NYT Games: Wordle & Crossword

Long time player - disappointing updates I have been doing the crossword daily for years. I am on a nearly 2500 day streak for it and have completed over 8400 total daily crosswords. No one is more familiar with this app for the crossword portion. And since the latest update it has been basically ruined for crossword players. You will complete the crossword and it won’t stop the timer. Then when you back out of the puzzle and go back in, the app will have deleted half of your work but keep all the time. The “go to next blank” and “skip completed letters” worked until this week, which really messes with your muscle memory on how to quickly complete the full crossword. It is an embarrassment how badly implemented the latest change is. Clearly it was made to cater to Wordle players, which is fine but long time crossword players don’t matter any more I guess. I’ve never had the sort of problems that have appeared in the last few days. Very disappointing. If it wasn’t for my streak, I would cancel my subscription. Playing on iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Crashing and Annoying Reorder can’t do a crossword start to finish without it crashing multiple times. I know the devs are probably on this but it’s really frustrating. Plus, the crosswords being lower in the app is a real shame. It makes everything load slower and puts an annoying scroll into the experience. It should be returned to how it was or allowed to be customized. Especially needs to fix the crashing.

It used to be a good app App crashes regularly, and new changes have been a huge detriment to usability. The game ride has changed on the main page, so I have to scroll by games I have no desire to play to get to the crosswords. When I play old crosswords and want to check an answer or a square, I now get an annoying pop up saying it will not be counted in a streak if I continue… the old puzzles aren’t included in streaks anyway. Very disappointing direction for this app, it used to be a fun diversion.

Changes that hurt longtime fans I have a 1600+ crossword streak, looking forward to 5 years. And in fact, I’ve been a NYT crossword player for many years, first on paper, then via early desktop apps, and then as an early adopter of this app. I’ve watched it evolve into a generally lovely platform with tons of quality of life fixes. It’s a very important part of my day, every day. But the wheels started falling off the wagon awhile back when the stats display for crossword times split daily, best, and average into different pages, sacrificing readability and basic data visualization principles for a “cool” UI. That was a bummer, but I moved on. Now, two days ago, I nearly had a panic attack opening the app to find the crossword GONE. My streak, surely in shambles, my daily routine, destroyed. But no, the crossword has just been demoted to below the fold, under other games I barely care about. The flagship NYT game for decades is now, I guess, an afterthought to…Tiles? How disappointing. I used to pop open the app to quickly check that I’d kept up with my daily streak with a quick glance. Now I open the app to a burst of anxiety, knowing I can’t count on that quick check to keep up with almost 5 years of unbroken progress. I can forgive overlooking the crossword when doling out cool badges to Wordle and Spelling bee. I got over the abysmal solve time charts. But this might do me in. For goodness’ sake, put the crossword back at the top where it belongs or at the VERY least let me re-order the games on my own device!

Things have really gone downhill. The iPhone and iPad apps no longer correctly show the solved crossword puzzles. If you switch between iPhone, iPad, and browser to work on puzzles like we do, it used to be that you would see your progress and history on all of the devices. Now, no longer. Thankfully when you complete a puzzle on one of the devices the solve is saved on the web. But they have really screwed up the update of history and puzzles in progress between iPhone and iPad.

This used to be wonderful Like with many online services today this one has gone the route of raise price-lower access. I used to pay for the subscription until it just wasn’t worth it any more. Once I down graded to the free version you used to be able to play any of the games, but only the ones released that day, no back log. Then they restricted the crossword, their main thing. Then the mini crossword. Then half of the mini games they developed as a little side thing. It’s just disappointing.

Glitchy Until recently, this app was great. Lately it has been glitchy. When one completes a crossword, it does not show completed status with a Star like it used to. Instead, it shadow the icon for an I completed puzzle. Also, if one tries to open Pips after doing the crossword, it just doesn’t respond. Instead, one needs to fully close the app and reopen it before playing that particular game.

I can’t stand when apps beg me for reviews I just want to use the app. Get out of my way.

Fun times I’ve hade a good and fun time playing this game

The fart That fart of a game is great