Clamphone: Fold to Open

Your phone opens like a clam. So here is a clam.

A scallop lies on the sea floor, seen from straight above. Unfold your phone and it opens with the hinge, creaking all the way. Inside is a pearl. Usually.

KEEP IT SHUT

A pearl grows while the clam stays closed. Open it after a minute and you get sand. After an hour, a pearl. Leave it eight hours and the rare ones start turning up.

OPEN IT GENTLY

Snap it open and it flinches. Keep doing that and it hides.

WHAT'S IN THERE

• 21 kinds of pearl: white, black, golden, peacock, baroque, keshi, a giant one, triplets, a quahog (finally, one from an actual clam) and a moon pearl that only comes out at night

• Things that should not be in a clam. A rubber duck ("A duck. In a clam."). A garden gnome ("He seems to like it here."). A TV remote ("Found it."). One earbud ("Just the left one."). A message in a bottle. Someone's lunch. A gold bar. A tiny phone ("Hold on.")

• Every find is rendered like the real thing, lying in shallow water. Nobody winks.

THE SEA FLOOR

Drag your finds out of the clam and set them on the sand wherever you like. When the sand is full, an old sea chest comes up out of it to keep the rest.

ALSO

• A journal kept on a weathered sea chart, with a ledger of every find

• Dress-ups, earned rather than bought: a limpet, barnacles, a bow tie, a coral tiara, a top hat, and a hat for the season

• Achievements

• Light that moves as you tilt the phone

• A real creaking hinge, and a click under your thumb for every rib

• It breathes while it waits. Now and then a bubble gets out.

• Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets that count down to "ready"

• A show-off card for your best find

Made for foldable phones. On one that doesn't fold, tap to open. It is better folded.

No ads. No in-app purchases. No accounts. No data collected.