Words With Friends – Word Game Reviews

I love this game and I’ve been playing for years but I’ve found WordsWithFriends gets more and more annoying. I just want to play the game. I don’t need all these added features like power ups and rewards. I just want to play a word game. I do like the solo challenges. They are a fun way to practice your skills when you’ve completed your games with actual people but other than that I’m not a fan of any of the new features. In the latest update the power ups are much more forced on you. I would rather lose a game than win with power ups though. The point of the game, in my mind, is to get better at making words with higher points. It’s a game of skill and the power ups kind of ruin that. In the new update, after I get through a few levels of the solo challenge it makes it so in the next game there’s a bunch of extra triple and double word squares. Again, I just want to play the regular game. You don’t need to improve on what is already a great game as it is. It was better when it was simple. It also asks if you want to send a sticker after every move which I don’t think is needed because you could send that through the chat if you wanted. I just think it would be better if it was kept simple. Also I find WordsWithFriends to be slow and glitchy but I don’t mind that as much as all the unnecessary extra stuff.

I have been playing WWF for many years. Please, take this rolling suggestion of which game I should play next, away! It is so very annoying! I am capable of picking the next game to play since I prefer to pick my own order. Currently I have about 56 games going, so I believe I can make that decision myself. Also, this latest update slows down my rhythm, having to wait until the opponents words displays slowly, one letter at a time, and only then can I see my available letters. When I’m playing back and forth , live with my opponent, it’s distracting to have to wait. Please give us the option to do away with the suggested next player. Now you’ve added all the extra bells when forming a word Omg, the noise is distracting, slows the game down and is redundant, we already had the thing that acknowledged an acceptable word! Then all the extra steps to get to the dang rewards. We don’t need all the new flashy bells and whistles. With all the extra time it takes now, just waiting for the bells to stop, I’ll have to cut back on the number of games I play. Probably the majority of people playing this game are adults and don’t need the flashy stuff to encourage us to play anyway.

The new version of the game features “power ups,” three options to give you an advantage over your opponent. “Hindsight” shows you the best move you could have played in a round, which may be available to you in the next round. “Word radar” shows you were you can play on the board for the current round. “Swap and play” enables you to swap letters without losing a turn. You can earn these advantages or buy them. Your use of these advantages is NOT transparent to your opponent. Moreover, may use these features repeatedly throughout the game. If you repeatedly use the swap and play feature, it is almost impossible for your opponent to get quality letters. You are no longer using your skills to compete against your opponent, you are using these advantages to win. The new features are enabling rampant cheating and sadly it now seems to be the norm. I can see maybe allowing use of one advantage during a game, but that should be transparent to your opponent. There is no opt-out to the new features and I simply do not want to play someone who is cheating. And why should my earned stats be given the same weight as someone who purchased a win? The new features of Words With Friends have driven me away from the game. Sadly, I doubt Zynga cares about enthusiasts like me, because they are certainly making a lot more money off of the new features.

We have been playing Words with Friends for a long time now and we evidently enjoy the play or we wouldn’t waste quite so much time at WordsWithFriends . We do find that the WORDS DICTIONARY contains words that do not appear in the other dictionaries and that the WORD DICTIONARY doesn’t contain some actual words that do appear in the WEBSTER DICTIONARY, for example.

Even if a word is recognized as a word, it should not be allowed in play if it has no meaning. Fact is, it shouldn’t be recognized as a word at all. It is only a group of letters that no one can pronounce and that fits into a space. Scrabble rules should be more of a guideline perhaps.

Updates have cluttered WordsWithFriends with a bunch of meaningless activity and worthless prizes. I know, its all for fun but all the extra stuff just makes WordsWithFriends less convenient to navigate. Regardless, we engage the Solo Challenge and find it quick and challenging but the distribution of letters sometimes stinks and the computer persons we play against surely come up with a lot of trees and vines and bugs and stuff from millions of years ago. Maybe they are in the dictionary but, if they aren’t, even the WordMasters shouldn’t be allowed to play them.

I’ve been playing this game forever. Nothing secret or magic about it, it’s essentially Scrabble. That part of WordsWithFriends works well and is worth 5 stars. So why the 1 star? Two reasons. First, you will NEVER find an app with as many annoying “pop-ups” in the middle of gameplay. The most frustrating part of that is that these popups aren’t even Ads. They are game announcements of new “gifts” and “rewards” that I’m willing to bet the overwhelming majority of users don’t care about. We want to play Scrabble. Period. I don’t care how many useless purple gems I’ve gotten for completing something I didn’t know I was playing and don’t really want to play. I want to play Scrabble. That’s why I downloaded WordsWithFriends . Second problem... FIX THE SOLO CHALLENGE. This entertaining portion of the game, which essentially pits you against AI of increasing difficulty, is fun. When it works. Which it doesn’t anymore. Ever. For weeks now. Just gets stuck and never clears, even after deleting and reinstalling WordsWithFriends . It’s Scrabble. How the hell did you manage to screw up WordsWithFriends so badly that you got a 1 star review from anyone? WordsWithFriends is like the doughnut shop that decides to start selling pizza too. Stay in your lane and do what you do well!!! Make doughnuts, not pizza and make a simple Scrabble app work!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been playing this game since 2009 and it used to be amazing. I’d keep the maximum allowed ongoing games and thoroughly enjoyed the competition. It was simply Scrabble, one if the most popular board games ever, straightforward in design and challenging just like the beloved board game. So why mess with perfection. The direction the developers have taken over the years has practically ruined this game and I can see by the reviews I’m not the only one that feels this way. The play is slow and all the fluff graphics that’s been added over the years is annoying and slows down play. The expanding dictionary of allowable words that aren’t words interferes with truly competitive play. I now keep a max of 2-3 games going and those are with my significant other and a real friend. I NEVER choose a random player, it’s just not fun anymore. The Solo Challenge was a welcome addition at first but with the recent update, it’s no longer enjoyable. I’m giving 2 stars only because I have such fond memories for the original game. Message to the developers…….just because you can add all the unnecessary graphics and fluff it doesn’t mean you should. I paid for ad-free years ago and would gladly pay again to get the original version back.

I like words with friends and it’s a great game. But on two different occasions, when different opponents and I were very close in points and down to our last couple of letters to finish the game, the opponent will play a move and then the game will automatically say game over making them the winner. But I still have one or two letters left which can be used to make words that will make me end up having more points than them. I don’t have an opportunity to play my last couple of letters. Is it a glitch? Are the opponents cheating? In most cases when I’m down to my last letter and there are no words to make then it makes me pass and it says there are no possible words. The opponent have a chance to play or pass and then it will say who the winner is. It’s just a little frustrating when you have words that will cause you to win and you end up losing because you were never given the chance. I have screen shots of the scrabble boards that shows the points before and after I place my last letters down to show that I would have won if given the chance....if it will help the developers.

I love word games, and have played this one for years. Sadly, the quality of the game is going down hill, especially each time changes are made. No abbreviations are to be used, but they allow them. I mean, what is CWM? Had to look it up. But the most frustrating part is when an opponent played a word that when looked up, on the game’s dictionary, was listed as NOT a word, but yet allowed it to be played. This has happened several times.
Daily bonus was 100 coins. I was out for a time due to illness, and found upon return that daily bonus is down to a coin or two a day, with every so many days offering a special item instead. My biggest problem with this, aside from the cheapness of giving a coin or two a day, is that half the time the bonus does not work when you click on it. A message will pop up saying it is not working right then please come back, but the item is checked off and there is no going back for that bonus. It is the 24th of the month, but my daily bonus dots are only on 12, and I click on this every day. This has been going on for some time.
If you just want to do a crossword against others, or a computer, without all the bonuses and such, then this game will be great for you.

I enjoy this game and play everyday. I find
It at time intruding into space set up for me to do other things. Takes some discipline in my part. I enjoy being able to exchange lettters without penalty one time. I didn’t think being able to see spaces available where I could play would benefit but find it does help especially on a challenging environment. I like being able to chat. And presentation after the play to see if I placed my words in the best place or utilized the highest points that turn is fun. The advertisement sometime get stuck and I have to stop playing and turn off the game. I love scrabble but didn’t always have company to play. So I played the board by myself. But words with friends is so much more fun than the physical board of scrabble. I enjoy solo play but gets frustrating when I make real words and the game won’t except. I miss being able to pass the phone back and forth when out with my little ones and engage in a game. Overall I love the game and highly recommend

I loved playing Scrabble with my friends in college so when we moved on and away from each other, we used this to continue playing against each other with. And it was so much fun! Lately, like I’ve read in other reviews, the “showing” of the rewards takes more time to watch through than laying my tile on the board. Ok that’s fine, I still love the game. But when I updated the WWF app last night, WordsWithFriends stopped working?! It looks stuck with the tile turning or saying “loading...” and I can’t access any of my games anymore, ARRGH!! Usually I read the reviews but this time I didn’t because I didn’t expect the WWF app to stop working on me! Please, please fix!!! I really want to continue to play with my friends and other challengers... I really don’t want to delete WordsWithFriends...

* * Updated app two days later with new update and STILL HAVING PROBLEMS!! New update is still not loading??? What is wrong? I can no longer plays this game and am thinking I will need to delete this and find another word game. So disappointed that this new update does not work at all.

* *UPDATE #2- folks having issues try deleting WordsWithFriends and downloading it again- it seems to have worked for me as all my games are still there along with my data, yay!

All the new features are really annoying and detract from the fun of the game. Problems were not fixed with all the new bells and whistles, and new ones were introduced.
Notifications. Sometimes you get notified that it’s your turn, mostly you don’t. The badge icon hardly works so you never know how many games are waiting.
Opening WordsWithFriends . When you first go in, it seems to randomly choose one of your games and presents as your turn. But it’s just the one game. The “Next” button isn’t active even when you have several games waiting. I now immediately exit this game. Then I see my list of active games, and the “Next” button is presented as I take each turn.
Finishing. When you complete a game, you’re given an opportunity to start a new one with that player. If you do, after you make your first play, you click “Next” and it takes you back into the game you just completed even if you have several others waiting. And they still haven’t fixed the problem of prompting both the winner and loser to start a new game, even after one of you already has! What’s up with that?! Often you end up with multiple games with the same player. So annoying.
I want to like this. I love the challenge of Scrabble. But this is no longer fun.

I have played this game for 10+ years. I paid for my original version, which Zynga no longer supports, thus effectively taking my money and not delivering. That is known as fraud. The original two versions of the game did not have all the crap this game now contains. I do not want to be rewarded for their arbitrary milestones, nor do I want to play games within games, nor do I want to see coins and party boxes flashing in my face. Additionally, the crap they have added now causes the games to move at a glacial pace, many times freezing when you are trying to place letters or not responding to a PLAY command. And the ultimate challenge, which occurs at least once a day, is that the game is so incapable of keeping up with the speed of play that it simply collapses. The screen blanks out to white, freezes and is not recoverable. The only way to get it back is to shut down your device and reboot. This is a clear indication that they have built a game without the industrial strength to handle all the crap they have built into it. I play with approximately 8-10 people. We ALL experience this BS. Some people I played with have quit WWF and gone to Word Chum out of frustration. Congratulations Zynga, you really have succeeded at turning a good, well-liked game into a piece of garbage.

The AI cheats in solo challenges creating words that have no definition or isnt a word you can look up on WordsWithFriends , it says word does not exist. So how is it able to play some made up jumbled mess of words. All long creating 60+ points to gain a huge advantage over the player. Also takes up all the triple word spots leaving you nowhere decent to play while the AI takes credit for the huge amount of points over you. Same with all the player 2 player games the new hints and button to show where you can play gives most others a way to cheat or a way to just pay 2 win over everyone else. They can use as many as they want. I liked the original version of WordsWithFriends. I still enjoy it but the AI is weak and has to take cheat shots at you to win. I do not like or agree with the fact the AI can use fake made up false words racking up a large lump sum of points to give you a low/zero chance at winning or beatung them fairly same with using 3x triple point tiles leaving you with bad letters and no tiles for points. Fix your app maybe we would enjoy it a little more and make it fair. Shouldnt have to play AI 5+ times to win as a skilled player. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But it’s mostly adults that play! Add an OPT OUT function to turn off the time wasting, meaningless animations, forced “challenges” and “gifts” garbage. Latest revision has, “...New rewards and boosts”?? Has Zynga seen the recent low rated reviews at all? Why does Zynga think they shouldn’t allow an opt out? It could satisfy everyone. Or, put all that silly stuff into a “Words With Kids” game version and bring this mainstream game back to one without the silly stuff.

Scrabble was/is always a game that older children, adults and seniors liked to play. Why in the world does Zynga think that in a paid game app they should FORCE everyone to waste time having to wait for these useless “challenges”, badges and other cutesy mindless distractions? Have the creators begun to think they are so clever that the thousands of reviewers expressing their HATE of this nonsense does not matter? Zynga, do you still have a marketing department who can advise on the barbarians at the gate like myself carrying torches? Hello? I shouldn’t say this, but I would rather see little ads at the bottom than this garbage. Be considerate and add an Opt Out feature in the controls section. Or don’t be considerate and charge yet another 99 cents for ad-free AND garbage-free game version.

When consumers (like myself) paid for the ad-free on apps then we don't get it anymore. That's what has happened to WWF. Developers are given a new way/opportunity to gouge users out of money by altering WordsWithFriends , whether ever so slightly, or totally rebranding the same app then rip users off by forcing us to pay AGAIN for things we already had. Only this time at higher prices since the demand & popularity of their apps. All of which has been established due in large part to OUR (the consumers) commitment (use), feedback & help debugging (opt-in end-user licensing) their apps, in turn, growing their companies to enormous size & wealth. Requiring repurchasing is nothing short of online fraud. Re-selling the consumers a product/service they already had, but thanks to sneakily written end-user licensing agreements, which we’re FORCED to accept to use our devices, they can freely change the rules/game as they see fit.
#FarFromFairMarket #VirtualThievery

Love playing the game. The problem is most of the men are looking for more than a game. I feel like I’m always warding off guys who “ want to get to know me better.” Then when you tell them you just want to play words, they quit playing. That’s irritating. There are other sites that they can find “relationships”. Please be respectful. Say hello and move on and play words. Please. It’s making me want to sign off this game. I challenge you to put some females you know on this game and you will see. They are like wolves. If you don’t engage and give them your personal information and email they get mad and resign. COME ON. ITS A GAME. GO SOMEWHERE ELSE FOR LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS. I love this game but I’m about to resign permanently. I played this game a few years ago and it wasn’t like this. I’m tired of feeling like I have to tell my life story to play a game. This is not a dating site. I think you need to put that in your description of the game. I had 4 guys resign this morning because I don’t give my personal information. PLEASE GUYS GO TO A HOOK UP SITE WHERE THE GIRLS ARE WANTING TO “GET TO KNOW YOU BETTER! PLEASE. I hope you check this out. It makes it very uncomfortable to play.

I’m tired of losing games when I still have viable options. This happens with opponents and in practice games. Not only does it say game ended when it has not, it takes away the points from your last play. So if I had 376 points before it gave away the game to my opponent, it’s now saying I had 356 with 4 letters left still sitting in front of me showing me multiple plays. It’s ridiculous and it’s happened 4 times now. I even have screenshots of this. One of me putting in a word after it tells me the game has ended and having it amount to 38 points which would have allowed me to win the game. WHAT IS THIS GLITCH?! It messes up stats and all. Also what about when you try to play a word and it’s invalid but others can play that word? This is BS. I also agree with all the other crap I’ve read in reviews, words that aren’t valid in any dictionary but valid here yet says “definition not available yet” in your OWN dictionary? Obsolete words used back before any of us were born but words used today in current dictionaries unable to be played? All these crappy, childish ads? Who is this game for? Obviously our voices and opinions aren’t cared for, and it’s such a shame because these companies are built on our backs.

Love the game and play it a lot but I do have a couple of beefs:

1. What’s with the dictionary? It accepts words it says are,valid words but it doesn’t have a definition for them. Some of these words are accepted on some games, not others. It also doesn’t accept perfectly good words that are in every English-language dictionary on the planet except, it seems, this one. Who writes this dictionary, anyway? And do they even speak English? There used to be a feature where you could suggest words and provide a definition. Not any more, or it’s so well hidden no one can ever find it.

2. Yeh, I know that some people don’t just want to challenge themselves to play word games, they want all kinds of gew gaws to play with, win the game for them, boxes flying around that give you the right to do whatever for extra jollies. Nice that you provide other stuff for them to do. But some of us find these annoying and distracting and would REALLY REALLY appreciate having a way to TURN THEM OFF.

I like the word game slot . I wish the pay amount was less when your striving to swap letter.
There is one big problem. It seems that many of the men on here are scammers . I have encounters about 5 of them . This scam is on the Nigerian scam which these black men impersonate white men who look like business men and start off telling you how beautiful they are . Then it escalates to talking w u everyday morning and night ! They act like they like you but In Reality they want you to invest your money which I found out is the Nigerian scam .
Also when I thought something was wrong I went to a physic and yes she said I was scammed by these men. Then I went to the local police and they agreed it’s the scam ,!
So can you possibly prevent these men from coming on this site because they are ruining our lives? They have American names and have 3to 4 digits after their name . They also want u to hangout on ksngout w your email address and they plY very little on the game and talk a lot !! Help us women not to be scammed . Thank you

I agree with those who expressed their disappointment lately. After a long time of playing I’m about to give up. The game has lost a lot of its challenge with all the two letter words now allowed that are not legit words. They are abbreviations i.e. allowing the element table and other similar abbreviations. Stick to scrabble rules like you did when you started! Also solo puts a word in the game and then when you look in the dictionary it says definition not known and that they are working on a definition. The other day in solo play they put in the word MAGA. Why are they politicizing this game and it’s not even a word. That one really made me mad. Also I can’t delete old games which really slows down the play. Old games pop back up repeatedly and slow down play. I delete and close out and at least 10 are back up and are the same ones that I just tried to delete. Plus they say I lost (solo games) and when I go in and check it is clearly the other way and I won. I downloaded the new version at their suggestion and it is worse than ever so I went back to classic. Wish someone would pay attention to all of the other bad comments and put it back to a fun game.

I’m tired of losing games when I still have viable options. This happens with opponents and in practice games. Not only does it say game ended when it has not, it takes away the points from your last play. So if I had 376 points before it gave away the game to my opponent, it’s now saying I had 356 with 4 letters left still sitting in front of me showing me multiple plays. It’s ridiculous and it’s happened 4 times now. I even have screenshots of this. One of me putting in a word after it tells me the game has ended and having it amount to 38 points which would have allowed me to win the game. WHAT IS THIS GLITCH?! It messes up stats and all. Also what about when you try to play a word and it’s invalid but others can play that word? This is BS. I also agree with all the other crap I’ve read in reviews, words that aren’t valid in any dictionary but valid here yet says “definition not available yet” in your OWN dictionary? Obsolete words used back before any of us were born but words used today in current dictionaries unable to be played? All these crappy, childish ads? Who is this game for? Obviously our voices and opinions aren’t cared for, and it’s such a shame because these companies are built on our backs.

I have been playing again for a short while. (Had stopped playing for a couple years.) During this short period back, this game has disappointed me several times. I have tried to play a couple words, which are actual words, some of which the Words With Friends dictionary even defines, yet the game tells me that the word is not valid. The dictionary even shows that other people have played the words through their “highest scoring play” section. Seriously??!!!?? I reported the issue and the first rep said they would make note of it... uh, thanks, but that doesn’t help my game play... Guess it’s time to stop playing this game again.

***UPDATE: After a couple more plays with valid word rejections, and additional correspondence with the support team (who provided no beneficial information, solution or resolution), I decided to try other versions of Words With Friends. Low and behold, Words With Friends 2 seems to be allowing words that were rejected in other versions. So far I’ve confirmed one was accepted.
If this older version of WordsWithFriends is not going to function properly or be updated, it should just be retired. Smh