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WikiRacing Goes Native: iOS and Android Apps Are Here

Published on 2026-08-20

By Chris

Independent developer of WikiRacing. About

WikiRacing has always been a website: no download, no install, just open a browser and race. That's still true today.

But there's now a second way to get to it: dedicated apps on the App Store and Google Play, sitting on your home screen next to everything else you actually open every day.

Same game, wrapped in a proper home

Both apps are thin native shells around the exact same live site: they don't ship a separate, possibly-outdated copy of the game. Open the app and you're running the same version everyone on the website is playing, with every mode, every one of the 19 supported languages, every leaderboard already there. Nothing was rebuilt from scratch for either platform, and a fix or a new feature shipped to the website is live in the app the next time it loads, with no separate app update to wait for.

An Android smartphone home screen covered in app icons
WikiRacing, sitting next to everything else you actually open every day. Image: Gannu03 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Why an app, when the website already works everywhere

A browser tab is easy to lose in a sea of other tabs. An app icon on your home screen isn't. That alone is most of the pitch, on top of native capabilities a browser tab can't offer as smoothly: push notifications for the daily challenge, a proper full-screen experience with no address bar eating into the article you're reading, native OS share sheets for sending a win or a replay link to a friend, and a real launch icon instead of remembering to bookmark a URL.

Two platforms, two different builds

The Android app started life as a Trusted Web Activity and was later rewritten into a full WebView shell for deeper platform integration: things like intercepting the hardware back button to step back one article mid-race instead of exiting the app outright, and blocking the native long-press context menu that would otherwise pop up over every link. The iOS app is built with Expo and a WebView wrapper from the start, published on the App Store as a standalone listing, with its own native permission flow for tracking and notifications handled in the correct order so the system doesn't silently drop a prompt. Different technical paths, same destination: the live wiki-racing.com experience, packaged properly for each store.

Same account, same progress, same everything

There's no separate app-only account system. Sign in the way you already do, or don't sign in at all (anonymous play works exactly like it does on the website): your ELO, campaign progress, badges, and history are the same whether you're racing from a laptop browser or the app on your phone. Switch devices mid-campaign and you pick up on the exact level you left off at.

A hand holding a smartphone displaying a screen covered in app icons
Same account, same progress: whether you're playing from a computer or from your pocket. Image: Elena Rossini via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Game Center is live on iOS

The iOS app connects to Game Center with three leaderboards (ELO rating, campaign progress, and total games played) and achievements matching all 12 badges covered in our badge guide, visible from a dedicated button in the app once you're signed into Game Center on your device, and backfilled automatically the first time it loads if you'd already earned badges or climbed the campaign before Game Center existed for you.

Both apps are free, exactly like the website. Search "WikiRacing" on the App Store or Google Play, or grab the link from the footer of wiki-racing.com. Then keep racing, just from your home screen this time.

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