Apple’s Latest Daily Puzzle Game: The Emoji Edition of Wordle

Oh man, so it’s World Emoji Day. Or something. Anyway, guess what Apple’s done to mark the occasion? They’ve rolled out this new game on their Apple News+ app in the U.S. and Canada. It’s like a puzzle game, but with a twist — you do it with emojis. Yeah, you heard that right! You drag little pictures into sentences to complete them. Super logical, huh?

Apple cooked this up themselves — internally or whatever. Makes it game number five in their Apple News+ puzzle collection. Yeah, there are others: Crossword, Mini Crossword, Sudoku, and something called Quartiles, which apparently came out last year. But this Emoji Game? That’s the odd duck in the lineup, especially because it’s all built around iOS stuff.

I can’t help finding it kinda interesting — every day, players, or should I say you-too-lazy-to-read-actual-news folks, get a fresh puzzle. You get a bunch of emojis, and boom, fill in the blanks! Let’s say it’s Disap_ _ _ _ and there’s a pear emoji just chillin’. You’d pop that in to make Disappear. But, oh, plot twist — that pear? Could basically mean anything, like “fruit” or something else entirely.

Then, they throw these curveballs, making you solve crazy multi-word phrases. Imagine trying to crack _ _ _ _ _ _ Year _ _ _ k with a fish and a ghost. Simple, right? Well, drag the ghost, make it Yearbook (‘cause ghost, boo, you get it!), and the fish is used for “school.” voila, you get School Yearbook. Seriously, it might seem like rocket science sometimes, but hey, there’s a hint button if you’re desperate.

And here’s a sneaky bit: it uses iOS 18’s Genmoji feature. Like there’s this apple emoji, half-eaten, symbolizing “core”… creative or just confusing? Your call.

One thing’s for sure, Apple’s eyeing the Wordle crowd hard. Game’s got a daily setup, a backlog dating back to July 1 (that mattered?), stats, streaks, and you can even compete with up to 16 people if you’re that competitive. Six turns to solve, Wordle style. It won’t make you ditch that app subscription, but if you’re already using Apple News+, another little time-waster won’t hurt, right?

Oh, and it’s out now, so if you’ve got iOS, it’s game time on Apple News+. Happy emoji-ing, I guess!