Bellowsby: Squeeze Accordion

Made for iPhone Duo: the hinge is the bellows, so opening and closing the phone plays a little red accordion. On any other iPhone, two thumbs squeeze it on the screen.

Squeeze music out of your phone. Made for iPhone Duo, where the hinge is the bellows.

Bellowsby is a little red accordion with pearl buttons, a nickel grille and real bellows to pump.

ON IPHONE DUO, open the phone and hold it like an accordion, one half in each hand, then close it a little and open it again. Squeeze gently for a soft note, faster for a full, bright one. It feels like the real thing, because it works like the real thing. Closed, the cover screen is the accordion's front, with all the settings and a small keyboard to play.

ON ANY OTHER IPHONE Hold your iPhone sideways, put a thumb on each side and squeeze: push your thumbs together and pull them apart, and the bellows breathe in and out and the reeds sing. No reading music, no finding the right key.

THREE WAYS TO PLAY • Play: how far the bellows are open picks the note, and it rings out as soon as you hold still. Open or close a little to move to another note; the notes in between stay quiet, so you can pick out a tune at your own pace. Rock gently on a note to make it swell. • Scales: the same notes, but every one you pass sounds, so one long squeeze plays a run up or down the scale. A row of lamps on the bellows shows which note you are on. • Tunes: pick a song and squeeze. Every squeeze plays the next note, with the chord buttons lighting up as you go. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; Mary Had a Little Lamb; Row, Row, Row Your Boat; London Bridge; This Old Man; Hot Cross Buns.

In Play and Scales, choose the key (C, G, D, F or A) and the scale (pentatonic, major or minor), and make up your own tunes. Pentatonic never sounds wrong. On iPhone Duo the key slider and every switch are inside the accordion too, so you can change them without closing the phone.

AN INSTRUMENT, NOT A RECORDING Every note is made as you play, from accordion reeds modelled in the app. Its reeds are tuned a little apart, for the airy, shimmering tone of a French musette. Squeeze harder and it gets louder and brighter; stop and it fades. Choose from three sounds on the switches: Deep, Sweet and Full. Chords can be on or off.

FOR CHILDREN AND GROWN-UPS • Nothing to read to get started: just squeeze • No ads, no in-app purchases, no accounts • Nothing collected, nothing tracked, and it works offline • Every setting is on the front of the accordion, on big switches and a brass plate

Bellowsby is at its best on iPhone Duo, where the hinge itself is the bellows. It works on every iPhone that runs iOS 27, with two thumbs squeezing the bellows on the screen.