News

A first run that shows you, and the apps on their way

September 30, 2026

New players told us the first run explained too little, too far from where the action was. The new first run is a spotlight instead of a banner: the jellies you should tap stay bright while the rest of the jar dims, a hand points at the middle of the group, and the words sit in a bubble right above it. It walks through four steps (tap a group, let a group grow, keep the combo, mind the dashed line) and moves on as soon as you have done each one. You can skip it, and a new link at the foot of Settings plays it again.

Also in this update: the score card opens the moment you tap SHARE, with every word large enough to read on a small phone; the stir ribbon no longer slows phones down; and the stars on the story map sit centred under each show.

The iPhone app went to App Store review the same day, and the Android app is in testing. Both use your DOPAPLAY account, so your progress on popchain.io comes with you.

Stirring is now a move you earn

September 28, 2026

Stirring the jar used to be free and always on, and it turned out to be too strong: a few fast swipes could sweep every color into place. Now a stir is a charge. You hold up to three, shown as dots under the swirl button at the bottom left, and each drag through the jar spends one. Pop seven or more jellies with a single tap and you earn a charge back, so the best stirs are the ones that set up the next big pop.

22 languages, reviewed by native speakers

September 28, 2026

POPCHAIN is played in 22 languages, and a machine translation that reads well to us can still sound strange to someone who speaks the language. We had every language read in context by native speakers, screen by screen, and rewrote the lines that did not sound like a real livestream chat. Game words like combo and fever now use what players actually say in each language.