Nostalgia has a way of sinking its claws in, and apparently it’s about time for the iPod’s click wheel to get plenty of attention.
Enter “Rewound“, a basic music player that’s available right now in the iOSApp Store. Now, the app is free and it’s available right now, but it’s possible that Apple will catch onto it before long (especially as it gets more coverage) and pulls it. So if you want to try this out, you may want to install the app sooner rather than later.
With that being said, the app itself is just a music player that supports downloadable skins to change up the experience. One of those downloadable skins will turn the experience into an iPod, click wheel and all. Best of all the app includes support for haptic feedback, so as you use that click wheel it actually feels similar to the experience you probably remember, albeit on a modern touchscreen.
Here’s Tom Warren ofThe Vergeshowing it off:
my iPhone is now an iPodpic.twitter.com/3EXQKVmxvS
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren)June 04, 2025
Rewound was developed by Louis Anslow of Rethought agency and has been in the process of development over the last year or so.
The idea is to bring back the idea of buttons and the nostalgia of devices like the iPod. “You can program physical appearance of a device,” explains Anslow in an interview withThe Verge. “It could become anything.”
Rewound connects to theApple Musiclibrary for now, but Anslow says that a future version of the app could supportSpotify‘s music library, too. And the app supports third-party downloadable skins as well, so other designers and developers will be able to create new experiences for the app as well.
The app will also get an iOS widget at some point in the future, too.
If all of this seems familiar, it’s becausewe reportedon a similar app back in November. Unfortunately, that one was not made available in the App Store at the time, and the developer behind it, Elvin Hu, was unsure if the app would ever show up in the digital storefront.
So if you want this type of experience on your iPhone, it sounds likeRewoundis a pretty solid option — especially considering it’s available in the App Store right now.
Do you plan on checking it out?
