Frequently asked questions

You start with five lives. Each failed level uses one life. Lives regenerate one every 20 minutes, up to a maximum of five — the in-game timer shows when the next life arrives. Winning a level does not cost a life. If you run out, you can wait, ask a friend for a life through the Friends page, or buy a full refill in the shop. Read the gameplay basics.

Gems are the in-game currency. You earn them by completing levels, finishing the daily challenge (streaks multiply the payout), spinning the daily wheel, climbing battle pass tiers, and winning ghost races. Gems buy boosters, extra lives, board extensions on win or loss screens, and special bundles in the shop. You can also buy gems directly with real money in the gems shop.

A single puzzle that every Gempop player in the world plays on the same day, with the same starting board. It resets at UTC midnight. The objective rotates by day of the week, and completing it builds a streak that multiplies your gem reward. Miss a day and your streak resets, unless you have a streak freeze banked. More on the daily challenge.

No. The first time you open Gempop, an anonymous account is created in the background — your progress, gems, and boosters all save without you having to sign up. If you want to play across more than one device, or recover progress if you change browsers, you can upgrade your account in Settings by adding an email and password or by signing in with Google. Linking does not change your existing progress.

Purchases sometimes take a few seconds to settle. If you don't see your gems within a minute, try restarting the app, since the balance refetches on every cold start. Stripe sends us a confirmation webhook for every successful purchase, so if your card was charged, the gems are owed. If they still don't appear, email support with your account ID (Settings → About) and the date of the purchase, and we'll resolve it.

Refunds are handled case-by-case. EU and UK customers have a 14-day statutory right of withdrawal for digital purchases. Outside that, email support with your account ID and what happened — if a charge is clearly wrong (accidental purchase, unauthorized card, missing gems) we will issue a refund through Stripe. When a refund clears, the matching gems are deducted from your balance proportionally (we will not push your balance below zero if you have already spent them), and any Gempop Pass benefits tied to a refunded subscription charge end immediately. Subscriptions can also be cancelled in Settings; the remaining paid period stays active until expiry. The full terms are in our Terms of Service.

Ads keep Gempop free to play for everyone. They appear in two places: as occasional rewarded video offers (watch a short ad in exchange for a booster or extra moves), and as interstitials between levels for non-subscribers. A Gempop Pass subscription removes all ads. You can also decline advertising consent on first launch, which prevents the ad SDK from loading at all — though it limits which rewarded offers are available.

Gempop targets WCAG 2.2 AA across the app. The gem set uses distinct shapes as well as colors so the board stays readable for the most common forms of color vision deficiency. Heavy animations — confetti, cascade pulses, the riso stamp-down effect — honor the operating system's reduce motion setting and crossfade or skip when it is on. All actions are reachable by keyboard. If you hit something that doesn't work for you, please tell us — accessibility bugs are treated as bugs, not feature requests.

Any modern browser that supports Progressive Web Apps: Chrome and Edge on Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux; Safari on iOS 16+ and macOS; and Firefox on desktop. The game runs fullscreen and installs as a home-screen icon on iOS, Android, and desktop Chromium browsers. Internet Explorer is not supported. The minimum recommended hardware is roughly a 2019-era mid-range phone — anything that comfortably runs a modern social media app should run Gempop without issue.

Yes. You can request a copy of your account data, or delete your account entirely, from Settings → Account, or by emailing privacy@gempop.app. Deletion removes your gameplay records, profile, and account within 30 days. We keep transaction records as long as tax law requires, even after deletion. The full breakdown is in our Privacy Policy.

Not today — Gempop is delivered as a Progressive Web App, which is how you can play instantly without an install and how we avoid the 15–30% app-store fee on purchases. When you visit gempop.app from a phone, your browser will offer to install the game as a home-screen icon; once installed it looks and behaves like a regular app, with a dedicated icon and fullscreen launch. There is no separate native build to track down.

Email support@gempop.app with a short description and, if you can, a screenshot or the steps to reproduce. We read every message. Suggestions go onto the backlog reviewed before each sprint; bug reports are triaged immediately. Including your account ID (Settings → About) helps us reproduce the issue against your save.