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iPhone User Guide

Find puzzles in Apple News+ on iPhone

If you subscribe to Apple News+, you can access daily and archived crossword, crossword mini, Quartiles, sudoku, and Emoji Game puzzles. Some puzzles may be available without a subscription.

Note: Apple News, Apple News+, and puzzles aren’t available in all countries or regions. See the iOS and iPadOS Feature Availability website.

👁 The Puzzles feed in the News app.

View the Puzzles feed

  1. Go to the News app 👁 Image
    on your iPhone.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Tap Following, then tap Puzzles (below Sections).

    • Tap Today, scroll down, then tap the Puzzles group.

Follow the feed for a puzzle type

If you want quick access to a specific type of puzzle, you can follow that type.

  1. Go to the News app 👁 Image
    on your iPhone.

  2. View the Puzzles feed, as above.

  3. Tap Crossword, Mini, Quartiles, Sudoku, or Emoji Game.

  4. Tap 👁 the Follow button
    .

A Puzzles category appears in Following, with the puzzle types appearing below. To make them favorites, tap Edit, tap 👁 the Add Favorite button
next to a puzzle type, then tap 👁 the Done button
.

Note: If you subscribe to Apple News+, you can automatically download puzzles in the Puzzles feed and puzzle type feeds to play in Offline Mode.

Choose a puzzle

  1. Go to the News app 👁 Image
    on your iPhone.

  2. Go to one of the following areas to find a puzzle:

    • The Today feed

    • The Puzzles feed

    • The feed for a puzzle type (crossword, crossword mini, Quartiles, sudoku, or Emoji Game)

  3. Tap a puzzle to open it.

Crossword and sudoku puzzles have a difficulty rating—easy, moderate, or challenging.

You can see more past puzzles in each puzzle type’s complete archive. Scroll down in the puzzle type’s feed, then tap 👁 the Right Arrow button
next to Archive.

Tip: To sort or filter a puzzle archive, tap 👁 the Filter button
.

View puzzle stats and streaks

In each puzzle feed you can find the Scoreboard. It includes:

  • Statistics for each puzzle type—the number of puzzles solved, for example

  • Your current streak—the number of consecutive days you solved the daily puzzle

  • Your longest streak

  1. Go to the News app 👁 Image
    on your iPhone.

  2. Choose the feed for a puzzle type, then swipe up.

Conditions that affect stats include the following:

  • If you use the Reveal command to show all or a portion of a puzzle, the puzzle won’t count toward your stats, and completing the puzzle won’t start or continue a streak.

  • Puzzles you complete on a device with iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, macOS 14.5, or later count toward your stats. Any puzzles you played on older OS versions don’t count toward your stats.

  • After you open the News app on a device with iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, macOS 14.5, or later, any daily puzzles you complete on a device with an earlier version of the OS are added to your streak. For example, if you complete Monday’s crossword and Tuesday’s crossword on your iPhone with iOS 17.5, and then solve Wednesday’s crossword on your iPad with iPadOS 17.4, your streak is extended.

  • Users in the continental U.S. and Canada must complete a puzzle within 24 hours of its publication for it to count toward a streak. Users in Alaska and Hawaii get an extra hour or two; they must complete the day’s puzzle before midnight local time.

  • To start or maintain a sudoku streak, solve at least one of the current day’s sudoku puzzles of any difficulty level without revealing answers.

Your stats and streaks stay up to date on all your Apple devices where you’re signed in to the same Apple Account. Go to Settings 👁 Image
, tap your name, then tap iCloud. Tap See All (in the Saved to iCloud section), then turn on News.

Compete with others

To compete against friends and other puzzle solvers in Game Center and the Apple Games app, you need to also turn on Game Center in News.

  1. Set up your Game Center profile.

  2. Go to the Settings app 👁 Image
    on your iPhone.

  3. Tap Apps, then tap News.

  4. Turn on Game Center.

Your scores appear on the leaderboard for each puzzle type in Game Center. Sudoku has a leaderboard for each difficulty level.

You can also challenge friends to solve crossword, crossword mini, sudoku, and Emoji Game puzzles. See Play together in the Apple Games app.

Share a puzzle

You can send a link to another Apple News+ subscriber so they can solve the puzzle too.

  1. Go to the News app 👁 Image
    on your iPhone.

  2. Open a puzzle.

  3. Tap 👁 the More button
    ,     tap Share, then choose Messages, Mail, or another sharing option.

Your answers aren’t shown, but the following information is shared for completed puzzles:

  • Crossword, crossword mini, and sudoku: The time it took you to solve the puzzle

  • Quartiles: Your rank

  • Emoji Game: The number of moves you used to solve the puzzle

Thanks for your feedback.