Since 23 October 2026, Dahlia – Mandala Maker, version 1.4.1, is on Google Play. It is my Android app for mandalas drawn from mathematical curves, light and symbols. It is free with an optional one-time Pro, has no account and no ads, and the code is open source. You can install it from Google Play on Android 10 or newer; the app page on this site has screenshots and the privacy policy.
What the app does
A mandala in Dahlia is built from up to five layers. Each layer has its own style, 36 in all, from spirographs and rose curves to sacred geometry, flow fields and 3D forms, with its own symmetry, palette and glow. A dice suggests new combinations, and the history arrows take you back.
The emblem layer puts one symbol large in the centre: Om, the Tree of Life, the Flower of Life, the Sri Yantra and five more. You can draw it as a line, an outline, filled or in beads, frame it with a ring, a lotus ring, square gates or an ensō, and give it a more organic, hand-drawn character.
Behind the layers sits a background: a gradient, a sunburst, grain or one of your own pictures. On top come effects such as bloom, stars or a vignette, a quote with a soft glow, or your own strokes, drawn by hand in rotated symmetry.
Saving works in any format: square, the shape of your screen, or portrait and landscape ratios such as 4:5, 2:3 and 16:9, showing the whole mandala or filling the picture. You can also set it as your wallpaper or share it. The app starts with 23 example favourites, and you can keep as many of your own as you like.
Why it is called Dahlia
Until the day before the release the app was called Mandala Generator, like the macOS app it comes from.
“Generator” in 2026 reads as an AI image generator. Dahlia does not generate anything with a model; it draws curves from parameters you set, and I did not want the name to promise the wrong thing. “Mandala Studio” is taken three times, among them an App Store app with nearly the same features. “Zinnia”, another flower I considered, is a registered US trademark of Pixite.
A dahlia is the flower that looks most like a mandala: strictly radial, with petals in spirals. “Mandala Maker” in the store title keeps the app findable and says that you make the mandala yourself. The icon stays as it was, a mandala rendered by the app. The name carries the flower; the icon does not have to repeat it.
The Mac app will take the same name at its next release. Until then it is still called Mandala Generator.
What is free and what is Pro
Pro is an optional one-time purchase of 2.99 €. There is no subscription and no watermark.
Free are up to three layers, every style and palette, the whole effects layer, as many favourites as you like, and saving and sharing at screen size in every format. Setting a wallpaper by hand is free too. Three layers are enough for a finished-looking mandala, so the free app looks like the screenshots in the store.
Pro adds four things in the editor: up to five layers, emblems, text and quotes, and moving layers and the emblem off centre. In the save sheet it adds 2048 px for prints and wallpapers, placing the mandala in the frame by hand, a finish for brightness, contrast and saturation, and an SVG line drawing. And it adds wallpapers that change: home and lock screen as a matching pair, a new wallpaper from your favourites every morning, and a live wallpaper that turns slowly.
The four editor features can be tried before you buy. Add a fourth layer, place an emblem or write a quote and you see the result live. A Pro mark appears on the mandala, and saving, sharing or keeping it as a favourite then needs Pro; the Pro sheet offers to remove those features instead. The save-sheet features and the wallpapers are different: 2048 px, framing, the finish, SVG and the changing wallpapers are simply behind Pro, and you cannot try them first.
Open source, no account
Dahlia is open source under the GNU GPL 3.0. The source for the Android app and the Mac app is in one repository on GitHub. The app’s own code uses no network and sends nothing to me; the only network permissions in the build come from Google Play’s billing library. There is no account, no ads and no tracking, and your mandalas stay on your device.
The Mac app shares the renderer with the Android app, and favourites move between phone and Mac.
The store listing is available in seven languages: English, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Simplified Chinese and Japanese. If something does not work, write to apps@tearoom.one.
