Crossword

Review by eFreeware

The most distinctive thing about this crossword app is what it does not do: there are no ads anywhere in it. The app offers a set of 750 puzzles pitched at casual solvers, and the whole experience is built around sitting down with a grid for a few minutes rather than being interrupted by something else on screen.

That framing tells you most of what you need to know about who it suits. If you like a crossword with your coffee, on a lunch break, or in the quiet stretch before bed, this is the shape of app you are looking for. It is not trying to be the hardest puzzle book on the store; the developer describes the puzzles as casual level and suitable for all.

What you get for the price

The headline number is 750 puzzles. In practice that is a long runway of gentle solving: at one a day it covers roughly two years, and at a more relaxed pace considerably longer. There is also a Resume button, so an unfinished grid can be picked up later instead of being abandoned.

The recent update added daily puzzles, which changes the rhythm of the app a little. Instead of working through a static archive at your own speed, there is something new to turn to on a given day if you want it. For anyone who likes a small ritual around their crossword, that is the more interesting half of the feature set.

The trade-off is that this is an app with in-app purchases. I would treat the purchases as something you can decide about later, once you know whether the puzzle style agrees with you.

Solving on a touchscreen

The mechanics are the parts that decide whether a crossword app is pleasant or irritating, and Teazel has covered the obvious ones. The grid supports pinch zooming, which matters on a phone where a full crossword grid is otherwise a cramped thing to tap. There is also a clue list view, useful when you would rather scan the clues as a column than hunt around the grid.

Three keyboard choices are offered, which is a small detail that tends to matter more than it sounds. People who solve quickly have strong preferences about letter entry, and having options means you are less likely to fight the app on every square.

Preferences go further than the basics: you can set letters to jump, have mistakes highlighted, and grey out clues you have already completed. Each of those changes how forgiving the puzzle feels. Highlighting mistakes, in particular, turns a crossword into something closer to a guided exercise, which fits the casual framing.

Help, hints and sharing clues

Cheats and answer checking are built in, so a stuck square does not have to end the session. I would expect that to be the feature that keeps less confident solvers going, since it removes the risk of a puzzle sitting unfinished for days. Used sparingly it is a nudge; used freely it turns the app into something more like a quiz.

There is also a share option for individual clues. That is a neat way to hand a stubborn clue to a friend without photographing the grid or typing it out. It is the closest thing here to a social layer, and it is deliberately light.

One thing worth flagging for privacy-minded readers: the app requests internet permission, which the developer explains is there so Teazel can pass on news about its other products.

Phone, tablet and everything in between

The developer calls out tablets specifically as a good place to play, and the combination of pinch zoom and a clue list view supports that. On a larger screen you can keep the grid and the clues in view together, which is closer to how a paper crossword works. On a phone, the same tools are what keep the grid usable.

The app has been on the store for a long time, so this is a long-running title rather than a recent experiment. It has a respectable average rating, which suggests the formula has held up over a long stretch.

The casual difficulty means the audience here is adults looking to relax rather than children being challenged.

What kind of solver this fits

This is a good fit for someone who wants a dependable supply of straightforward crosswords and does not want to think about ads. The clue list view, answer checking and mistake highlighting all point the same way: toward a low-pressure solving session that you can stop and resume at will.

It is a less obvious fit for solvers chasing a serious challenge. The developer describes these as casual puzzles for all, and points anyone wanting something harder toward its separate cryptic crossword app, and anyone wanting American-style grids without hanging letters toward its US crossword app.

If you already know which style of crossword you like, that distinction is the main thing to check before buying. If you simply want a large, quiet, ad-free pile of gentle puzzles on your device, the pitch here is clear enough.

A calm pick for casual solvers

I would recommend this to anyone who solves crosswords casually and values an uninterrupted screen. The app offers 750 puzzles, no ads, resume support, zoom, a clue list, three keyboard layouts and enough preferences to tune the difficulty to your taste. The daily puzzles added in the latest update give it a reason to stay installed beyond the initial archive.

The caveats are straightforward. The puzzles are pitched at casual level rather than expert. If those limits do not bother you, this is an easy, well-established option to settle into.

What's new in version 1.73

Daily puzzles added!