For over a year, I’ve been regularly playing all the puzzles that Apple News+ has to offer. After several months of solving experience, there are five feature requests that I would like to see, and I believe adding these features will further enhance the experience and could attract more solvers to play those puzzles on Apple News+.
Advanced Filter on the Archives
Currently, Apple News+ offers crosswords, mini crosswords, sudoku puzzles, Quartiles, and the Emoji Game, and each of those games offers an archive that lets you access and play all the past puzzles. The current implementation of filtering past puzzles is the following:
- Sort by Date
- Completion status (Unplayed, In Progress, or Complete)
- Difficulty (Easy, Moderate, Challenging) [for the daily crossword and sudoku only]
However, that could be a problem when accessing past Quartiles puzzles. When I reached the Expert ranking on a Quartiles puzzle, it would be marked as “Complete.” However, I could come back to that puzzle to continue finding the rest of the words for that puzzle. So to access that puzzle, I would still need to go to the archive, filter to the ones I completed, and then scroll until I find the puzzle I was looking for to resume playing. That would be an even bigger problem if I reached Expert on all the past puzzles, then it would make scrolling to that particular puzzle a chore.
The NYT Games has an archive for Wordle, Strands, Connections, the Mini, the Midi (more on that later), and the Daily Crossword. The way NYT Games implemented the archives is that you can select which month to find a puzzle you were looking for. So if Apple News+ could bring that kind of filtering, that would be essentially helpful to easily find the puzzle from that particular month.
Another Logic Puzzle
Sudoku has been one of the most classic logic puzzles that avid solvers have come to know and love for generations, and it’s been on Apple News+. The New York Times launched its original logic domino-based game called “Pips” last summer, and I’m sure there is a portion of solvers who prefer logic puzzles over word puzzles, as there are so many unique logic puzzles out there. So if Apple could come up with a unique logic puzzle that would still be fun and approachable to solve, that would be a great strategy to attract more solvers.
Larger Mini and Daily Crosswords
For the crosswords in the New York Times, the Saturday mini crosswords are larger (7×7 typically) than the typical 5×5 sizes for the other days, and the Sunday full-size crosswords are larger (typically 21×21) than the typical 15×15 sizes for the other days, the same format for other major crossword publishers such as USA Today. For each day of the week, Apple News+ minis are 5×5, and the daily crosswords are 15×15. What Apple could do is to have weekly bonus larger minis and crosswords (in addition to the existing daily minis and full-size crosswords) for those who love to solve crosswords at a slightly larger scale. After all, Apple News+ does do bonus puzzles for significant events such as the Super Bowl and the Olympics and even those to promote Apple TV original content.
Midi Crossword
Earlier this week, the New York Times officially added the “Midi” (mid-sized crosswords) to the daily cadence. Currently, there’s no middle ground between the always-easy mini crosswords and the full-size crosswords that will increase in difficulty throughout the week. Some people felt that the mini crosswords just weren’t enough, but others just don’t have the time/commitment to solving a full-size crossword, especially the challenging ones on the weekends. So having a “midi” crossword will be the perfect balance for those who want a slightly larger crossword, yet still approachable, or without the extra difficulty that comes from the late-week crosswords.
Some sort of Puzzles-only Subscription
The New York Times offers a dedicated Games subscription (either $6/month or $50/year) that lets you access all features that NYT Games offers, including crosswords, all games, and archives for some games. This is a terrific choice for those who regularly play those puzzles without having to pay full price for the entire New York Times subscription. On the other hand, Apple News+ just has one single plan for $12.99/month, and that gets you access to all the exclusive features that Apple News+ offers. While it is a great value, I still think a cheaper Puzzles-only subscription would satisfy potential solvers who think they wouldn’t utilize the extra features that Apple News+ offers. However, I don’t see that happening anytime soon, given the discontinuation of the cheaper Apple Music Voice plan that didn’t take off particularly well.
Conclusion
The New York Times has continued to grow in popularity with their games, especially with games like Wordle and the creative crossword puzzles they published. and with all of these features mentioned above, I’d think they’ll make Apple News+ Puzzles an even better alternative.
