Crossword puzzles have been a popular form of entertainment for decades, and with the rise of mobile devices, there are now a plethora of crossword apps available for Android and iOS. These apps offer a convenient and portable way to enjoy this classic pastime, and many even offer innovative features such as social sharing and multiplayer modes. In this article, we will explore some of the best crossword apps available on both platforms, highlighting their features, strengths, and weaknesses.
We have compiled a list of 10 Best Crossword Apps For Android & iOS for your consideration, which have undergone rigorous testing and evaluation by our team of experts.
Table of Contents
10 Best Crossword Apps For Android & iOS
1. Crossword Cryptic Lite
The Professional Cryptic Crossword puzzles app offers 24 complete puzzles, all ad-free, and suitable for seasoned crossword fans. The full version contains 260 professional-level cryptic puzzles. The app features a tutorial for Cryptic Puzzles, pinch zooming grid, clue list view, cheats, highlight mistakes and answer checking, and a share-a-clue function via email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. The app is suitable for tablets and high-resolution tablets are supported. Additionally, the app offers a resume function, extra preferences such as jump letters and grey-out completed clues, and 3 keyboard choices. The app also provides explanations for each clue from Pack 8 onwards.
For users who find the Cryptic puzzles challenging, the app offers a standard Crossword app. For those looking for American style puzzles with no hanging letters, the app recommends the Crossword (US) app.
2. Crossword Quiz
The Crossword Quiz is a modern twist on the classic word game. Developed by Random Logic, it is a unique puzzle that combines various types of clues including word descriptions, emoji combinations, and photos. The game challenges players to apply their visual, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills to complete the puzzle.
The game is free and offers endless hours of entertainment. Players can collect coins along the way to use as hints for solving more challenging categories. The hints include Expose a Letter, Remove the Letters, and Solve It. Players can customize the difficulty level by selecting how much of a “nudge” they want.
Expose a Letter hint reveals a single letter of a phrase, which is helpful when players know the answer but can’t quite recall it. Remove the Letters hint removes all letters from the letter bank that are not part of the answer, providing players with a bump in the right direction. Finally, Solve It hint helps players who experience a complete blank-out in the game.
Crossword Quiz is a brain stretcher that will keep players engaged for hours. It offers a new way to approach the classic word game, making it an excellent tool for learning and vocabulary building. The game is easy to play, and players can get started without any prior knowledge of the game. With the help of hints and coins, players can overcome any challenge and have fun while doing it.
3. NYTimes Crossword
The New York Times offers a free app of word games to keep your mind sharp. The app is designed for every level, with puzzles that cater to every player’s skills. The games include the classic Crossword, Spelling Bee, Mini Crossword, and many others.
The app features ad-free games, allowing you to play without any distractions. Subscribers can play the same crossword puzzle that appears daily in The New York Times newspaper. The puzzles increase in difficulty from Monday to Saturday. Spelling Bee is a word search game that challenges players to make as many words as possible with 7 letters. New Spelling Bee puzzles are available daily. The Mini Crossword is a shorter version of the iconic Crossword, designed for those short on time. The daily Mini Crossword features simpler clues and doesn’t increase in difficulty throughout the week. The app also features leaderboards, allowing players to start a friendly competition with friends. Subscribers have access to thousands of crossword puzzles, including over 10,000 editions of The Crossword and over 2,000 Mini Crossword puzzles. The app also features performance stats to track progress and improve solve rate.
The app offers a seven-day free trial with all subscriber benefits. After the trial, users can purchase a monthly or annual subscription. With a subscription, users can get unlimited access to all games, including the Crossword archives. Automatic renewal occurs 24 hours before the start of the next billing period. Billing occurs every calendar month for monthly subscriptions and once yearly for annual subscriptions. Subscriptions continue until canceled. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Users can manage and cancel subscriptions using the Google Play subscription center.
By downloading the New York Times Crossword app, users agree to the automatic renewal terms, the New York Times’ privacy and cookie policies, the California Privacy Notices, and the Google Play Terms of Sale.
4. Crossword Puzzle Free – Redstone
The Crossword Puzzle Free by Redstone is a mobile application that offers users the opportunity to solve thousands of crossword puzzles from both indie and industry leading constructors. The app can be downloaded for free without a subscription required. It is designed to provide users with fresh content and a well-designed user interface, making it the preferred choice for crossword lovers.
A crossword puzzle is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and black shaded squares. The objective is to fill in the white squares with letters to form words or phrases by solving clues that lead to the answers. Answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right and from top to bottom, in languages written left-to-right. The shaded squares are used to separate the words or phrases.
The app allows users to access free crossword puzzles on all their devices, such as mobile phones or tablets, without the need for an internet connection. American-style crossword puzzle packs can also be downloaded and added to a user’s collection. New packs in four difficulty levels, which are Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard, arrive every week.
The app comes with several features designed for an improved user experience. Smart Look Up provides word suggestions when users have trouble with tricky clues, while the Dark Mode improves visual comfort at night or in low-light environments. Multi-word Entry Hints lets users see whether an answer consists of two or more words. Smart Step allows users to skip filled cells when navigating through the puzzle, and Lock Completed Words keeps letters that are guessed correctly locked, so users don’t accidentally erase them while guessing and erasing tangent words. Incorrect Puzzle Assistance reminds users when the puzzle is filled but has incorrect cells. The Help feature reveals letters, words or the entire puzzle in case users get stuck, while Show Errors highlights incorrect letters, and Clear Errors easily removes all incorrect letters.
5. Crossword Light
Crossword Light is an Android application that offers users the ability to solve crosswords from various parts of the globe directly on their hand-held devices. With over 30 puzzles available, the app comes equipped with helpful features such as hints, clue listings, and more.
Those seeking additional information on this app, as well as supported puzzles, can visit the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the Standalone website. This page can be accessed at http://www.standalone.com/android/crosswords/faq.
6. Crossword US
This mobile game offers 540 US-style crossword puzzles suitable for casual-level players. The game utilizes Google in-app billing, providing 50 free puzzles and 9 paid-for packs, each containing 55 extra puzzles. Users can choose to purchase all packs at a discounted rate and enjoy an ad-free experience. Optional keyboard color schemes and extra preferences such as jump letters and greyed-out completed clues are also available.
The game features US-style crossword puzzles, similar to those found in the New York Times, with no hanging letters. It is optimized for tablet play and includes pinch zooming capabilities and a clue list view. Users can also utilize cheats, highlight mistakes, and check answers. High-resolution tablets are supported, and there are three keyboard options to choose from.
The game requires permission to access the internet and network state to track popular puzzles. The billing permission is necessary to offer the puzzle packs for sale.
7. World’s Biggest Crossword
World’s Biggest Crossword is a new crossword challenge app that offers a collection of 100s of original puzzles for players to solve. With over 10,000 unique clues, dozens of quests to complete, and trophies to collect, this app offers endless hours of entertainment. There are seven game modes available to choose from, including World’s Biggest Crossword, World’s Tallest Crossword, Daily Diamond Crossword, Codewords Puzzle, Word Grid Puzzle, Quote Falls Puzzle, and British Cryptics Crossword. Each mode offers a unique challenge to the player.
The World’s Biggest Crossword mode allows players to explore a giant grid of over 350 crossword puzzles, which is the classic puzzle enjoyed by millions of players worldwide. In contrast, the World’s Tallest Crossword mode offers a new collection of 100 extra-large puzzles with bigger grids, longer words, and tougher clues. The Daily Diamond Crossword mode rewards players with extra bonuses for solving a snack-sized bonus puzzle every day.
The Codewords Puzzle mode requires players to decipher a code to complete the crossword grid. Each square is marked with a number corresponding with one letter of the English alphabet. Players must look for patterns and use their powers of deduction to complete the grid. The Word Grid Puzzle mode involves sliding tiles from the edge of the grid into the blank squares to spell out words. Unlike a normal crossword, there are no clues, so players will have to use logic to choose between the available letters for each square. The Quote Falls Puzzle mode requires players to place letter tiles from each column into the correct squares on the grid to spell out a famous quotation. Finally, the British Cryptics Crossword mode is the ultimate challenge, requiring players to solve cryptic crosswords that use their own obscure rules to hide the answer in the clue, using anagrams, double meanings, and a host of other subtle tricks.
Players are encouraged to complete all the challenges to earn the title of Crossword Superstar.
8. Little Crossword Puzzles
The 5-Minute Crosswords game offers a collection of small puzzles that can be easily solved while on-the-go. The game contains puzzles of varying levels of difficulty and is available in English, French, and Russian.
The game features a user-friendly interface that eliminates the need for scrolling or zooming in to view or read the entire puzzle. Players can skip puzzles they find too difficult and words are checked as they are typed.
Developed by the creators of 5 Little Clues 1 Word, 5-Minute Crosswords is designed for players who enjoy classic word games but have limited time to play. The game is suitable for both novice and experienced players and can be played on phones and tablets of any size.
9. Penny Dell Crosswords
Penny Dell Crosswords is a crossword puzzle app that offers free daily crossword puzzles in easy, medium, and hard difficulty levels. In addition to the daily puzzles, the app also includes a free sampler collection of 12 crossword puzzles to get users started. Furthermore, the app features ad-free collections of easy, medium, and hard puzzles.
The puzzles featured on the app are from Dell Magazines and Penny Press, which are leading publishers of crossword puzzles. The app offers easy-to-use features such as the ability to choose the puzzle difficulty level, hints for each puzzle, and optional navigation to advance from one entry to the next.
Users can also choose to use a pen or pencil while solving puzzles, and the app includes a feature that shows puzzle errors at the touch of a button. Additionally, the app offers multiple settings options and a robust app tour, user tips, and helpful hints to enhance the solving experience.
For users who want more puzzles and no ads, the app offers fun sets and deluxe sets that include 35 crossword puzzles each, including five bonus themed puzzles. Users can unlock the bonus puzzles by completing any six of the included puzzles. Ad-free collections of 150 Penny Press and Dell Magazines crossword puzzles are also available for download each month.
In case of any issues with the app, users can email the customer service team at customerservice@puzzlenation.com.
10. Lexeme
Lexeme is a specialized tool that facilitates crossword completion and anagram solving. Its syntax is intentionally straightforward to align with the default Android keyboard and the structures frequently encountered in cryptic crossword puzzles.
The software is capable of identifying words and phrases where letters are unknown, anagrams of some or all letters, as well as patterns nested within other patterns at any position. Moreover, it has an integrated thesaurus that allows users to refine their search results according to a specific meaning.