Acid Ape Chess no more active

🛑 Acid Ape Chess Unusable Since April 17, 2025 – License Server Shutdown

As of April 17, 2025, the Acid Ape Chess app, including the Grandmaster Edition, has become non-functional. Upon launching the app, users encounter the following error message:​

“License error. License could not be activated.”​
This issue affects both the free and paid versions of the app.​

💰 App Pricing
Grandmaster Edition: 20 €
DGT Driver for Physical Boards (., DGT e-Board, Revelation II): 59€​ Despite the ongoing issues, the app remains available for purchase on the Google Play Store, potentially leading to further user frustration.​

🔍 Cause: License Verification Failure
The app performs an online license check upon each launch. With the license servers now offline, the app cannot verify licenses and thus fails to start. ​

Do you guys have tried to use it these days? I'm asking since there was an update to the app last February so I was under the impression it was still functional.

ok thanks. Too sad.

Good news for the chess community!
As of today, April 18th, 2025, the app Acid Chess Ape is back online after the recent server-related blackout. Just two days after the outage, the servers have been reactivated, and the app is fully functional again.
A big thank you to the developers for responding quickly and resolving the issue! ♟️👏

There have been intermittent issues, in the past, with the license check, so we should all be prepared to experience the same situation every now and then.

As far as iOS is concerned, the Apple platform is unsupported, and the App won't be ported to such platform. The App is not being developed anymore, what we get is a "random" bug fix support.

I think the fact that this time the server verification issue was resolved within just two days – while the last outage lasted for months – shows that the developers have seriously addressed the problem and are now able to respond more quickly.

There had been a long period without any visible updates on the official website, which made it seem like development had stopped. But starting this year, there has clearly been renewed and intensive work.

Here’s a copy of the official site and the latest updates:

February 25, 2025 Acid Ape Chess releasedAcid Ape Chess has been released:

A Lichess protocol change broke challenges: fixed.
Miscellaneous fixes and improvements.
February 13, 2025 Chess Engines Collection releasedChess Engines Collection has been released:

Chess Engines Collection can now be installed on Android 13 and later.
asmFish has been removed because it is no longer maintained and may not be compatible with some modern devices.
February 12, 2025 Acid Ape Chess releasedAcid Ape Chess has been released:

Acid Ape Chess can now be installed on Android 13 and later.
Arasan has been updated to .
A few minor issues have been fixed.
December 23, 2022 Acid Ape Chess 1 releasedAcid Ape Chess 1 has been released:

In two-player games, it is now possible to use the DGT3000 as time source (by selecting an option other than 25). Depending on your physical board model, this may reduce and/or mask clock lag, improving the players experience (particularly in blitz games).
The PGN parser has been made more tolerant: PGN headers are no longer required for the first game (for instance, 1. e4 is now considered valid PGN data). This is useful for pasting moves with Main menu > Game > Paste PGN from clipboard.
Arasan has been updated to .
Miscellaneous fixes and improvements.

This is indeed good news. AAC is by far my favorite App for online play, simulated tournament games, sparring play, analysis and study, therefore it would be a big loss in case I couldn't use it anymore.