Sound of Sorting - The Mobile App: "Audibilization" and Visualization of Sorting Algorithms on your Phone and Tablet
Posted on 2026-04-26 by Timo Bingmann at Permlink.
The Sound of Sorting visualizes 32 classic sorting algorithms with live audio and motion. Every comparison rings a note; every swap redraws a bar. Watch - and listen to - how each algorithm pulls an array from chaos into order.
Originally released in 2013 as a C++ demo for university algorithms classes, Sound of Sorting has been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube. This is the mobile app version: native, fast, and rebuilt for touch.
Who It's For
- CS students learning how sorts actually compare in practice
- Instructors looking for a lecture demo that's easier to launch than explaining the
gccsource code live - Engineers who want to rewatch a Quick Sort partition and finally see why it's fast
- Anyone who finds audio-visual algorithm traces calming to watch
Get the App
| Sound of Sorting - free with optional in-app purchase ($1.99) | |
| iOS (iPhone & iPad): | App Store |
| Android: | (not available yet) |
| Pricing: | Free with 6 algorithms - unlock the full set of 32 for a single $1.99 purchase. No subscription, no ads, no analytics, no account. |
| Privacy: | Privacy Policy - the app collects nothing and makes no network requests. |
Support
Questions, bug reports, or feature requests? I'm happy to help.
- Email: [email protected] - I aim to reply within a few days.
This is the official support page for the Sound of Sorting mobile app on iPhone and iPad.
Features
- 32 sorting algorithms, from familiar (Bubble, Selection, Insertion) to obscure (Cycle Sort, Smooth Sort, Block Merge Sort)
- Real-time audio: every array access plays a tone whose pitch matches the value being read
- Colored bars: access highlights, permanent marks, sorted regions - all in live animation
- Adjustable array size (8 to 2048 elements) and animation speed
- Step mode: advance one comparison at a time
- Infinite Play: play a never-ending parade of random sorts
- Live stats: comparison count and access count update as the sort runs
- Runs entirely on-device: no network, no analytics, no accounts
Free Algorithms
Six foundational sorts included at no cost:
- Selection Sort
- Insertion Sort
- Binary Insertion Sort
- Merge Sort (classical recursive)
- Merge Sort (iterative)
- Quick Sort - Hoare (LR ptrs)
Full Collection - One-Time $1.99 Purchase
Unlock the remaining 26 algorithms with a single in-app purchase:
- More Quick Sorts - Lomuto (LL ptrs), ternary (LR ptrs, LL ptrs) and Dual-Pivot partition schemes
- Bubble Sort, Cocktail Shaker Sort, Gnome Sort
- Comb Sort
- Shell Sort (Ciura gap sequences)
- Heap Sort with heap level coloring
- Smooth Sort
- Odd-Even Sort, Bitonic Sort, Batcher's Odd-Even Merge Sort
- Cycle Sort
- Radix Sort - LSD and MSD variants
- gcc's std::sort and std::stable_sort - the real implementations
- Tim Sort
- Block Merge Sort
- Bogo Sort, Bozo Sort and Stooge Sort, for entertainment
- ... and more
About the Project
Sound of Sorting began in 2013 as a cross-platform C++ demo built with wxWidgets and SDL, written for an undergraduate algorithms course at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The YouTube video went viral and the demo has been used in lectures, tutorials, and bedtime watching ever since.
The 2026 app is a separate native rewrite for iOS and Android - same idea, redesigned for touch and individual exploration with algorithm descriptions.
The original 2013 demo, with downloadable source archives, Win32 and Linux binaries, the cheat-sheet PDF, and the full ChangeLog, lives on at panthema.net/2013/sound-of-sorting/. Its sources remain available under the GNU GPL v3 at github.com/bingmann/sound-of-sorting.