A few years ago, newspapers and magazines were the best places to solve crosswords. But time changes and smartphones take all the functions of printed media, including the function to provide challenging crosswords. Today, the best crossword puzzle games are available on the Play Store and App Store so that you can install and play them on your handheld device.
Playing crosswords becomes quite easy with these apps. Basically, it works much like manual crosswords. The only difference is on how you input the letters, in which these apps use keyboard instead of handwriting. Keep on reading to find out the best crossword puzzle games for smartphones and tablets.
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Best Crossword Puzzle Games for Android and iOS
There is a long list of best crossword puzzle apps for Android and iOS. But if you seek out the prominent ones in graphics, controls, user-interface, and gameplay, these apps are worth trying. Most of them are free unless written differently.
1. Little Crossword Puzzles
Despite this app having different names on Play Store and App Store, Little Crossword Puzzles or 5-Minute Crossword Puzzles is the same. This game is developed by Second Gear Games and has been downloaded over 100 thousand times. It brings crossword game experience to the next level, thanks to a number of features that come with it.
In this app, you don’t need to scroll or zoom in since the puzzles fit the display. With black background, you can see puzzles and words more clearly. Simply skip to another one and come back later if you cannot solve some crosswords. For your convenience, this app supports three different languages, including English, Russian, and French.
2. CodyCross: Crossword Puzzles
This crossword puzzle game is the editor’s choice on Play Store and it has been downloaded over 50 million times. It offers a new experience of solving crosswords that allows you to challenge yourself, thanks to countless puzzles coming with it.
Whether you want to exercise your brain or simply need to kill time, CodyCross is a great app to play. In this app, you can discover beautiful worlds with different themes. This can also be a perfect tool to show your language skill.
3. NYTimes – Crosswords
Do you want to play classic crosswords game on your smartphone? New York Times Crosswords is the answer. This app delivers puzzles with classic newspaper style that takes you back to old times. This tool is launched by The New York Times Company and it allows you to enjoy unlimited access to daily puzzles. Never get bored!
Other highlight features brought by the app is mini puzzles that are great to warm up. These puzzles are available every day. You can also try themed puzzles and collect them. NYTimes Crosswords offers a 7-day free trial and subscription. Once you subscribe, you will get access to puzzles anywhere. In addition, this app provides hundreds of minis and classic puzzles for subscribers.
4. Crosswords
With more than 5 million downloads on Play Store, Crossword becomes one of the best crossword puzzle games. This app is developed by Stand Alone, Inc. and it comes with a boast of new puzzles every day. To help you solve the puzzles, you are allowed to view clues, get hints and track how you have been improving.
Crosswords app comes with a number of features, including detailed info, touch and hold to view hints, ink or pencil options, US and UK cryptic, and many more. Once the crossword is solved, post it and compare it with other players. If you want to enjoy more content, this app offers an upgrade that gives new puzzles every day and downloads new puzzles in the background.
5. Crossword Light
If you are looking for a crossword puzzle game that offers classic puzzle but don’t want to spend a dime, this is an app to opt. This game enables you to play crossword on smartphones or tablets with Android or iOS platforms. The best thing is that you can find a wide selection of puzzles from different newspapers every day. Choose your favorite newspaper and solve the puzzles!
Crossword Light is a light version of Crossword game created by the same developer. It comes with 40 new puzzles to improve your competence. There are some convenient features to help you work with each puzzle, such as view clues, get hints and track your improvement. This app is available for free. If you like it, upgrade to the full version that offers unlimited puzzles from a lot more sites.
6. World’s Biggest Crossword
Download this app and challenge yourself with the biggest crossword puzzle ever. World’s Biggest Crossword by AppyNation brings a new crossword every day with hundreds of original puzzles you can try out. Improve your puzzle-solving skill with more than 10,000 unique clues and a couple dozens of quests to accomplish.
This crossword puzzle app offers eight different game modes. With World’s Biggest mode, you are able to explore a giant grid with more than 350 puzzles. There is also World’s Tallest mode that brings 100 extra-large puzzles with longer words and more challenging clues. And if you want to know some fun facts, choose Fact of the Day mode. This app can be downloaded for free on Play Store and App Store.
7. Crossword Puzzle Free
Are you looking for a crossword app with high ratings? Crossword Puzzle Free is a name to mention. This fun yet challenging app lets you solve a wide selection of crosswords without a subscription. Despite it is free, this app is able to deliver the best puzzle-solving experience on Android and iOS devices. Thanks to a well-designed interface and fresh content delivered to users.
There are many things to love about this app. It has a Smart Look Up feature that allows you to get suggestions when you find tricky clues. There is also multi-word entry hints that helps you find out if an answer has more than one word. And the best of all, this free app offers offline mode that enables you to play crossword puzzles without an internet connection.
8. Clean Crosswords
Clean Crosswords is another best crossword puzzle game with a unique user-interface. This puzzle game tool is designed for Android and iOS platforms, so you can enjoy solving crossword puzzles on smartphone. As it is written in classic British English, it offers different experience from other game apps published for both operating systems.
In this app, the clues are written in the puzzle grid instead of in a different section. This design gives a unique look, at the same time it makes the puzzles easy to see and play. Not to mention the classic black-white grid that is familiar to your brain. Clean Crosswords can be downloaded for free and it offers in-app purchases for additional product items.
9. WordBrain
Enjoy different levels of fun with WordBrain. Whether you are a crossword expert or newbie, this app offers engaging crossword game for Android and iOS. It has a multitude of crossword puzzles with 700 different puzzles. Get to know in which level you are and improve your puzzle-solving skill with an attractive user-interface.
This app claims that it can keep your mind sharp as it combines crossword and scramble. To play the game, you need to connect the grids and transform random letters into meaningful words. Much to our surprise, this free game supports 15 languages. Not only can you play with letters, but you can also play with any language that you know.
What makes it more interesting is that the game feels easy at the beginning but becomes challenging as you try. When it gets harder, don’t panic. You have to believe that every level can be solved, depending on how much you try. Besides, you can also use hints for a little help. This app is available for free and with subscription.
10. Wordscapes
This is a great app to train your brain. Wordscapes by PeopleFun is able to improve your IQ by way of exercising the brain with word game. It has a wide selection of unlimited crossword puzzles, random letters and hidden words. Not to mention you can unlock stunning lands for a relaxing sensation. If you love to challenge yourself, this game is worth trying.
What does it offer? Wordscapes lets you escape from your daily routine and take you to beautiful destinations. Additionally, this app allows you to show off your vocabulary power by finding hidden words. With more than 6,000 crossword puzzles, enjoy hunting words and improve your skills.
This app is downloaded over 10 million times and gets high ratings on Play Store. If you are interested, download and install this game on your Android or iOS device for free. It also offers in-app purchases to upgrade your puzzle-solving experience.
11. Cryptic Crossword
Cryptic Crossword is another popular crossword puzzle game that helps exercise your brain through smartphone. Whether you are a beginner or pro, this app brings a lot of excitement to solve puzzles. The free version has 24 puzzles to accomplish and interestingly, it is ad-free. Meanwhile, the full version lets you solve 260 professional crosswords with a higher level of difficulty.
Developed by Teazel, this fun app comes packed with a number of features. Once installed on Android or iOS smartphone, you can learn more about the app from the tutorial. It comes with a pinch feature that allows you to zoom in the grid for a better view. Besides, there is also a resume button that enables you to resume the game.
Do you need a little help? Share a clue and let your friends help you through email, Facebook, Twitter and other social network platforms. Other good things that come with Cryptic Crossword is high-resolution graphic and 3 keyboard choices.
12. Penny Dell Crossword
This crossword puzzle app is just perfect for all ages. It offers daily puzzles with different levels: easy, medium, and hard. You can play this game with kids or parents and experience how exciting it can be. Penny Dell Crossword offers a free sampler collection that contains 12 crossword puzzles to get started. Although it is free, your gameplay won’t be interrupted by ads.
As you can see from the name, this app features games from the best publisher of crossword puzzle magazine, Dell Magazine and Penny Press. With this app, you can enjoy fun puzzles right from your mobile device.
There are many features to improve your crossword puzzle-solving. Try a hint feature that will show the current letter when you need a little help. Or, you can decide to use a pen or pencil according to your confidence in answering the clues.
With many best crossword puzzle games to download, challenging your brain becomes more fun and easier. Have a good time with friends or family and solve the crossword puzzles. Which app will you download?
