MKBHD is taking down his wallpaper app

Marques Brownlee’s Panels wallpaper app will shut down on December 31, just a year after its controversial launch. “We made some mistakes building our first app and ultimately couldn’t make it the vision I had,” Brownlee said in a video on the MKBHD YouTube channel.

The launch of Panels in September 2024 sparked a flood of criticism regarding its high subscription price and advertising setup. “Earlier this year, the makeup of the development team changed, and despite our best efforts to recruit collaborators who shared our passion and vision, we were unable to find the right person,” reads a message on the Panels website. “Rather than let the app run without being able to develop it as we had initially envisioned, we thought it was better to make a clean break.”

All user data will be deleted after the app is closed, with Brownlee then planning to make the panels’ code open source and available on GitHub. All subscriptions will be automatically canceled when Panels is removed from app stores, and refunds for active subscriptions will be issued after December 31.