App Review: Purr

Today’s brief review is for an app called Purr. This app is billed as an “adorable, live-action cat simulator,” and it’s free to download from the App Store.

You may be wondering what one does with a live-action cat simulator. Well, basically you choose one of five cats—two are available for free, and the other three cost $1.99 each. When you choose your cat, you get a looped video of the cat lounging on a sofa. You can pet the cat by stroking the screen, causing the cat to purr and occasionally meow. As you pet the cat, her comfort level (measured in heart-shaped balls of yarn) rises. You will also feel the screen vibrating, which does feel a lot like petting a purring cat. If you have real cats in the vicinity, the meowing might drive them batty as they try to figure out where the new cat is.

Real Cat Webster helped with this review. Here he
is looking at Basil, one of Purr's two free cats.

The game’s website says Purr is meant to be relaxing and was developed so that people with cat allergies could enjoy petting a cat. We did enjoy petting Basil, a handsome black-and-white kitty. We hoped that the cats would do a little more though, like play or expect to be fed. Most of the cats were filmed against an unattractive solid-color background, a different color for each cat. Basil is shown against a more colorful background, which is one reason we picked him as our favorite.

Purr, from Particle Spectrum Labs, is available for iOS devices only. The download is free, and you can make in-app purchases to get additional cats. If you are allergic to cats or stuck in some horrible catless place, Purr could give you a good, quick cuteness fix. Just don’t expect the app to do more than purr and meow, ’cause that’s all it does. We hope that future updates might include a little more complexity, and some more attractive backgrounds.