Solve puzzles in Apple News on iPhone

In iOS 17.0 and later, Apple News subscribers can solve daily crossword and crossword mini puzzles. In iOS 17.5 and later, subscribers can additionally solve Quartiles puzzles. Nonsubscribers may be able to play a few puzzles for free.

Note: Puzzles aren’t available in all countries or regions.

View the Puzzles feed

To view the Puzzles feed, do one of the following:

Tap Following, then tap Puzzles.
Tap Today, then tap the Puzzles group.

Follow the feed for a puzzle type

After opening the Puzzles feed, tap Crossword, Mini, or Quartiles; tap ; then tap Follow.

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

Choose a puzzle

Apple News subscribers can solve crossword, crossword mini, and Quartiles puzzles. You can choose to solve new puzzles or puzzles from the archive. Crossword puzzles have a difficulty rating—easy, moderate, or challenging.

Go to one of the following areas to find a puzzle:
- the Puzzles group in the Today feed or Best of News feed
- the Puzzles feed
- the feed for a puzzle type (crossword, crossword mini, or Quartiles)
Tap a puzzle to open it.

View puzzle stats and streaks

New in iOS 17.5 is the Scoreboard found in each puzzle feed. Here you can see your current streak—the number of consecutive days you’ve solved the daily puzzle—and your longest streak. The Scoreboard also provides statistics for each puzzle type—the number of puzzles solved, for example.

To view the Scoreboard, choose the feed for a puzzle type, then swipe up.

Conditions that affect stats and streaks 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.

Compete with others in Game Center

In iOS 17.5 and later, you can compete against friends and other puzzle solvers in Game Center.

Go to Settings > Game Center, then sign in to Game Center.
Return to the Settings screen, tap News, then turn on Game Center.

Your score for the daily puzzle is submitted to the leaderboard for that puzzle type in Game Center. Your score for crossword and crossword mini puzzles is the time it took you to solve the puzzle. For Quartiles, your score is the number of points you’ve earned.

View past puzzles

Do any of the following:

View puzzles from the archive: Open a puzzle feed, then swipe up to view the most recent puzzles in the archive.
View the complete crossword and crossword mini puzzle archive: Open a crossword or crossword mini puzzle feed, swipe up, then tap next to Archive. You can also tap , then choose Crossword Archive or Crossword Mini Archive.
To show sorting and filtering options for the archive, tap . You can sort all archives from newest to oldest or oldest to newest. You can filter the crossword archive by completeness and difficulty level. You can filter the crossword mini archive by completeness only.

Get Puzzles notifications

Tap Following, swipe to the bottom of the screen, then tap Notifications & Email below Manage.
Turn on notifications for Puzzles.

Remove the Puzzles group from Today

In Today, swipe up to Latest Puzzles, then tap .
Tap Block from Today.

When you block Latest Puzzles, the group no longer appears in your Today feed.

Helpful?

iPhone User Guide