock are part of the Complete Collection; tapping one opens the purchase screen.
Open Settings → Speed and choose Real time, ×2 or ×4. At higher speeds, the colony lives more days per real hour.
Show the controls and tap Share. The App prepares an enlarged pixel-art capture of the formicarium with its name and day, and opens the iOS share sheet so you can send it wherever you choose.
Open Settings and tap Reset colony. The App asks you to confirm first. Resetting removes the current colony and its journal, and it can't be undone.
Open the About tab and use the Language selector to choose Español, English or Português (Brazilian Portuguese). The change applies across the whole App, including the "Did you know?" cards and the journal.
The App is a free download with the black garden ant on garden soil or colored sand, and every way to watch it. The Complete Collection is an optional, one-time In-App Purchase of $3.99 USD (prices vary by country) that adds the harvester ant, the leafcutter ant and the honeypot ant, the edible blue gel and the plaster nest, plus every species added in future updates. No subscriptions, no ads.
The App asks Apple for your purchase and unlocks the premium species and substrates again at no cost. If no purchase is found, the App tells you so. If someone in your family group must approve purchases (Ask to Buy), everything unlocks on its own as soon as the purchase is approved.
Refunds are decided and processed by Apple, not by the developer. If a refund is granted, new colonies can no longer use the premium species and substrates.
Your payment method belongs to your Apple ID. Update it in Settings → [your name] → Payment & Shipping or at account.apple.com. Apple's guide: support.apple.com/en-us/118429.
The Complete Collection supports Family Sharing. Members of your family group can restore it on their own iPhone without paying again. Set it up in Settings → [your name] → Family Sharing; Apple's guide: support.apple.com/en-us/108380.
No. The Complete Collection is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. Nothing renews and you will never be charged again for it.
No. There are no points, levels, coins or ways to lose. It is a living formicarium to watch and learn from: you feed the colony, follow its ants with the magnifier and read what real biology says about what you see.
Each ant follows simple rules inspired by real ant behavior — digging, carrying grains to the mound, foraging, following scent trails, tending the brood — and the nest emerges from all of them together, so no two colonies dig the same nest. It is still a simplified simulation, designed to be watched and to teach, not a scientific model. The facts on the cards come from published sources, which each card names.
Yes. Nothing runs in the background while the App is closed, so it uses no battery then. When you come back, the App calculates what the colony did while you were away — up to 7 colony days — and shows you a summary.
So you can leave the formicarium on a desk, a nightstand or a shelf and watch it. The screen stays awake only while Glass Colony is open in front; as soon as you leave the App, your iPhone goes back to its usual Auto-Lock. Keeping the screen on uses more battery, so you may want to keep your iPhone charging for long sessions. The App dims the image and shifts it slightly over time to be gentle on the screen.
No. Glass Colony works completely without registration. No email, no password, no sign-in. Open the App and your colony is already digging.
Your colony, no. Your colony, its name, its journal and your settings are stored only on your iPhone, and the App does not use iCloud. To help us improve the App, it sends anonymous usage and diagnostics data to our own first-party analytics service. That data is never linked to your identity — there is no account and no user profile — and it never includes your colony's name. Purchases are processed by Apple; we never see your payment details. See our Privacy Policy.
Which screens and actions are used (for example, which species and substrate a colony starts with, which food is given, whether the magnifier is opened, which "Did you know?" card appears, and whether the Complete Collection screen was opened or a purchase went through), App and iOS versions, approximate country and city, and crash and performance reports. It runs on our own server, it is never sold or shared, it is never used for advertising, and it is kept for up to 13 months. It never includes your name, email, location coordinates, payment details, your colony's name or the images you share. To ask for deletion, email [email protected].
Yes. The colony, the magnifier, the cards, the journal and your settings all work without an internet connection. Buying or restoring the Complete Collection needs a connection to reach the App Store, and opening a card's source needs one to load the website.
New species arrive with updates of the App, and they are included in the Complete Collection at no extra cost. We don't promise a schedule — if there is an ant you would like to watch, tell us.
If you see "We couldn't open the colony", tap Try again. If the saved colony can't be read at all, the App starts a new one and tells you so, instead of leaving you with an empty screen. If it keeps happening, restart your iPhone and open Glass Colony again, and please let us know so we can fix it. Reinstalling the App also works, but it removes the colony saved on the iPhone; your Complete Collection purchase can be restored afterwards.
Any iPhone running iOS 26 or later. The App is iPhone-only and runs in portrait; iPad is not supported at this time.
Email [email protected] and include:
Of course. Email [email protected] and tell us what would make your formicarium better. Every idea is read, and the most requested ones shape the next updates.
Use Reset colony in Settings to remove the current colony and its journal, or uninstall the App to remove everything it stored on your device — the colony, its journal, your settings and the random installation identifier. There is no account to close. Your Complete Collection purchase stays on your Apple ID and can be restored later. Anonymous analytics data is deleted automatically after 13 months, or sooner if you ask us by email.
Estimated response time: 48 business hours (Monday through Friday, Mexico City time).