Marques Brownlee, a famous tech YouTuber, introduced the Panels app last year that offered a wide selection of beautiful high quality digital wallpapers designed by skilled artists. This app was ranked #1 for photos on both Google Play and App stores, and more than 2 million wallpapers were downloaded by users.
Despite these milestones, the app faced a few backlashes on the internet as it was not able to meet the demands of the users. It is now officially announced that the Panels app will be shutting down on 31st December 2025.
In the official blog post, it is mentioned, “ Earlier this year, the makeup of the development team changed, and despite our best efforts to bring in collaborators who shared our passion and vision, we weren’t able to find the right fit. Rather than keeping the app running without being able to grow it in the way we originally envisioned, we felt it was best to make a clean break.
The Panels app itself will be shutting down.”
After the shutdown is completed and all user data is securely deleted, the Panels app code will be open-sourced under the Apache 2.0 license. This will allow anyone to create their own wallpaper app.
The artist revenue share program will be kept active until the very end, while the wallpapers that users have downloaded or purchased are theirs to keep.
What will happen to users with active subscriptions?
When the app is removed from the stores, all active subscriptions will be automatically cancelled. And after the shutdown on 31st December, users with active subscriptions will be refunded.
If you would like a refund before the shutdown date, follow the steps below to request one-
Google Play Store
- Go to play.google.com
- At the top right, click your profile picture
- Click Payments and subscriptions- Budget and order history
- For the order that you want to return, click Report a problem
- Complete the form and note that you’d like a refund, then click Submit
App Store
- Go to reportaproblem.apple.com and sign in with your Apple ID
- Select Request a refund and choose a reason such as Other, include a short description, and submit
- Apple typically processes approved refunds within 24-48 hours
