Words With Friends Classic Reviews

by Bed Deb 2012

Used to be you could play the daily word and try and score 201 points in 4 words or watch a video and get 4 more tries. Now, the daily word game is 1120 points. For 2 days you had as many tries as it took. Now, they changed something again and you only get 4 tries to make 1120 points. How jacked is that? You can watch a video (when they are working and not just spinning and spinning waiting for something to pop up and get another 4 tries. I didn’t bother after I saw how many dam videos I’d have to watch to get to 1120 points. There is always something messed up on WordsWithFriendsClassic. I’ve been playing this game since 2011. I love this game except for the trolls thinking it’s a match site. Seems like every time they add some new game or prize, something else gets jacked. It has NEVER worked right on any one day. Please fix ur issues. It’s a fun game which I enjoy playing everyday. And, when you add or change something, test it out before it goes on line. 🙄🙄🙄🙄. Twice now my reward for level 6 and 8 showed 400 coins. I got zero. NOTHING FOR A REWARD.

by Jute352

When I got my new iPad I down loaded the new version because I couldn’t transfer the older one. It gave me no access to my old games and after multiple attempts get help to figure out how to do so without any response, I gave up and went back to my old iPad. Today an alert popped up stating that I can no longer continue playing without upgrading to a new edition. I’ve been playing this game for several years and I’m frustrated that I have no opportunity to contact people with whom our games have been abandoned. Furthermore, as others have noted, the newer versions have constant interruptions with meaningless bonus, awards etc.
I love the game and the vehicle it’s been for staying connected with older family and friends....those most socially isolated. It’s time to look for other, more reliable options.
Another example of the issues with the software: It asks for a nickname, I’ve been trying to give mine which I’ve had for years. It won’t accept it because it’s “already Taken”. Of course it is, it’s mine. Now I need to come up with a new one to post this😬

by ArtGirl17000

Update Dec 2021: No change. Kroger, you are killing me. You were my childhood grocery store and I loved you. I hate your recipe ads and will never watch that or any others. Ridiculous. And now WWF, you have put a banner at the top and I can’t see the score. Knock it off please.

The game itself, I’d give a 5. It’s fun, good to have a touchstone for friends far away, and unknown friends. But OMG, the ads are ridiculous. There are now TWO-MINUTE ads in the game, over and over and over again. Playing the solo 12 level “find a word” games, it takes 25 minutes to play. 1 minute for the game itself and 24 minutes of ads. Really WWF? Really? I won’t speak for anyone else, but these days I have the attention span of a gnat. The 30 second gross and repetitious Gardenscapes ads now seem like a nanosecond. Who does this? And advertisers, if you can’t say it in 15 or 20 seconds, then get a better marketing firm. You are being played. Maybe I watched 40 seconds the first time, but after 6 times in a row, it’s mind numbing insanity. I now play WWF and read a book at the same time. So thanks for that. Advertisers please reconsider...a solid 20 second ad will grab my attention, 2 minutes in a game ruins all credibility or desire to purchase your products. I wrote this over a year ago and now it’s happening again. Knock it off advertisers!

by Babs Toyfish

My god, what has his app become? It’s insanity, the obsession with piling in more junk, rewards, coins, stickers, “claim” all your rewards, ugh! I just want to play the word game, I don’t want to spend 20 minutes every time I open the game “claiming my rewards”. The past couple of versions have been so bad, so SLOW. You have to individually “claim” like 20 “rewards” for every 10 minutes you spend playing the game. And each “reward” comes with about a 10 second lag before you can “claim” the next one, and in between them all you have to watch more never-ending animation while your idiotic presents jump around the screen. I don’t care about this stuff, it’s annoying, and it’s absolutely taken over the game. WordsWithFriendsClassic has become a nightmare for anyone over the age of 5 or with an IQ over 50. If you’re going to make all this deranged reward stuff mandatory to play the game, and make us spend half our time in WordsWithFriendsClassic clicking on unnecessary annoyances, at least fix the lag so it doesn’t freeze up the screen every time.

by Jkl3341vv

I was forced into words with friends 2 several years ago by the apps constant hounding, and it gradually became overloaded with junk games within games And it slowed to a crawl as they take a minute to congratulate you for each spurious word completed, or other task completed that has nothing to do with the game.
So when it was accidentally deleted, and I found I could revert to classic words with friends, I was somewhat hopeful. However I now find the classic words with friends is only marginally less cluttered with junk, and almost equally slow. Not only that. it now has a new feature. Every now and then they force you to start a game with a cartoon character. Apparently they’ve forgotten that the name of the game is words with friends and not words with artificial intelligence. I’ve managed to keep going despite all the handicaps because I do value my few long term series with some of my friends,
but I honestly believe that the management of WordsWithFriendsClassic is now in the hands of people who don’t understand it. I gave it a one only because apparently you can’t give it a minus 1.

by RiRi2U2

After the last iOS update two weeks ago, WordsWithFriendsClassic will not work on my iPad or iPhone. My games will not refresh at all on any platform. The daily challenge is the only one that works. There is no phone tech support. The in app tech support is terrible. They give me the same options that are already posted everywhere, as though I would need to contact them if my issues were that simple. Once I’m contacting you, my issues are beyond those solutions. By then almost a week in including a game refresh which still doesn’t work. Love playing the game, although hands down all of the new stuff should be a totally separate application that you choose to use, not shoved down your throat. It’s a turn off, the changes that have been made. The classic original is still the preferred game and should be an uninterrupted option. I love the game. More games should be offered than the 56 cutoff. Customer support/technical support is lacking and terrible. 2.5 weeks now, and I’m still unable to play my games, with no idea of when this issue will be resolved. Obviously an upgrade is due for compatibility with the new iOS update, but no one seems to be listening. Therefore one star from me.

by Mika-el

Can’t leave less than one star

More bad news. Not only are these guys shoving so many ads down our throats that we can barely play the game, but they aren’t even interested in making the game work properly. The Word of the Day solo play feature never allows me to complete the day’s challenge. I get 4-5 words into it and it suddenly tells me that it can’t do something and then disappears. The challenge is gone and cannot be completed or restarted. More sloppy programming from people whose only real focus is shoving advertisement down your throat. Run screaming the other way! I expect the ads shoved down my throat constantly trying to get me to download other games they offer which do the same thing… basically it’s 30% playing and 70% dodging ads. What I did not expect was to be presented ads which advertise claiming to be someone else (scam), offer products for a charge of $1-5 to cover shipping, and then instantly be charged several high dollar amounts forcing me to close the credit card! If you WWF does business with scammers on its site, then they are the same sort of bottom feeding scum as the scammers! Run the other way!!

by Wild Ruby

Where to begin? I guess it’s my fault for expecting that this game was Scrabble or a reasonable facsimile. I am an avid Scrabble player and take pride in my vocabulary. Imagine my shock when all of a sudden words that ARE NOT WORDS began to show up as accepted by this game. And imagine my even BIGGER shock when I looked up these so called words in the game’s definition section and find that AT THIS TIME WE HAVE NO DEFINITION FOR THIS WORD BUT WE ARE WORKING ON IT.....huh? And the skip your turn option with no penalty? And the option to see where you can make the best play? Why bother playing at all? I have told my friends who play with me that if they are using those options, cross me off their list. I do not use them ever. And as for some doozy “words” my friends come up with....they tell me they throw everything at the wall to see what sticks. Oh, fun. So why do I play? Oh I don’t know.....bored I guess. If anyone else feels like I do, there’s real Scrabble at a site called Word Biz that is an Internet Scrabble Club and is true Scrabble. I play it on my computer and it’s awesome. One more thing....I find all the non-game interruptions annoying. I know I can delete WordsWithFriendsClassic anytime I want but I do enjoy the actual strategy of playing a straight-forward game with no “help” options. One more observation.....how can a word be a word if it has no definition?

by No Gift Cards Here

I’ve been playing word with friends for several years now and have never had a complaint. In fact I enjoy the game very much. My complaint comes when recently I’ve been trying to get into my word with friends app and everything appears to be opening as usual until I get nothing but a blue screen and nothing will happen. I finally give up and try again later. Except later I get the exact same thing. This has gone on for a couple weeks now. I’ve lost all my stats and power ups, everything I’ve worked to gain. I have 40 games that people probably think I’ve just abandoned. I’ve tried to go back to App Store and get words with friends 2 ....... different game and all my information from the the version didn’t transfer. I’m unbelievably upset and therefore wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who wants to play long term. There is no number to contact anyone. There is no email to contact anyone. Because I cannot get into WordsWithFriendsClassic there is no support to chat with. Everything just lost. If I could give lower than 1 Star right now I would do so!

by Reinequalite

I agree whole heartedly with Yellowbugnana. However I am not rating the ap anything more than a one star because I don’t think choosing no stars is an option. All I want to do is play scrabble with my friends. I can’t stand all the junk running in the background and the waste of time it creates in between moves. I don’t want treasure boxes. I don’t want to play with random virtual opponents. I don’t want congratulations. I don’t want to have Zynga-imposed goals. Yuck. I don’t want to buy the option to swap without passing or any other cheats. I wrote to Zynga, without any response, obv, suggesting offering players the choice to play with or without all the sparkles, treasure boxes and other mindless clutter, the option, as it were, to just play the straight game of scrabble. I too, paid for the ad free version, which I agree, with another reviewer, because the ads were so, so, aggressive. I’m not judging those who like treasure boxes and mindless clutter and sparkles. I just want the option to play just plain scrabble with my friends who want the same. There I’ve said it.

by Smmom2020

I have had WordsWithFriendsClassic on and off since 2012 and never when I played in previous years did I experience what I have since I downloaded it a few days ago. Many players start a game and typically are not high scorers, they begin to chat innocently enough such as thanking me for playing. I am okay with this or a great word or great game. These profiles have been men and want to know if I have children, where I am located, and if I have a significant other. When I state I am not interested in discussing my personal life and am only here to play the game two have them asked for my Gmail account as if I didn’t say I wasn’t interested in any discussion. These are huge red flags to me for hacking or possible information for something dangerous. I would feel more secure and better if the chat option was more used with pre-populated phrases for encouragement. This is not a dating site and I am uncomfortable being quizzed regarding me, my children, and my location. Be safe on here for sure!

by Jhfdyjbkkgdc

I’ve really enjoyed WordsWithFriendsClassic until recently. I prefer to play solo because I notice how some people you play use the cheats and it doesn’t seem fair. I prefer not to and that’s my choice just like they have their choice. So I usually play solo games. In the last month the solo challenges have changed. It used to give me at least one free replay a day because it was a free game every six hours. That was their goodwill allowing it. Not anymore. I can watch a video for 15 tokens when it takes 30 to play a game and it’s only 4 per day. So I can play two games a day now. It’s really unfair and I’m not willing to pay for more tokens. It’s clear why they did this. People don’t mind waiting and they said no way. Plus to win the challenge they added about 5 more rounds of six games each so I have to beat 32 rounds. 32 rounds plus 30 tokens each I’m sorry no way am I playing. Really unfortunate when they change things so drastically. It was fun but I’ll find another game I suppose.

by 1919virginia

I played the solo games and got all the way up to the very last solo expert challenge giving me 45 points and higher levels and bonuses. I worked very hard to achieve this goal. After each game it said wait five hours to play the next game, so every day I would wait the time required and move to the next solo game. Imagine my shock and frustration when I opened the game to play the very last solo expert challenge and it was completely GONE! It took me all the way back to the very beginning of the first solo challenge! Talk about mad. I had no way to contact the developer. I felt scammed and I haven’t played a solo challenge since. No explanation, my progress had just disappeared and I was back at the very beginning again! In addition to that, sometimes when I play WWF my screen goes blank and I have to shut down completely and then turn it back on, as if refreshing or resetting it. That nonsense has happened a lot. Again, no way to contact developer. I have cut way back on other players. If I have to be the one that always starts a game, I drop them. The game is addicting, like a habit, but it’s not the same game I started with over eight years ago. Very disappointed!

by SG45.

WWF used to be really fun because of the simplicity of playing with friends with nothing to pop up except for 5 to 10 second ads. Ever since an update a couple months ago now there are more ads that are usually 30 seconds. Not only that but they added these “improvements” and challenges that interrupt matches. I like the idea of challenges but I don’t like the fact that they are forced to be reviewed and waste a good 10 to 15 seconds of your time just so you can see you completed them. And the last thing I have to complain about is that the game has been freezing my entire phone almost every other match. This is the only app that I have that does that and I have an iPhone 8 Plus. I don’t know what you did to your game in the last update but fix it because I am tired of my phone freezing for minutes. The only reason I haven’t deleted your game is because I still want to play with friends but your latest updates are really wanting me to delete your game and never touch it again because you guys have screwed it up really badly. The fact that you’re getting two stars is just out of pity Due to the fact that the game is still fun to an extent...

by Stewart_J

The free version of this game doesn’t just have ads. Ads I could deal with. The free version of this has horrible, mind-numbingly idiotic 30 second animations designed by psychologists to cause MAXIMUM anger and frustration on the part of the user. Every time you play a word you are BOMBARDED WITH THESE INANE cartoons that have a 30 second countdown and no way to avoid them. It is SO OBVIOUS that these were designed to torture the user into opening their wallet. Games like this should come with a warning: “the free version of this game is not actually a game. It is an instrument of TORTURE designed to either 1) drive you insane, 2) cause levels of blind rage sufficient to cause you to throw yourself under a bus, or 3) get out your credit card and give them anything they want to make the torture stop.

The sad thing is, once you turn off all the ridiculous settings that make the game behave like a Vegas slot machine, and if you take enough sedatives to get you past the barrage of garbage in between plays, the game itself is actually extremely good.

by Laurenkel4

Why is it that the developers have only addressed bug fixes and technical issues that other reviews have mentioned... but have not addressed the issue with the creepy men/scammers that start a game with you, and a few turns in start messaging you asking personal questions and to chat in another messaging app!? This is incredibly frustrating! The moment I tell them “No, and that I’m simply just trying to play a game,” they stop playing and I’m stuck waiting 10+ days for the game to resign itself. This takes up a valuable spot where I could be playing someone that actually wants to play. I recently muted one guy and was still able to see his messages anyways! THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED! And by fixed, I mean GET RID OF THESE PEOPLE!

Not only are the scammers and creepy men an issue, but the amount of ads and pop ups are ridiculous! Honestly there’s so much going on within WordsWithFriendsClassic , so much clutter, and has all these dumb daily goals and mini challenges that it’s hard to navigate WordsWithFriendsClassic . I can care less for any of that stuff, I just want to play the game against friends or others. Get rid of this junk! I’m going to need to find another app to play on if this doesn’t change soon!

by Artist Engineer

I have played & enjoyed WWF for years. Along the way, I have had to lose playing time to wait out or work around many irritating “improvements”, & fend off many ways to cheat.
You frequently interrupt the game to say I’ve accidentally “accomplished” some pointless side goal not my own, & then make it impossible to get back to the game without tapping “great” for something I despise. I feel especially jerked around by that last thing. “Great,” It is not.
Just now, I got put through a new diversion involving leveling and pages. It took so long to find a way out that I began to think I had been expelled from WWF. As a final insult, to get out of its teeth, I had to tap “Great!”
I value the player contacts I’ve made, and I enjoy coming up with words, so I keep playing; but is it really not possible to opt out of the irrelevant time-wasting crap? I know I am not the only adult playing this game. There are many who would welcome a clean version like you once had. Please consider it.

by SS Hart

This game has always allowed cheating. You can try using words you don’t know without penalty. You can see the tiles your challenger has at the end of the game. Etc.
But now you play against people who can swap letters without losing a turn, and you’ll never know it. We all have played games where we end up getting crappy letters the entire time. It’s frustrating, but it’s the luck of the draw.
I don’t think it’s too much to ask of the developers to have matches where you agree to not use swap + and other cheats that you can purchase. Everyone who plays a game should have the same rules. (I realize they want to make money from these cheats, but the relentless ads should be making them money too.)
The game has speed games and solo games with separate boards already. Just add a true WWF classic mode that doesn’t allow paid cheats. It’s not that much to ask, if you want to keep all your customers happy.
At this point, I’m going to stop playing with real people and just play the solo mode. Or maybe just stop playing altogether. That means much less ad revenue for them, when they could just allow another format instead.

by SalMineo

Words with friends used to be fun. The online game was similar to the Scrabble game played on a board. Over the past few years it’s gone on a downhill slide. Paying players seem to be forced to a child’s version of the game (WWF 2) that dumbs down the game and causes adults to give it up. When you opt to receive the classic WWF, as I did, elements of new, dumbed down version creep into the classic version.

Now because I have a new phone, the classic version seems to be unavailable to me and I must subscribe to WWF 2. I won’t do it. I will discontinue any and all WWF applications until WWF Classic is restored for those of us older than age 12.

Am I alone on this? We must all tell the company that we need to be able to opt for the Classic version. If WWF continues to make it difficult to receive the unadulterated classic version, I, for one, will opt out, just as many of folks I’ve played over the years have already done.

by Yellowbugnana

Years ago I paid for the ad free/contest free version of wwf because all I want to do is play the game. You added these so called ‘enhancements’ without asking for my permission. I am so sick of playing a word and then having to wait for all the stupid ‘congratulations, you’ve made the word of the day’ or ‘your new word of the day is...’, which actually turns out to be the word of the hour when I play multiple games a day. I want you to remove all the extraneous junk from my games please. What I paid for is the game, not all the dumb congrats boxes and awards. From reading other reviews, I am one of probably thousands of others who are not happy with your so-called improvements. It seems to me that either you remove the ads and silly boxes of awards, congrats, and other things we didn’t pay for or we are all owed our money back. Of the 2 choices, I prefer you remove the junk so that I can play wwf without interruption. I’m giving the game itself 4 stars because by itself, it’s almost a perfect game. Thank you.

by Nicofabulous

I’ve been playing WWF since before Zynga bought them, which was around 9 years ago. Not crazy about the changes they make that try to force us to purchase coins to buy things we formerly earned. Thank goodness I was grandfathered in with my original ad-free games that I bought. Also not crazy about the WWF 2 app that they try to get us to download being displayed front and center on the classic app. Lastly, I really don’t like that they took away word strength when playing the solo challenge masters. That’s really annoying. And another thing re solo challenges, since they give us stars for earning a certain score (up to 3 stars for 200 points), I think we should get something extra when we score 250 points or more.
I really do like the classic game and will continue to play, but I do not appreciate the things they’ve taken away, especially from long-time players.