Art & Design v3.7.0
The teamLab app is a venue-only companion guide for teamLab exhibitions, offering room-by-room artwork explanations, interactive installation controls, and offline-ready venue data. It works at nine sites, needs Android 8.0+, but has limited use outside exhibitions and notable battery drain.
The teamLab app is the official companion guide for the Japanese art collective's immersive exhibition sites. It provides room-specific artwork descriptions, interactive controls for certain installations, and context about how each piece connects to the ones around it. If you're visiting one of these venues, the software turns a visual trip into an informed one.
At the Planets venue in Tokyo, the Crystal Universe installation lets you swipe up on a star on your screen, and the same star then appears among the projected LED lights around you. It's a small interaction, but I found it changed my pace through the gallery. You'll want the app open as you move between rooms, because matching artwork names to a printed map in a dark gallery is slower than most visitors expect.
That makes the app a practical companion inside the venue, since you're not flipping through long text lists while standing in the middle of a projection room. At the Borderless sites, where pieces merge into adjacent rooms and even continue through doorways, those quick explanations matter because a single artwork can span several physical spaces.
Even outside the interactive installations, the artwork index is useful. You get the piece's name, the production team behind it, and a plain-language explanation of the concept. That's valuable in rooms where the printed panels are crowded and the projected imagery moves faster than a quick glance can follow.
It earns its value during long visits. The Planets experience includes a barefoot walk through knee-deep water with projected koi fish, and you won't need to hold the phone for that particular section of the route. But in the dry galleries, the app's timing details — which artworks respond to touch and which ones loop on a timer — prevent a lot of standing around waiting for something to happen.
The current Android build is version 4.2.1, which needs about 90 MB of storage and runs on Android 8.0 or newer. You'll want to install it before you arrive, because several venues have weak mobile signals in the basement-level galleries. Stick to the official release or a verified APK source, because unofficial builds have been found with extra permission requests.
It can't do much outside exhibition grounds. There's no virtual tour, no gallery of past works, and no way to trigger the interactive features from home, so the download only pays off if you have tickets booked. That's by design, but it also means the app has close to zero value as a standalone art reference.
In my testing, battery drain hit 15 to 20 percent over a three-hour visit. Dark rooms push you to raise screen brightness, and the continuous sensor use adds up. Bring a power bank or plan a shorter visit, because you'll want your phone for maps and photos afterward.
Does the teamLab app work at every exhibition site?
As of the latest update, the app supports nine exhibition sites, including Planets in Tokyo, SuperNature in Macao, and Borderless in Jeddah. The feature set differs slightly from venue to venue, so what works in one Crystal World installation won't necessarily carry over to another.
Can you use the app without a ticket or outside the museum?
No. The interactive features and room descriptions only trigger while you're inside an active exhibition space. Outside the venue, the app is essentially a dormant file on your phone.
Does the app work offline?
Most guide sections do, but you'll want to load the venue data once at the entrance before descending. Several venues keep their galleries underground, and new visitors commonly lose signal right after the ticket gate.
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