NY Times online crossword puzzle app

For $2 or $3, you get access to the archive of the daily puzzle in addition to all the Monday through Sunday puzzles as they come out. A gold star is available for each new puzzle that you complete on the day of its issue. It’s an addictive feature that has kept me completing the puzzles each day now for the past two months and counting. Other collections of themed puzzles are available for nominal fees. The included archive alone looks to be enough to keep me occupied for several years to come, at least. These are fun puzzles to experiment with, since the technology allows for rapid, easy letter replacement. I frequently go with my gut on difficult and obscure answers, sometimes finding them surprisingly correct, sometimes transforming entire puzzle quadrants from one set of answers to a largely different set. The letter replacement feature makes this app a clear favorite over the old pen and paper technique. I use the app each day and highly recommend it.

DON’T BITE

I used to subscribe to the NYT, I enjoyed playing all of the games they offered. No doubt that the quality of the game app is great. I have a problem with transparency in the sales of the app. I reviewed all the qualifiers which appear in the App Store, I dug deeper into the NYT developer qualifiers as well. They mentioned no amount to download and play the app. In fact they go so far as to state that should they decide to charge for the app they will give notice of any pricing changes in advance. They sure make you feel like you’re getting an app which you can play for free. Having read everything that was up front as well as the purchase agreement I felt that it wasn’t a pay to play app. As soon as I downloaded the app the first screen I got was an invitation to a one week free trial and then a monthly payment for subscription. I don’t have a problem with the app being a payment subscription. This is the NYT and if you’re going to charge me to use the app then say it before the download. I get how some sites lead you along then you see get the money message, normally I would just roll my eyes and say “fool me once” and bailout. This seems like a breach of good faith by a trusted institution. Practices like these as misleading. If you’re selling something for money, then say so upfront. It’s the NYT, I have lost track of what they have become.

Good but has a ways to go

Overall this app is pretty good, and the games within are fun, but there are a handful of annoyances that I really wish they would address, mostly boiling down to how every game feels like a completely isolated/separate experience. 1️⃣ Why is Vertex still not added? It's really annoying having to do all but 1 game in the app, then switch to the browser just to do Vertex. 2️⃣ Why is the friends list/leaderboard only for the Mini crossword? It would be great to see how my friends did in Wordle, the regular crossword, Connections, Strands, etc without having to hit Share and text everyone individually. 3️⃣ Why does every game have their own settings? For example, I can change Wordle to use Dark Mode and High Contrast mode, but not other games like Connections or Strands. Those settings should be app-wide! 4️⃣ I wish they would add an optional setting to make more games timed. Wordle, Connections, Strands, etc. This would be much more fun to share with my competitive friends than whether or not we had to use a hint or got a guess wrong since that doesn't happen often. 5️⃣Subscribers should be able to access the full archive of Spelling Bee. It doesn't really make sense to only have the past week only.

Good app; wish I could access all games

Good app that is best for crossword (which I understand is the primary purpose of said app). I play the Bee a lot and find small glitches. There’s a slight delay in syncing across devices. I usually have to close and re open the app for the bee to reset for the new game the next day. Regarding crosswords, functionality works great. My biggest critique is that when clicking the info button, the app will re route to an in-app page of information and will also re route to a browser page outside of the app. When I go switch back to the app, sometimes for some reason I can’t get back to the game because the game app isn’t built for browsing the nyt app. Lastly, I wish the crossword app would contain all the games instead of just the crossword and the Bee. I have a separate game account from my digital subscription so I have to log out of the main nyt app app when I want to access other games. The games are buried in the main digital app and it’s cumbersome to find. It would be easier if they were accessible separately.

Good, but plenty to improve

I am a daily player of this app. I feel like NYTimes did a great job with a simple interface that outcompetes, imho, doing crosswords on paper. I like how the puzzles are released. It is more important to have it work well than to have too many bells and whistles. For this I am grateful. However, as a heavy player, I find myself regularly frustrated by an unfulfilling game-play relative to gaming standards today. I would like to see more accomplishment possibilities. I like rewards, badges, rankings and levels. I enjoy the puzzle talk where I can see explanations and chatter about the puzzles but this is apparently not available when a puzzle ages out to archives. The paid packages are nothing special. I would pay extra for themed puzzles that actually stick to enjoyable themes. I would like the ability to leave and see ratings for puzzles! Someday, maybe even a social aspect to the app could be attempted. I love the puzzles. I wish I was better at them! Thank you NYTimes.

Good puzzles and app, subscription terms are a bold-faced lie

I bought a subscription for the puzzles in the app, under the impression that the subscription works on the website as well for use on my MacBook. Where did I get that impression? Directly on the sign-up page in the app, where it states that this is possible. There is even a step-by-step guide on the NYT website on how to access your iTunes subscription by linking your account. When I did this, however, I discovered that it does not transfer any information at all to the web. I talked to a NYT customer service rep and was told that this is not possible, and the website just hasn’t been “updated” to remove the false information. So you pay 4 cents more a month for the iTunes subscription to get LESS access across your devices, and when you ask NYT about it, they tell you that it was never possible and claim that it’s Apple’s fault that the instructions it provides on its website are completely false. Needless to say, I will be getting a refund on my subscription and I doubt I will ever give it any more time or money. A real shame, as I love the daily puzzles and think the app has one of the better faces among the many crossword apps available. DO NOT SUBSCRIBE WITHIN THE APP IF YOU WANT TO USE THIS ON OTHER DEVICES.

Fun But Paywalled Heavily

I do love the compiled access to all of the daily games that NYT publishes and orchestrates, they’re usually pretty enjoyable and unless you have nothing to do all day they add a little flair to your day, something small to look forward to. However I personally find it discouraging to be locked behind paywalls for certain games. Namely Spelling Bee, which locks you before you’ve even gotten 1/3 of possible points, I personally don’t want to spend $6 just to simply “beat” the game or get a score higher than roughly 40. Access to older/previous days I understand the appeal of, and since NYT has started to release their games multiple years ago, they have a huge backlog, and stat tracking and sharing that makes the idea worthwhile, however for how MUCH a month you’re spending, it’s $0.20 a day for access to the same maybe eight or nine mini games, some of them, sure, but if you’re paying for their subscription strictly for Wordle, it sounds less appealing than just paying full price for a one-time purchased app.

The games are wonderful but the new paywall is disappointing

Me and my now husband have played the free games for years, as we are young and focused on saving money so can’t afford the subscription. We recently had a baby so being able to buy that subscription is even farther out of our view. Our favorite game was the Mini Crossword. We were under the impression that the mini crossword existed for people who could not afford the monthly subscription but still wanted to get to enjoy a fun crossword puzzle. Suddenly it was put behind a paywall, at the same time that ads were introduced. We understand that money is important for the company, but it seemed odd that ads were introduced at the same time as our favorite game was removed. You’d think that adding in ads would already be bringing in enough extra dollars, but removing arguably the funnest game from the “free” category was apparently necessary as well. Pips is such a fun new addition, but we are very disappointed and hope that the mini crossword will return.

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