A 5.58M-view "Rubik's cube flag" video: a creator with 1.2M subscribers built an app
What it is A phone app that turns photos into Rubik's cube mosaics, lets you edit the pattern cube by cube, and includes a 3D animation teaching you to solve the cube. The developer is the owner of the YouTube channel Cubik Art, which has 1.2M subscribers.
Why it took off The channel's own short videos of "flags made with Rubik's cubes" hit 1.28M to 5.58M views in October; the app was the prop in those videos, and viewers who watched them went to download it to build their own. A cube-puzzle account on Facebook also listed "App Used: Cubimo" in the title of a flag video.
CHow you could follow it If you're yourself a bead, LEGO mosaic, or cross-stitch creator making "pattern" crafts, build your own design tool into an App and drive traffic with a short-video series like "stitch a country's flag, next one from the comments"; if you don't have your own audience, don't copy this.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-08-18 · 11-07 installs 9,064
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
On YouTube there's a channel called Cubik Art with 1.2M subscribers, specializing in stop-motion animations made by solving dozens or hundreds of Rubik's cube puzzles. In August, the channel owner turned the tool he uses to design mosaics into an app called Cubimo. For its first two months it averaged only about 50 installs a day. From mid-October, the channel posted several "flags with Rubik's cubes" shorts in a row, and daily installs jumped to about 300. By 11-06, Google Play had 9,064 installs total. It's free, has no ads, and isn't making money. The volume is small; what's worth watching is the "creator turns their own tool into an app" route, and why it's hard to copy.
One short video and one curve
In 2026 October 14, Cubik Art posted a Short titled "Making Country Flags With Rubik's Cubes!": turning a cube into a country's flag one square at a time. By 11-06 that video had 5.58M views (public YouTube data), the channel's highest in three months. The top comment was "Denmark 🇩🇰 = 🚫, England 🏴 = ✅", with 211 likes, viewers helping him check the answer and pick the next country.
The same week, Cubimo's daily Google Play installs went from 50 a day to around 300 a day (third-party AppstoreSpy estimate). The two later single-day peaks line up as well: the 10-20 video "Making Flags With Cubes!" with 1.87M views, followed the next day by 10-21 installs of 826; and the 10-26 video "Making World Flags With Cubes!" with 1.28M views, followed the next day by 10-27 installs of 812.
To be clear: these shorts have no download link in the description, and almost no one in the comments mentions the app. How viewers found the app isn't visible from outside. It could be the app appearing on screen in the videos, or viewers scrolling to the channel's long-form video that carries the link. Saying "these few Shorts drove the traffic" rests only on the timing lining up (inference, moderate confidence).
What it is
Cubimo - Mosaic Solver, developer Cubify LLC, which has only this one app. Listed on Google Play 8-18 and on iOS 8-19. Two features:
- Mosaic editor: set your own cube grid and color each square with 7+ tools; or upload a photo and it converts automatically into a cube mosaic.
- Solver: enter colors manually or scan with the camera to generate a rotatable 3D cube, with step-by-step animation to teach you how to solve it.
The really distinctive one is the first. Web tools for Rubik's cube mosaics have been around for years (bestsiteever.net/mosaic, ruwix, rubiks-art.com), and the cube community has used them a lot, but they're all web pages: you upload a picture and get a pattern sheet, with no way to edit cell by cell on a phone. Dedicated mobile apps for this are almost nonexistent.
The solver half is the weak spot. On Play, cube solver apps belong to an old app with hundreds of millions of installs, so Cubimo has no edge there. On iOS, 10-11 has a one-star review: "Can't solve anything. I hit solve and it doesn't, it makes me solve it again!!!"
Where users come from
First: the creator's own YouTube. Cubik Art gets about 40M views in the last 28 days, almost all from Shorts. Long-form is only about 20k (vidIQ, 11-06). The long video "I Built an App That Lets Anyone Create Rubik's Cube Mosaics," posted the day the app launched in Aug 20 with store links in the description, reached only 19k views by 11-06. Over the next two months Play added only about 50 installs a day. So long-form drives little directly; Shorts are what actually bring traffic.
Starting in September the channel began featuring the app: "Solving A Rubik's Cube With My App!" (9-14), "Solving The Shiny Cube With My App!" (9-21), "Making Bangladesh 🇧🇩 With App!" (10-01). Views ran around 3–60k, nothing special, and commenters asked "what's the app called?" The flag theme was already in production in August, but several clips jumped past a million views in mid-October, and traffic followed.
Second: ChalkCuber on Facebook. A Facebook page launched 2026 years ago with 21k followers, posting Reels of cube flag mosaics that end with "What's Next❓", prompting viewers to name the next country in the comments. The 10-17 clip "Making France 🇫🇷 | What's Next❓ [App Used: Cubimo - Mosaic Solver]" got 136k views. The title names the app, and it links @cubimoapp. The same series includes Italy, Bangladesh and others.
Look at the video list, though, and there's another side. It tags the cube brand MoYu far more often, with titles like "#moyucube" and "[Cube used: SuperAolong19th]". The French flag was posted five or six times, one with 7.1M views and another with 3.2M, all tagged MoYu, not Cubimo. So ChalkCuber looks more like a reposting page that credits cube brands and tools than Cubimo's own side account. I couldn't find what its relationship to Cubik Art is, or whether Cubimo paid for the credit.
Third: the official Instagram, @cubimoapp. 7,003 followers, posting demos like "solve a Rubik's cube with Cubimo" and "AI solves a 9-layer cube," with the homepage linking to the website.
What I didn't find: no sign of paid acquisition (no in-app purchases, no ads, so no money coming back). On X, searching "Cubimo" over 90 days returned 0 posts. The Reddit cubing subreddit has no launch thread and there's no press coverage. On store charts it only placed #102–151 on the Philippines Google Play "Art & Design" free chart (10-29 to 11-06). Why the Philippines specifically? My guess (inference) is Facebook Reels' broad reach in Southeast Asia.
One more snag: searching "cubimo" on TikTok turns up mostly a Minecraft marketplace map with the same name, so the name collision will make it harder to find later.
The numbers together
| Metric | Sources and dates | |
|---|---|---|
| Google Play cumulative installs | 9,064 | Public Google Play data, 11-06 |
| New in the last 7 days | 2,161 (about +31%) | Same as above |
| daily installs | September about 50/day; from mid-October about 300/day; 10-21 826, 10-27 812 | AppstoreSpy estimate |
| iOS | 16 ratings, 4.5 stars | App Store,11-06 |
| Charts | Philippines "Art & Design" free chart only, #102–151 | Google Play, 10-29 to 11-06 |
| Paid | no in-app purchases, no ads; Play version not updated since 8-26 | Play listing page |
| Cubik Art, three October flag Shorts | 5.58M / 1.87M / 1.28M views | YouTube,11-06 |
Who it's competing with
| Competitors | What it is | Scale | How it differs from Cubimo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cube Solver(LOLAGRE) | Android cube solvers | 99.3M installs | Solving only, driven by search and ads; no mosaics |
| CubeX | Android solver + timer | 31.7M installs | No mosaics |
| 21Moves and others | iOS cube solvers | about 5–60k ratings each | Solving only |
| bestsiteever.net/mosaic, ruwix, rubiks-art.com | Web mosaic generators | Free tools the cube community has used for years | Output pattern sheets only; can't edit cell by cell on a phone |
| GAN mosaic cube + CubeStation | Cube brand hardware + app | iOS #326 ratings | Companion app for a hardware product; mosaic design not verified |
(Install counts are from early November on Google Play.)
Two sentences: cube solving is a red ocean, with top apps at tens of millions to hundreds of millions of installs. Almost nobody builds a phone-based cube mosaic designer, but it's a very small niche, and most people will never buy 100 cubes to assemble a picture. I also haven't seen anyone deliberately copy it.
Why it could take off
Put simply: the app is a prop for the content, and the content belongs to the creator. The channel owner uses the tool to design patterns for videos. Viewers who want to build one themselves go looking for the tool. The product difference (editing cell by cell on a phone) is what makes "App Used: Cubimo" make sense, but what brings people in isn't store search (search "cube solver" on Play and it doesn't rank) but a channel pulling tens of millions of views a month.
This is exactly what a copycat can't get. Without that 1.2M-subscriber channel and Shorts that hit 5.58M views, the same app on a store page likely gets a few installs a day.
If it were you
Verdict: worth learning from, not worth copying as-is. All the traffic comes from the creator's own channel, the product has no store traffic of its own, the niche is small, and there's no clear place to charge money yet.
Who it's for: you (or someone you can work with long-term) already run a "picture-from-pieces" handicraft channel: perler beads, LEGO mosaics, cross-stitch, pixel art, crochet charts, domino art. Viewers who watch end with "how was that pattern designed?" Turning the design tool you already use into an app makes every video a free ad for it, at very low cost.
Who it's not for: developers with no audience of their own who want to win through store search with a cube app (solvers are a red ocean with hundreds of millions of installs, and mosaic designers have too little search volume); anyone hoping to earn from this directly (Cubimo hasn't started charging).
How to build it: pick a handicraft category that already has web pattern generators but no good mobile editor. The app should do three things only: turn a photo into a pattern, edit cell by cell, and export block-by-block build sheets. Don't tack on a feature that head-to-head competes with the red ocean (like Cubimo's solver, which drew bad reviews). Plan the revenue path early: kits (perler, LEGO and cube mosaic kits already sell well), or paid unlocks for larger grids or high-res sheets.
How to get users: skip the store and go with short video. Borrow the Cubik Art and ChalkCuber format: "building a country's flag / a viewer's avatar, name the next one in the comments." Viewers naming the next subject keeps the content going. Show the app interface on screen, and write the app name into the title or pinned comment. Without your own channel, partner with mid-size perler or cube creators (ChalkCuber credited both a cube brand and the app, so these accounts are willing to co-brand).
When to move: there's no clear window; this kind of content gets views year-round. For perler and LEGO categories, having a "turn your photo into a picture" angle ready before the year-end gifting season makes it easier to produce content that performs.
Signs I've misread this: (1) Cubimo keeps daily installs above a few hundred for several weeks with no new viral Short, meaning it has organic traffic beyond the creator, and I should revise upward; (2) it adds in-app purchases or kit referrals and reaches a top-grossing chart in any country, meaning this niche can pay; (3) conversely, if Cubik Art changes topic and daily installs fall back to dozens, that confirms the app was just an add-on to the channel.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Cube Solver(LOLAGRE) Android 2018 99.3M installs Pure solver, driven by search and ads. Cubimo's focus is mosaic design; the solver is secondary. CubeX - Solver, Timer, 3D Cube Android 2017 31.7M installs Solver + timer, no mosaics 21Moves / Cube Solver - Solve any Cube and others iOS 2014–2022 about 5–60k ratings each Pure solver bestsiteever.net/mosaic, ruwix, rubiks-art.com, rubikscubemosaic.com Web Years Free tools common in the cube community Upload an image to get a pattern sheet; can't edit on a phone; no solver GAN Mosaic Cubes + CubeStation Other Already there Top cube brand; its iOS CubeStation app has 326 ratings Companion app for hardware; mosaic feature not verified Roman-/mosaic Open source Early on Small Web-based generation algorithm - Where users come from
- Verified Creator-owned YouTube (Cubik Art, 1.2M subscribers): the long video "I Built an App That Lets Anyone Create Rubik's Cube Mosaics" reached 18.9k views, with the download link in the description and community posts doing the pre-launch promotion. Daily channel views spiked on 10-22 and 10-28, one day before the Play install peak (10-21, 10-27).
- Verified Facebook/Instagram short-video page ChalkCuber (21k followers): "Making France | What's Next❓ [App Used: Cubimo]" posted 10-17, 136k views; Italy, Bangladesh and others follow the same format.
- Verified Official Instagram @cubimoapp (7,003 followers): posts cube-solving demo Reels; homepage links to cubifyllc.com/cubimo.
- Inferred Paid acquisition: no in-app purchases and no ads, so no money is coming back; the ad library wasn't tracked.
Cubimo - Mosaic Solver (com.art.mosaicsolver): why it's taking off
Channel: Google Play (iOS version also available) | Developer: Cubify LLC (this is their only app) | Research date: 2026-11-06
Bottom line
This is an app built by the owner of the YouTube cube-animation channel Cubik Art (1.2M subscribers, roughly 28M views over the last 40 days, almost all from Shorts). What drives its growth isn't the store, it's the creator's own audience, plus a newly launched Facebook/Instagram short-video account (ChalkCuber) posting "make the flag of country X with a cube" Reels, each one tagged "App Used: Cubimo". It's still small: about 9K total installs worldwide, about 7K new in the last 2 days, no in-app purchases or ads, and no revenue yet.
1. How to read the data
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Launched | Play 2026-08-18;iOS 2026-08-19 | googleplay library app; iTunes Search API |
| Cumulative global installs | 9,064 (2026-11-06), tier 5,000+ | googleplay library app_snap |
| New in the last 7 days | 2,161 (about +31%) | googleplay library app_profile |
| Charts | Only ranked #102–#151 on the Philippines Art & Design Top Free chart (10-29 to 11-06) | Google Play library chart_rank |
| Version | No updates since 1.0.0,8-26; no in-app purchases or ads; collects no data | googleplay library app_snap; Play listing page |
| iOS | 16 ratings, 4.5 stars, free, version 2 (updated 10-10) | iTunes Search API (checked via macmini, 2026-11-06) |
Install curve since launch (estimated by AppstoreSpy, googleplay library app_day_ext):
- 9-23 to 10-13: 47–60 installs per day, cumulative 1,341 → 2,166 (long tail from the launch video)
- 10-14 to 10-20: about 300 installs per day, reaching 4,297 cumulative
- 10-21 single day 826, 10-27 single day 812; 10-25/26 each about 290
- 10-30 to 11-04: 270–380 installs per day, reaching 8,898 cumulative
In other words, daily installs in mid-October were 5x higher, shifting from "the tail of a long YouTube video" to "a short-video matrix driving steady traffic."
2. Where users come from (growth levers)
1. The creator's own channel, Cubik Art (confirmed)
- YouTube @CubikArt: 1:1.2M subscribers, 871 videos, 1.88B total views; 40M views in the last 28 days, of which Shorts account for 39.9M and long-form only about 20K (vidIQ, 2026-11-06).
- In August they posted a long video, "I Built an App That Lets Anyone Create Rubik's Cube Mosaics", with about 18.9K views, and put the Android/iOS download links in the description (YouTube page). Community posts built up the buzz: "The app that I created to design my cube mosaics releases on Thursday at 10PM", "My app is now available on Android!", "I better not see anyone making this with my Rubik's cube mosaic app…" (Cubik Art Posts page).
- The long video itself didn't get many views: in its first month it averaged only about 50 Play installs per day, which suggests long-form direct referral is limited.
- The timing lines up: vidIQ's daily channel views spiked on 10-22 (+3.55M) and 10-28 (+3.59M), and Play installs spiked on 10-21 (826) and 10-27 (812). The two sets of dates are a day apart, possibly due to time zones. The guess is that a hit Short on those days mentioned or showed the app, but which specific video is still unverified.
2. The new short-video account ChalkCuber: the "national flag cube" series (confirmed)
- Facebook page ChalkCuber (ID 61590339751157, which suggests it was created in 2026), bio reads "I make Cubing Content", about 21K followers. There's a same-named account on Instagram too.
- They post a series of Reels: "Making France 🇫🇷 | What's Next❓ [App Used: Cubimo - Mosaic Solver]" (posted 10-17, page shows 136K views, 613 reactions, 32 comments; the page title also lists a separate "871K views", possibly a collection count, unverified), plus Italy, Bangladesh and others. Every one has "App Used: Cubimo" in the title, and the closing line "What's Next❓" invites viewers to name the next country in the comments (people are actually doing it, e.g. "Bandeira do Haiti").
- 10-17 This post and the 10-14 start line up in time with the 5x jump in daily installs.
- The official account @cubimoapp on Instagram has 7,003 followers and posts demo Reels like "Solving My Rubik's Cube With Cubimo!" and "AI Solves 9x9 Rubik's Cube", with the bio linking to cubifyllc.com/cubimo.
- Whether ChalkCuber is the developer's side account or a paid creator partner is unverified. It launched at the same time as the official account and uses a uniform title format, which looks more like an in-house matrix. The recall notes also mention a Cubecraftty account, which I didn't find in this search.
3. "Flag cubes" was already a proven traffic niche
On TikTok, "make a flag with a cube, pick the next country in the comments" is an established format: ksj_cubing's Palestine flag video got 2.46M views (2023), goldencuber's South Korea flag got 128K, cubezalot's series gets 1–50K per episode, and neanto_'s Myanmar flag got 200K (TikHub search, 2026-11-06). Cubimo's approach is to slot its own app into a format that has already been validated, and to publish on Facebook Reels. FB Reels has strong reach in markets like the Philippines and Southeast Asia, which may explain why it only charted there. This explanation is a guess.
4. Channels I couldn't find
- Paid acquisition: Play has no ad SDK and no in-app purchases, so there's no revenue to recoup ad spend; paid acquisition is unlikely. The ad libraries don't track this app, unverified.
- X / Reddit / HN / press: x-radar found 0 posts mentioning "Cubimo" in the last 90 days; no launch post on r/Cubers; no press coverage.
- TikTok: searching "cubimo" returns mostly the same-named Minecraft marketplace map "Cubimo" (Cyclone Games, released 11-17, top single video 190K views), unrelated to this app. The name collision will make it hard to find on TikTok and in search.
III. Competitors
| Competitors | Platform | Launched | Scale | How Cubimo differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cube Solver(LOLAGRE) | Android | 2018 | 99.3M installs, +1.03M in 7 days | Only solves cubes, no mosaic design; relies on store search and ads for monetization |
| Cube Solver(Battery Stats Saver / aseemsalim) | Android | 2022 | 55.5M installs | Same as above; pure solver |
| CubeX - Solver, Timer, 3D Cube | Android | 2017 | 31.7M installs | Solver + timer, no mosaics |
| 21Moves / Rubix Cube Solver / Cube Solver - Solve any Cube | iOS | 2014–2022 | about 5–60k ratings each | Pure solver |
| bestsiteever.net/mosaic, ruwix mosaic generator, rubiks-art.com, rubikscubemosaic.com, trend2print.com | Web | Years | Free tools popular in the cubing community, often recommended in YouTube tutorials | All work as "upload a photo → get a pattern"; none let you edit cell by cell on a phone, and none include a solver |
| Roman-/mosaic | Open source (GitHub) | Early on | Small | Web-based generation algorithms |
| GAN Mosaic Cubes + CubeStation App | Hardware + app | Already there | GAN is a top cube brand; its iOS app CubeStation has 326 ratings | Companion apps for hardware sellers; whether they have an image-to-mosaic feature is unverified |
| Pro Photo Mosaic Creator(Picture Mosaics LLC) | iOS | 2017 | 3,750 ratings | Photo mosaics, not cube mosaics |
Bottom line: "solving cubes" is a red ocean, with top apps at tens of millions to hundreds of millions of installs; "designing cube mosaics" has almost no dedicated phone app, and people use web tools instead. Cubimo's combination of "solver + phone mosaic editor" has no edge on the solver side (there are iOS reviews complaining it doesn't solve at all).
4. Why it took off
- Built-in audience: a cube-mosaic stop-motion channel with 40M monthly views, whose viewers are naturally people who want to make cube mosaics themselves. The product is the tool the creator uses to make their own content ("The app that I created to design my cube mosaics").
- Short-video matrix + forced exposure: the new ChalkCuber account keeps producing episodes with a self-sustaining "flag + What's Next" format, and every post names the app in the title. From mid-October, daily installs jumped from about 50 to about 300.
- Picked the right category: placed in Art & Design rather than the crowded Puzzle/Education space full of solvers, reaching the top 150 on the Philippines Art & Design Top Free chart.
- No paywall, no ads: zero barrier to download, and no risk of being reviewed as "full of ads."
5. What's the differentiation, and is it why it took off?
The differentiation works on two levels:
- Product layer: built a "cube mosaic designer" (7+ editing tools, image-to-mosaic) into a phone app, plus a 3D animated solver on the side. Web tools can output patterns, but they can't be edited cell by cell on a phone.
- Distribution layer (the real reason): the app is a prop in the content. Every mosaic video is also a demo of the app; viewers who want to copy it go download it. The product differentiation makes "App Used: Cubimo" credible, but what actually brings people in is the creator's content and short-video matrix, not store search: searching "cube solver" on Play is dominated by older apps with hundreds of millions of installs, so it has no shot there.
6. Who already knows about it
- Very few people so far: no public revenue (there's no paywall to earn from), no coverage from media or big X accounts, 0 posts on X, no Reddit threads. The only people who know it are viewers of Cubik Art and ChalkCuber.
- Copycats: I haven't found any "cube mosaic app" directly copying it. The new Cube Solver-type apps (Cube Solver 3x3 / Sparkappz, launched 8-19, 43K installs; Cube Solver 3D, CamStudio, launched 10-18) are competing for solver traffic and aren't the same thing.
7. What others can learn
- "Content creator → tool app": creators with traffic turn the tools they use for their own content into apps, and every piece of content is free advertising. This also works for pixel art, cross-stitch, LEGO mosaics, and crochet (Mosaic Overlay Crochet is the same play: creator lior.zocho posts work on TikTok alongside a crochet app, reaching #62 on the US Art & Design Top Grossing chart).
- Hard-coding "App Used: X" in the title, plus the "pick the next one in the comments" series format: the more viewers name the next item, the longer the content can keep going.
- Not competing head-on in the red ocean: not entering the solver-crowded category, and not fighting for search.
- How the money comes back: nothing yet. Possible routes: affiliate links to cube kits (GAN, SpeedCubeShop both sell mosaic kits, with good commission room), paid unlocks for advanced export or larger grids, and channel sponsorships.
8. What's still uncertain
- Whether ChalkCuber, @cubimoapp and Cubik Art are run by the same person (most likely, unverified).
- Which Short the two install spikes, 10-21 and 10-27, correspond to for Cubik Art, and whether the App gets mentioned in it.
- iOS downloads: only 16 ratings, so probably far fewer than Android.
- Whether it will add in-app purchases or ads later, and whether it will partner with the Rubik's cube brand.
- Whether the Philippines is the biggest install source: only inferred from the charts, since Play doesn't break down installs by country.
Sources
- googleplay library (agent-im server, DuckDB):
app,app_snap,app_profile,chart_rank,app_day_ext(AppstoreSpy estimates), query date 2026-11-06 - appstore library; iTunes Search API (cubimo, rubiks cube mosaic)
- Play listing page play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.art.mosaicsolver
- App Store reviews page apps.apple.com/us/app/cubimo-mosaic-solver/id6788550608?see-…
- YouTube long video www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdoxJZS1dx8; channel posts www.youtube.com/channel/UC8X9XxYLHQhHh20idOOpiMQ/posts
- vidIQ vidiq.com/youtube-stats/channel/@cubikart1/
- Facebook ChalkCuber www.facebook.com/people/ChalkCuber/61590339751157/; France video www.facebook.com/61590339751157/videos/29856253633977736/
- Instagram www.instagram.com/cubimoapp/
- Official site www.cubifyllc.com/cubimo
- TikHub TikTok search (cubimo / cube mosaic app / rubik mosaic flag); x-radar search (Cubimo, 90 days, 0 posts)
- Web competitors: bestsiteever.net/mosaic, ruwix.com/rubiks-cube-mosaic-generator, rubiks-art.com/mosaic-generator, rubikscubemosaic.com, trend2print.com, github.com/Roman-/mosaic, gancube.cn/en/ganmosaiccubes