Student creates iPhone app receiving national recognition

A BYU-Idaho student has created an iPhone app that is receiving national and international recognition.

The app ranks 30th for free apps in the United States and 50th in the United Kingdom and Canada. The app is called 2048 slider and Jacob Holman said it took him a few days to complete and was released last week.

“It has received 100 reviews so far, and they’re all five stars,” Holman said.

After the app was released it made the top 100 free apps on the App Store, and since then it has been rising in popularity.

“It is addicting to see your app climb up the charts and sit there and refresh and watch it jump up and know that you’re getting all these people to play it. To know that some college kid can sit there and create something and it goes out to 800 million people with a phone is just amazing,” he said.

Holman said the idea for the app came from a game he used to play on a popular website. The game works like this: Users swipe the screen to make pairs, the pairs will equal the sum and the goal is to get one tile to equal 2048.

The 24-year-old designed the app by himself and learned how to do it through YouTube instructional videos.

“It is really starting to take off, at least the last few days, and if it continues to do so, it will really help with college,” Holman said.

Holman has already received offers from companies to buy his app, but he doesn’t want to part ways with it just yet.

If you would like to download the app, just go to the iTunes store and search for “2048 Slider.”

Holman is currently working on a phone app specifically for BYU-Idaho students.