Crosswords
Experience one of the top-rated Free games on the App Store, Crosswords! Developed by the innovative team at Stand Alone, Inc., this Puzzle game provides a unique gaming experience like no other. With a content rating of 4+, it’s perfect for a wide range of players. Since its initial release on 2nd October 2013, the game has seen numerous updates, with the latest version launched on 3rd January 2022.
Are you a fan of Puzzle, Entertainment, or Word games? Then Crosswords is right up your alley! You won’t be able to resist its appeal.
User Ratings of Crosswords
Over 563 players have rated Crosswords. Join them and share your thoughts!
How Much Does Crosswords Cost?
Good news! You can download Crosswords on your iOS device absolutely free!
Crosswords Release Date
Eager to know when Crosswords first graced the App Store? It was launched on 2nd October 2013.
When Was Crosswords Last Updated?
The latest version of Crosswords was updated on 3rd January 2022, ensuring a more enjoyable gaming experience for all players.
Where Can I Download Crosswords?
To get started with Crosswords, head over to the official Apple App Store.
A Glimpse into Crosswords
"… the definitive source for puzzles for iOS…" — the New York Times
Play the Award Winning Crosswords on your iPad or iPhone, optimized for iOS 12! Each day many newspapers provide their crossword puzzles online; wake up each day to new puzzles, solve them, get hints, view clues, and track how quickly you’re improving!
- Touch and hold a square to view hints
- US and UK Cryptic puzzles available
- Hints, Websites, and Clue lookups
- Enter answers in ‘ink’ or ‘pencil’
- Quickly see your recently played, or sort by date, difficulty or source
- Detailed info on each puzzle
- Post your solve times online and compare with other solvers
After upgrading, you can also:
- Automatically get new puzzles every day
- Access nearly unlimited puzzles from many different sources
- Grab older puzzles with a tap
– Download new puzzles automatically in the background
Upgraded Puzzle Sources:
– Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Weekly Puzzle
– Inkwell Crossword (Archives only)
– Village Voice (Archives only)
– Chronicle of Higher Education (Archives only)
– King Features Crosswords (Joseph, Sheffer, and Premier)
– People Magazine (Archives only)
– Newsday (Archives only)
- Andy Kravis, Cruciverbist at Law
- Glutton for Pun
- MacNamara’s Band
- Murchie’s Monday Fills
- Neville Fogarty
- Puzzle Express
- The Stickler Weekly
- World of Crosswords
Premium Crosswords subscription required:
- Matt Gaffney’s Crossword Contest
- American Values Crossword
- Crooked Crosswords
Providers list subject to change.
— For support, please visit our website at http://www.standalone.com —
Privacy Policy: https://www.standalone.com/legal/
EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
What’s New in the Latest Update?
Find out what’s new in the latest version of Crosswords updated on 3rd January 2022:
fixed ability to use shift-tab to go to the previous clue using an external keyboard.
User Reviews on Crosswords
Looking for more information? Read a comprehensive review of Crosswords below:
The are so many choices of crossword puzzles from various sources that you will always be challenged. We just wish they had the USA Today crossword.
This is our favorite puzzler. We like to know our mistakes as we go – which is a choice you can make. But, the best feature is the navigation through the puzzle. This is just the best we’ve found!
It needs a settings. It needs to make it possible to see errors.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. MY first impression is that this app is UTTERLY FEATURELESS. No error checking except for individual squares. No notice of correct solution. How basic can you get??? We dont understand the high ratings of others and Ill continue our search for a GOOD crossword app.
If you like crosswords, this app is good.
We looked forward to every Saturday evening and Sunday morning to the two best crosswords. Why arent they included? Not planning on going Pro until they are back and included. Thanks.
All interesting crosswords are unavailable – developer has not done homework with original providers. User interface is baffling and much worse than in the predecessor. Dont bother!
Really good crossword app. However, the delete function bounces around erratically rather than just deleting the letter to the left or above. This can be very annoying!
Puzzles are good but needs a couple of features 1. An option to highlight errors as made OR 2. An option to search the entire puzzle for errors. You can only check for incorrect letters within the individual clue.
We updated from the classic version and although we like it the format for the iPhone X, the interface is kinda cluttered and some things dont seem to work. Namely deleting puzzles that Im never going to do. We try to delete all but nothing happens…?
Extremely annoying, having already paid for this app and multiple previous versions on iOS and going back to palmOS. However, we discovered that one of the older versions – also called Crosswords, but with a dated skeuomorphic icon – will actually open . Puz if you download it from safari. Of course if you subscribe to the NYT puzzle, you might as well use their app.
We upgraded today from Crossword Classic, which had stopped downloading the Telegraph 2 days ago. We upgraded specifically to access the Telegraph, which was listed on the app info. Our sign in to the Telegraph wasnt accepted on either our iPhone or our iPad (both running iOS 11.4.1); the sign in works perfectly well on the Telegraph site. Then the option to sign in disappeared completely along with all signs of the Telegraph. The app itself is horribly designed. The original Crossword Classic app, which we’ve used for years, was easy to navigate. This version is absurdbut we could live with it if the Telegraph worked. Either fix the issue or please give us a refund.
The included difficult puzzles are good. The easy ones arent worth the time. After completing all of the hard ones, new difficult ones are few and far between. Maybe 2 per week. Disappointed.
Whatever update you did to make it compatible with X rendered it unusable for anyone else.
The latest version (3.59.5) is broke on our iPhone. The top 2-3 rows are grayed-out with some kind of overlay. We cannot select any squares under the overlay.
We would REALLY like a night mode.
Best crossword app, best variety of free and subscription puzzles from all of the top constructors and publications. Plus open and solve from any standard puzzle file format. Your one stop for delightful crossword solving.
As far as NY Times authentication, it appears that at least one other developer (other than The NY Times itself) allows it, and has recently released an update to re-enable the ability to do so. —— For about a week, we have not gotten any NY Times puzzles. Tried entering our credentials again – and it said the credentials were invalid (or something like that). Odd as The NY Times accepts our credentials. —– Overall, we like this app. It has only one small problem, and maybe not to be noticed by everyone – at times, you will not be able to download old content. In our case, The NY Times Mini, while coming in each day provided we open the app each day, if we miss a few days, we sometimes cannot download the days we missed. But this is a small gripe. It is our go to puzzle app. Get it and pay for premium.
Like several other reviewers, we find the app no longer downloads NYT puzzles. We can get them in the NYT app, which we are not fond of, but not here. Very frustrating!
While we haven’t encountered any outright problems using the latest release, it has introduced a lot of herky-jerky behavior in the UI that sorely needs fixing.
Yeah we know that the developers have to generate income every once in a while and therefore sell an "upgrade" but this upgrade is annoying. It has busy looking distractive quirks. For example if you want to peek at an answer or letter you get an animated arc of choices including Tweet, Facebook and rebus which for the life of us we would never use–in this lifetime. And each time it appears the arc is positioned differently. They also require more precise touch selecting so that you have to touch exactly in the middle of the bar to go from horizontal to vertical and not elsewhere or it won’t work. There are other little annoyances which declare this is not the same as the tried and true Crosswords app, now called Crosswords Classic. We wish they had simply left it the same, no value in this upgrade except that they will likely work on this one while letting the old version languish. One month later: we’ve used this "new improved" interface for a month. The more we use it the less we like it. It’s awkward, unintuitive and disorganized. For example our NYT puzzles stopped downloading–no longer available on this app according to the developer (as requested by the NYT). Can’t find the subscription interface to check the details. It’s a mess and need to revert mostly to the old interface.
As of June 3, we are unable to access/validate our NYT puzzle account. Credentials haven’t changed, and our NYT account is valid, active and paid-up. Annoying.
Good source of puzzles and syncs sometimes but puzzles freeze and can’t go back to other puzzles or settings on iPad. Works great on phone.
Nice app but to many of the crossword sources are archive only. Please get more current puzzle sources otherwise it’s not worth $9.99.
Love this crossword app. Variety of puzzles and updates daily.
It’s finally here! We have been looking for a way to do Crosswords for our whole life, and we finally have it! And a seemingly endless supply! The only reason we gave it four *s is because it will not skip letters. We’ve written about this, and gotten no reply. While the puzzles are still very doable, it’s an annoying bug. Perhaps someone knows of a fix?
The basic concept of this app is very good, especially the sync with paid crossword subscriptions. But the app is buggy, and there seems to be no interest from the developer in fixing bugs despite the fact that the app has been out for several weeks. Bugs include: -app freezes if you switch to other apps and come back – highlighting of multi-word clues is unreliable – bizarre keyboard operation around the c and d keys where the wrong keys frequently get selected – multiple reports to leaderboard – confusing navigation options when trying to look at leaderboards This lack of attention to annoying bugs was also a characteristic of previous versions, and is sad in that if these things got cleared up this would be a five star app.
The ux for finding and selecting puzzles is terrible. Cross device sync doesn’t work half the time. But the puzzles are good so there’s that.
The crosswords are good and plentiful when you can get to them but the app keeps freezing.
So many bugs! 1. No way to "close" a puzzle to return to the "home screen." (Apart from being annoying, that also means your puzzle timer won’t ever stop, if you’re into timing these things.) 2. Settings button closes the puzzle list, doesn’t open a settings window. 3. Changing sort to "Difficulty" (from "Date") closes the puzzle list, then when you re-open it, it’s back to "Date". 4. The link to their GetSatisfaction page (where we could have reported these bugs) is broken, so… Whom to tell? Plus, it’s no better than the old version. Plus, please bring back multiplayer! Best feature ever.
Don’t understand the small format change wherein only a single letter of the current clue is highlighted (instead of the entire clue). Can’t even know now which letter/blank is the one currently in. Horrible. Just useless now.
We especially like the good ergonomics. Works well with built-in keyboard and with a Bluetooth keyboard. Single square reveal keeps you more honest.
Lots of bugs, no indication they’ll ever be fixed. Best game in town for crosswords on iPhone, and that makes us sad.
The app is crashing when trying to download from the nyt.
The just released update renders the app un-useable! Nothing works! Used to be able to touch a column or row and go to that place but that does not work after the update. Can’t get back to the puzzle menu anymore either. Don’t bother with this app until they fix it. Uninstalling it.
Of all the crosswords we’ve played this one has the most variety, one for any level of player. Is very user friendly, we would recommend it to every one. Just love it…
There may be other crossword apps that are better in one thing than this app, but none that are better all-around. Even the in-app puzzle bundles available vary in size and difficulty, and none are very expensive. Some bundles are British-style, which is very different and we wish these were better marked, but most are American style and just the right amount of challenge for crossword buffs. The small glitches here or there (such as when moving to the "next" puzzle and having it blur a bit) have never been an issue, as a simple reboot of the app solves that. Gameplay is smooth and intuitive. Really no major drawbacks whatsoever – pleasing all around.
Cruciverb + pro account = the best.
We’ve been using Standalone’s Crossword app since the Palm Pilot days. It’s intuitive interface, ease of use, features and access to puzzles make this the best Crossword app. If you like NYT puzzles, this app is better than NYT’s official app for doing their own puzzles. The developer actively updates this app and keeps it current. Highly recommended.
We downloaded literally a dozen crossword apps and this is the clear winner.
Love this app, used it since 1.0. When it works, it’s great. When it breaks, it’s a colossal failure. Recently, all downloading and syncing broke (dependent on a server at standalone to download our NYT crossword puzzles). Still recovering.
Excellent, userfriendly crossword app, but there are two main bugs that are irksome. 1) if we use the hint function, return to the puzzle and then tap the timer, it won’t let us return to the puzzle; 2) if we switch puzzles, navigating between sections using the arrows sometimes skips rows/columns.
We use this app every day to solve puzzles. They have a wide variety of providers, from easy to hard. Many are included, but a few require a paid subscription (like the NY Times). The app has a quirk or two, especially in landscape view (which the newer iPads really emphasize), but we have gotten hours of fun from this app.
Much improved. Puzzle sync finally works.
This app still hasn’t reached the level of polish that its predecessor ‘Crosswords Classic’ had. It has some new functionality (like syncing), but other than that it’s an inferior experience. Mostly that’s due to occasional bugs that you will encounter. They are not bad enough to make the app unusable, but do provide minor annoyance at times. A major quirk is that on the iPhone 5S at least, you don’t see the full crossword in view when viewing upright. Even when zoomed out fully, the bottom is hidden and you have to pan up or down. This is true even for small ones like the NYtimes mini crossword. The old app doesn’t have this behavior. This might be due to the fact that ‘Crosswords Classic’ uses its own keyboard which is optimized for real estate. This new app uses the default size of iOS keyboard and this hides much of the crossword. Please bring back the custom keyboard from ‘Crosswords Classic’. Some bugs – 1. On the iPad, the app behaves very buggy when using a Bluetooth keyboard. Turning off Bluetooth sometimes doesn’t bring back the keyboard like it should. You have to kill the app and re-open. 2. Deleting and re-downloading puzzles (via long press on the date) can be buggy. Sometimes puzzles don’t appear to have been deleted, when you actually have. 3. Sometimes when you view info there is no way to get back to the puzzle. You have to kill the app and re-open. In general, the app needs some work. It is one of the best crossword apps out there, but the same developers ‘Crossword Classic’ is still better. That app’s layout it more intuitive and most importantly the keyboard allows you to visually see the entire crossword. Most importantly, the new app needs some major bug fixing. Hope the developer gets round to it soon.
Our new favorite crossword app. There’s always new puzzle to complete and the app is really easy to use. We highly recommend this to any crossword lover!