Red Herring – Blue Ox Family Games, Inc.

Red Herring

Red Herring

Experience one of the top-rated Free games on the App Store, Red Herring! Developed by the innovative team at Blue Ox Family Games, Inc., this Word 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 1st May 2014, the game has seen numerous updates, with the latest version launched on 16th March 2023.

Are you a fan of Word, Puzzle, or Education games? Then Red Herring is right up your alley! You won’t be able to resist its appeal.

User Ratings of Red Herring

Over 42,316 players have rated Red Herring. Join them and share your thoughts!

How Much Does Red Herring Cost?

Good news! You can download Red Herring on your iOS device absolutely free!

Red Herring Release Date

Eager to know when Red Herring first graced the App Store? It was launched on 1st May 2014.

When Was Red Herring Last Updated?

The latest version of Red Herring was updated on 16th March 2023, ensuring a more enjoyable gaming experience for all players.

Where Can I Download Red Herring?

To get started with Red Herring, head over to the official Apple App Store.

DOWNLOAD FROM APP STORE.

A Glimpse into Red Herring

How to play Red Herring:

  1. Group words into categories.
  2. Look out for the Red Herrings, pesky little words whose sole purpose is to mislead you.
  3. Have fun!

Red Herring is a unique new puzzle game. Each puzzle has only one correct solution and there’s no time limit. Three difficulty levels make it suitable for the whole family.

Red Herring is FUN, CHALLENGING, and EASY TO LEARN. Don’t say we didn’t warn you if you can’t stop playing. Give Red Herring a try today!

From the creators of 7 Little Words and Moxie.
Retina and iPad ready. Optimized for iPhone 5.


Red Herring contains 25 puzzles and a daily puzzle that you can play for free. Additional puzzles are available for purchase inside the app.

What’s New in the Latest Update?

Find out what’s new in the latest version of Red Herring updated on 16th March 2023:

Bug fixes.

User Reviews on Red Herring

Looking for more information? Read a comprehensive review of Red Herring below:

One of our all time favorites, for so many years now.


Love it. Good exercise for our brain.


The categories are never repeated. Great game. Fun and frustrating.


Crazy Smart & Talentedmaking the game both FUN & MADDENING A Great break from other games.


We usually delete a game at about 3 months. Not this one! A free game everyday and quite affordable otherwise. Very few ads. Worth every penny. Some lists are obviously, other not. It can stretch our brain with lateral puzzles as well. Very fun, Fun, FUN! You NEED this one!


Great way to pass the time while actually thinking! Love when those asterisks appear – we know Ill learn something new.


Really like the way this game makes us think. Double-takes are fun to ponder. Get hooked and your brain will expand!


Love it Next birthday Ill be eighty, keeps our brain active.


The ads make the game freeze up. We have to uninstall and start over .


We enjoy the game, but most days it is stuck and forcing it to close doesnt work. When we can open it, we often get the message to come back later. We have uninstalled it an reinstalled it many times but that doesnt help.


We enjoy solving the daily puzzles while relaxing, but the ads after each puzzle are annoyingly persistent and pushy. There is too long of an interval before you can X out of them. It would be great if there was a no-ad version of this game instead of having to purchase puzzle packs.


Its very difficult, but much of the difficulty comes from obscure and sometimes archaic words that don’t appear in youthful vernacular. This makes the difficulty feel artificial. The concept of the game is very simple and doesn’t introduce much variety besides the words or categories themselves. Every puzzle you either know or you don’t, and thinking longer doesn’t feel rewarding compared to other puzzle games. By far the worst part is the hints require ads or money. It does allow you to just retry the puzzle at a lower difficulty, but that does trivialize the puzzle. But it’s also a somewhat ugly game with a few bugs (such as tiles getting stuck). If you’re looking for a word game, I’d recommend sticking with word cross.


We really like this game and have been playing it forever. But we wont be playing it any more because, instead of opening to the play option, it opens to a pre-played game, and when we then click on the back button, the buffering circle continuously plays. We have to turn off our iPad and restart. TOO MUCH TROUBLE. Fix it, and Ill start playing again.


We havent been able to play a daily puzzle for almost a week now. Terrible!


We paid $2.99 for unlimited hints and now we found out each new pack costs $1.99 each and you cant get rid of the ads. Ridiculous! Give us a paid option to remove ads and we might reconsider our rating.


This was one of our favorite games … Until the ads. Can’t even buy your way out of them, and they are many and annoying. Really takes the fun out of it because they just never end. Ruined a great game.


Play this and have a wonderful time. Play at your pace, with three levels and no timer. We dont fish, we dont eat fish, often, dont even boat, but this design is nice.


We do this puzzle as part of our daily brain starter. Best stimulation that we know to kick start the old grey matter.


We have played for the ears and would give 10 stars if we could. We love it!


Its a great challenge like playing this game.


Its a unique and fun game! Would be better if a purchase came with a few more free games or if the package were a little less expensive. But great anyway!!


We love mind games. We like the fact that the level of challenge can be changed. Once we a great while we have no knowledge about the clues. After struggling we have adjusted to the easy level.


We absolutely love this game. Its almost impossible to do the hard level alone but we love to sit with our family and try to solve it. Its great because everyone brings something different to the table and its fascinating to see how different everyones brain works. We have one person read the words and another looks up words we dont know. Its great to play at large family gatherings because all the generations see the puzzle differently. We would love to see a version with simpler words for younger children. We could see this being a great way to get kids into reading more. Learning the definitions to the words is key. Would be great on a road trip with older kids and adults.


The Red Herring app will not open in our new iPad. Black screen, small x in very upper right hand corner. Works on our phone-?


We cant get past the pick your topic. We liked the old game better.


This is a very fun game, and it runs smoothly. But… 1. Oh, the ads. Why not allow the user the option to purchase a no-ad version? 2. How about one discounted price to buy all the puzzle packs?


The game itself is greatno issues there. However, the ads are too much, and they detract from the overall experience. We would be willing to pay a one-time charge just to remove ads.


Annoyed by ads. Deleted once we learned ads remain after premium purchase.


Within the first set of free puzzles, theres a lot of confusing puzzles that just dont make sense. Like for instance, Im on a puzzle right now where one of the categories is bovine (cow). For options if answers, there cow, zebu, yak, bison, and ox. But somehow, ox isnt an answer. Even though an ox is bovine. And in the same puzzle, precipitation is the category with the possible answers of drizzle, sleet, snow, hail, and rain. But somehow, rain isnt an answer. When rain is literally water falling from cloud, the most well known word relating to precipitation. We’ve noticed a lot of these instances in just the free version, where there are answers that clearly fall under the category, but theyre the red herring words. We also find it very odd that each puzzle onward costs $2. We’ve never seen a game put such a high price point. Usually games will have a free version, and a $5 version. We just dont see how theyd expect people to pay for +$40 for the full game.


We’ve been playing forever but the app has started freezing up which means we have to reboot. Contemplating deletion. Its a pain.


Why is tidy, which is almost always an adjective on its own, listed as a housekeeping task, but the more common dust isnt?


Fail. Dont hold us up with ads AFTER we pay you for premium content. Period.


We like the app, but it sometimes freezes up for days at a time.


This game requires that you think creatively.


Very stimulating brain exercise.


Challenging categories fun would recommend!!


We loved playing this game. However, after the first tier of games it costs $1.99 for each tier after the first one. We do not have even that small amount to keep playing. The people working have extra cash at hand and may be able to continue playing, but not Elders on Disability or SSI. That’s a shame. You have to provide for yourselves, we understand. This game could keep elder minds sharp (if we could pay for it…..) The sudden increase in prices last month, (September 2022) has left us with no extra money and hard put to pay our normal bills. We are sorry to have to leave this game.


We start each day playing Red Herring. We love it when we solve the puzzle with no help/easy level. Its a great way to get the old brain working.


We’ve been a devoted Red Herring player for over 10 years. Its part of our morning routine. Its perfect for word association addicts.


Helps keep our mind sharp by making connections to like objects, people, and events!!


Keeps your brain sharp, give it a whirl and try it!


Great game! Play every day and love lt!

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