How remixing works: change any app with one sentence
Every app on PlzBuild has a Remix button. A remix starts from the original's code, applies the change you describe, and publishes the result as a new app at its own address. The original stays exactly as it was and is credited on the remix.
The four steps
- Open an app and press Remix. Pick anything from the gallery, or from the most remixed list.
- Say what to change. One or two plain sentences, up to 1,000 characters: "make it 60 seconds", "add a two-player mode", "use cats instead of mint leaves". The page offers a few ideas if you want a nudge. You may also choose a name for the new app; if you do not, it takes the original's name plus your handle.
- Get your code. The page gives you a code made of two groups of five letters and digits. Send it to @plzbuild in a direct message. The code proves the request is yours and ties it to the Instagram account that sends it, so there is no login.
- Wait for the link. The new address is reserved as soon as the code is accepted, so the link already works while the build runs. The page shows where you are in the queue and tells you when it is done.
Why a code
The code is 50 bits long (two groups of five symbols from a set of 32), so it cannot be guessed. Each sender gets five wrong tries an hour. Codes always mix letters and digits, so an ordinary word never matches by accident, and a code buried inside a longer message is only tried quietly instead of producing an error.
What a remix inherits
The remix starts from the original app, so it keeps the look, the rules and the mechanics you did not ask to change. It then goes through the same pipeline as any request: brief, plan, build, tests in a real browser, review. If you want to understand that pipeline, this post walks through it.
Remixes can be remixed again, up to five levels deep. Each app page shows the family: the original, every remix below it and the one you are on. If the app you open is itself a remix, it says so at the top, with a link back to the original.
What you cannot remix
Operators can switch remixing off for an app, and then the button is not shown. Remixes are also subject to the same limits as every request: three new jobs an hour and ten a day for each person, and the usual rules about what the factory will build.
Why it matters
Describing a change to something that exists is far easier than describing a whole app from nothing, and the result is more likely to work on the first try. It is also how good ideas travel: someone asks for a tap game, someone else gives it a daily mode, a third turns it into a duel. Credit stays attached the whole way, so the person who asked first is still named on the original.
Start with the most remixed apps, or pick any app you like and change one thing about it.