Crosswords With Friends

This game was fun years ago. Now, it’s just meh. It’s pretty glitchy and not sure why. The constant ads always stop any streaming I have going on in the background. There’s no option to pause the game if you have to do something while playing. The only thing you can do instead of pause is exit the app entirely. If you try to accept your friend’s gift before the dreaded popup, there goes your gift. The popup obliterates the gifts. If you click on the link to accept gifts too quickly, the game fails to accept it for you. I thought I was logged in via Facebook. At some point, I was logged out and made friends who consistently send gifts. Now if I try to log in via Facebook to save my progress, all my game friends disappear. In fact, when the game was restructured a few years ago, I lost all my original friends and have been unable to get them back. The word seeker events have such odd words that I had to quit playing or risk going broke of coins. Daily trivia is a useless and time consuming activity I also never play. The rewards aren’t good enough to spend that much time and effort on it. The crossword puzzles themselves are actually pretty good and I enjoy playing them, but the glitches and the extraneous stuff make it difficult.

I love playing this game. Been playing it for years. But recently to play I have to view an add after every play and for a time period for one of them I had to sign out of my device to continue play. I’d prefer an option to pay for a subscription if I could avoid the ads. If not available, perhaps the ads could be spread out between two to three plays. I bought an ad blocker which Apple advised wouldn’t work (and it didn’t)because ads are built into app. I understand the developers need to make a profit but hope a compromise can accommodate their need without interfering with play by introducing an ad after every game. Within minutes after I posted this review, I got an answer 😂The problem of not being able to close out an ad returned. I watched the ad but when the circled X appeared, the app was unresponsive and wouldn't respond to my attempts to X out of it. I had to sign out to resume play. Sorry that happens as I said I love playing this game. It offers three versions of the crossword experience which others don’t but it appears my feedback isn’t welcomed.

Update Jul 25, 2021. Not sure why the interface for this game was completely changed. It is glitchy and harder to read and find things. e.g. 1) During games with items awarded, when I finish the word, it doesn’t go to the next word. It just randomly goes somewhere else. And some squares aren’t white, they turn pink. 2) I don’t get a message at the end of a game that something is wrong if I’ve messed up somewhere. It used to tell me. Now it just sits there using up the clock until I figure it out. 3) I have to click on each puzzle pack to see how many coins I need to finish it. This used to be easily seen on one screen. Too much back and forth between screens. Developers, what happened to regression testing?? Update Aug 5, 2020. Ever since the last update, coins are not awarded for completing a puzzle pack. And I’ve searched and searched and can’t figure out who to send a request to! Crosswords are always a good way to pass the time. This game is easy and straightforward. I just wish there was a way to know if someone accepted or rejected your invite.