What is 竹知了?
竹知了 (Zhu Zhi Liao) recreates the classic Chinese bamboo cicada toy on your iPhone. Shake your phone and the on-screen cicada spins around its "stick" and chirps — shake harder and it chirps faster, just like the real toy.
Basics
How do I make the cicada chirp?
Just hold your iPhone and shake it — the harder you shake, the faster the cicada spins and the louder it chirps. No buttons needed.
The app isn't detecting my shake. What should I check?
Make sure 竹知了 is in the foreground and your phone isn't in Low Power Mode with background motion restricted. If it still doesn't respond, try relaunching the app.
Sounds
Can I change the cicada's sound?
Yes. Open Settings inside the app to choose between the synthesized rubbing sound, two real cicada recordings, a looped sandpaper-style sound, or your own imported audio file.
Where do the built-in cicada recordings come from?
The bundled recordings are sourced from bigsoundbank.com under a CC0 public-domain license.
Game Center
What do the leaderboards track?
竹知了 tracks two leaderboards through Game Center: total chirp count and peak shake intensity. Sign in to Game Center in iOS Settings to have your scores submitted automatically.