Josh Wardle’s word game, Wordle, may have just moved to The New York Times, but even before the move, the game caused a massive internet explosion. Wordle is everywhere, flooding all of our social media posts, but that’s something to take solace in. Wordle provides a healthy distraction from all of our daily anxiety. A reprieve where the rules make sense and hard work can pay off.
It’s not just the game’s puzzle-solving premise that caused such a spike in popularity. It’s more that everyone is trying to solve the exact same word puzzle each day, with new puzzles to unravel daily, and everyone can brag about their results. Wordle is a shared experience amongst the masses, which has helped drive its popularity. It’s a puzzle game that offers straightforward rules and fun bragging rights that anyone can take part in, which coincidentally has sparked tons of conversations globally. Perhaps by accident, Wordle has got it all.
Of course, given how hot Wordle is currently trending, people have begun making clones. But these Wordle app listings aren’t the real deal. The game you’re looking for is hosted directly on The New York TIme’s website; this is a web game, after all. Thankfully, it’s a progressive web app, so if you’re looking for a seamless app-like experience, we’ve got you covered. Our guide addresses how to install the Wordle web app on your Android phone, how to play, and most importantly, how to share your results with friends and family like a pro.
Getting started
While a native app doesn’t exist for Wordle, the next best option is pinning the progressive web app to your home screen for an app-like experience that launches just like a native Android app.
How to install Wordle on your Android phone
Warning: If you’ve been playing elsewhere, such as a different mobile web browser and/or other devices, to preserve your streaks use this URL.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Navigate to Wordle’s homepage https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html.
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- Click the three vertical dots in the upper right to access the overflow menu.
- Tap on Add to Home screen > Add.
- Tap Add again in the secondary pop-up to finish; Wordle is now on your home screen.
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Understanding Wordle’s gameplay
Wordle’s premise is relatively simple: you’re given six attempts to guess a 5-letter word, with new words to guess every day. After each attempt at guessing the word, the letters in your word will offer hints to solve the puzzle. If a letter contains a green background, this means you guessed the proper letter in the correct spot. Anything with a yellow background indicates you’ve guessed the correct letter, but it’s in the wrong spot. And finally, letters with gray backgrounds are not in the word at all, which means you can skip them in your following guesses. This adds up to just enough clues throughout six turns to figure out the word of the day.
How to play Wordle
- Navigate to your home screen and open the Wordle web app shortcut.
- Wordle’s ruleset box pops up. Once you’ve reviewed the rules, close the ruleset box to get to the gameplay.
- A blank 5 x 6 grid is displayed. Each row is where you’ll enter your word, starting at the top. New attempts start in the following row.
- Using your keyboard, enter any 5-letter common word and tap Enter. Each letter in your word gets highlighted (green, yellow, and gray) along with the corresponding keys on the keyboard. Use these clues to guess more 5-letter words. Keep the green letters where they are, move the yellow letters to new spots before they turn green, all while avoiding any gray letters. You have a limit of 6 guesses.
- If you guess the correct word, the entire row is highlighted green. You’ll see the word ‘splendid’ once you’re done. Congratulations, you’ve solved the daily puzzle!
- To play more puzzles, you have to wait for the daily reset, as there is a new puzzle daily. Once you get a streak going, a box keeping track of your stats displays on the screen along with the reset timer.
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Remember, Wordle uses common words. Your first word should include as many common letters as you can; vowels are your best friends. Picking a starting default 5-letter word that hits the criteria helps immensely. Don’t forget duplicate letter possibilities, but leave these for your later attempts. If you’re ever stuck, open the web browser and search a word list to help get your gears turning again.
How to share your results online
- After solving a word puzzle, you can post your results online by tapping on Share.
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- Tap on Share to access more options. You can directly choose an app to post your result or copy the text to post anywhere. Your results only show colored boxes – so no worries about potential spoilers or leaking personal data.
- Alternatively, you can screenshot and crop your stats box and upload that as an image instead.
A look into Wordle’s future
Wordle has been acquired by New York Times. As you might’ve already guessed, this acquisition by a large company might not bode well for Wordle’s future, as some people have already lost access to their stats in the move, though there is a workaround to preserve streaks by navigating to the game through the old URL. There’s also a lot of concern that the free-to-play structure will be replaced by a paywall to experience the full game.
Right now, you can retain a free-to-play experience by downloading the webpage’s HTML file for offline use (like adding the Wordle shortcut to your Android homescreen, explained above). While this method works smoothly on PC and iOS, your offline experience may vary on Android.
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