App Profile: Omni Crosswords

Thetgi

Rating: 4/5

If you’re into crosswords, you should already have this app on your phone. I’d say it’s second only to the NYT crossword app; you get access to 6 different high-quality crosswords a day from several notable newspapers. I would absolutely be willing to pay a few bucks for this app, and I would encourage the developer(s) to create some sort of monetization strategy or donation system so users can support them. The single problem this app has is that its in-game UI is somewhat clunky. When entering clues, part of the puzzle is always obscured, meaning you need to scroll back and forth as you go. Also, I think the NYT interface (in which the cursor automatically skips filled squares) should be an inspiration for future development here. However, I highly appreciate the use of native apple interface features, such as the keyboard. So many apps overlook how this affects user experience, but the dev(s) here totally get it! If the dev(s) could rearrange the interface to eliminate these very minor issues, my review is easily 5 stars. QUICK EDIT: It would also be nice to have optional notifications for individual subscriptions. For example, I like doing the USA Today puzzle and wouldn’t mind a reminder when the next day’s crossword is published.

Jane Mandooface

Rating: 5/5

It’s free, so I can’t really complain. I love that I can do crosswords from different papers and it’s in one app. No ads which is pretty awesome, I would gladly pay for it. However, there are a few things worth noting. I wish there was an area inside the app to submit bug reports. I’ve run into a few issues the past 3 months or so and want an easy way to submit them. I don’t think sharing on the App Store page is great but I didn’t see another way. It kills my phone battery. I am on an iPhone 12 with latest iOS. Working on 2 crosswords kills my battery from 90% to ~50%. Maybe this is an iPhone issue but I also notice my screen gets dark when on this app and I can’t adjust it to be brighter (brightness is already at 100). There seems to be a lot more bugs since last month (early June), e.g. app doesn’t refresh to show new puzzles no matter what I do, some puzzles appear broken and can’t enter text into squares, etc. Just today, 3 crosswords appear twice and I can’t enter text into any of them without it kicking me back to the puzzle list screen. All that said, it’s free, no ads, simple UX, so this is my favorite crossword app by far.

DrRisotto

Rating: 4/5

Is it fair to complain about an app that’s free and brings you two handfuls of crosswords every day? Probably not, which is why I give it four stars. From a content perspective, it’s obviously a five star app. The UI is decent. I wish it would loop you back to incorrectly filled cells when error tracking is on, and that rebuses were supported. Occasionally, the import has something misaligned but that then adds an additional layer of trying to figure out the theme. My main beef—and this would make it a one-star app—is that it needs optimization so badly. My iPhone starts heating up within seconds of launching this app and the battery starts draining at a rapid pace. I’m not a software developer, but I don’t understand how something as simple and not graphics intensive can pull so much power.