Are we alone on Earth? The Enigma app might tell you – now finally on Android too!

Many of us like apps that somehow monitor and provide information about our surroundings – namely weather radars or flight radars. After all, this type of app is really practical for a large number of users. But if we set aside practicality and focus on the field of similar apps more on the bizarre or simple curiosity, then Enigma comes into play. It doesn’t track weather or planes, but UFO or UAP phenomena, or unidentified flying objects or anomalous phenomena. It was recently released for Android operating systems as well.

When I first discovered the app, I was quite surprised. The trend of tracking UFO activity is something I associate more with the years when budget documentaries about crop circles were released on DVD. However, it seems that the trend survives to some extent even today. So, if you’re curious about what Enigma has to offer and how you can get involved in its operation, let’s dive into an overview of the app.

When you first open the app, you’ll be greeted by a modernly conceived introduction, which in short text segments and mysterious-looking background video clips introduces what the app is all about.

For an optimal experience, the app will also ask you to share your location with it. You can, of course, refuse this, or choose to share the location only when using the app.

Then Enigma will show you a brief summary of general statistics and your options within the app, along with an offer to receive notifications from the app. These will relate to cases when a UFO sighting appears near your location, someone saves your own public sighting, or a viral sighting or groundbreaking news emerges.

So, the introduction is behind us. What exactly does Enigma offer users?

Overall, the app has four tabs that you can explore, namely:

• Top Sightings (Best UFO / UAP object sightings)
• Map
• Tab for uploading your own sighting
• Profile

The Top Sightings section pretty much speaks for itself. It presents you with an overview of the most interesting sightings from around the world, which you can simply click on and possibly comment on, like (it uses an «Upvotes» system), or share. You will also see the potential story that the author may have uploaded with the sighting, as well as the number of witnesses, time, date, and location.

Interactions with the content are therefore basic, but sufficient for the app’s purpose. However, if you’re not so interested in what’s happening worldwide and would rather look at your surroundings, you can head to the second tab and view the Map. If you have allowed location sharing, your location should be shown on the map.

You can thus freely choose the places where sightings were recorded. For example, Prague currently has around fifty sightings, which is not bad at all, but at the same time, it doesn’t mean that all sightings are necessarily breathtaking.

Now is perhaps the right moment to note that the credibility of many sightings is often refuted by people in the comments. So, although it may seem like «phantasmagoria» at first glance, app users also maintain a healthy degree of skepticism.

Different types of locations and sightings are displayed on the map in the form of icons, or numbers if multiple sightings are associated with one place. However, the variety of icons can be confusing at first glance, and for such cases, the map also has its own legend, which you can find in the bottom right corner of the user interface.

In the bottom menu, next to the map, there is also a bordered plus sign, which indicates the function for adding your own sighting. It will guide you step by step through its creation, from a photo to a short text or audio/voice description of the situation, to adding various details.

All these components together form a so-called story, to which other users will then have the opportunity to react appropriately.

The very last tab is the profile. Although most users would understandably expect the option to customize their profile according to their own preferences, there aren’t many options available here. The tab only provides information about the app version, allows you to send feedback to the developers, delete your account, or log out.

App parameters, performance, and availability

The good news is that the app is not very demanding on phone storage. The basic app size is 108 MB and it is currently running on beta version 1.2.7. The last update was on June 24, and the oldest supported operating system is currently Android 9.

Regarding the app’s optimization, it is tolerable but has its flaws; for example, displaying a sighting with a longer text story tends to freeze, but not drastically. However, the developers state that they plan to release a stable version 3.0 later this year, which will focus precisely on performance optimization and bug minimization.

Currently, Enigma can be downloaded via the Play Store, completely free of charge. The app now also has over 10,000 downloads.

Would such an app appeal to you, even just out of curiosity?

Source: Roth Wellden on YouTube, own