Alright, so it’s World Emoji Day—who knew, right?—and Apple’s got this new thing, a sorta puzzle game, popping up on its Apple News+ app if you’re in the U.S. or Canada. It’s called, drumroll please, Emoji Game. So, you drag emojis into these blank spaces to, you know, complete phrases. Kind of makes you wonder who comes up with this stuff, but anyway…
Apple’s been busy cooking this up in their own kitchen, making it the fifth puzzle deal for News+ folks. You’ve already got Crossword, Mini Crossword, Sudoku, and the whatchamacallit Quartiles from last year. But Emoji Game? That’s like, got that sprinkle of iOS magic or something—or so they say.
Now, how’s this work? You pop in every day for a new puzzle session, tackling six words or phrases. There’s this lineup of emoji sitting at the bottom, kinda like a buffet, and you plop them into the blanks. Picture this: clue’s Disap_ _ _ _ and you see a pear emoji. Yep, drag it in, form Disappear. But, plot twist, that pear could also mean “fruit” if you play your cards differently—talk about double duty.
Things get twisty when you’ve got multi-word phrases. Like, what’s that one—_ _ _ _ _ _ Year _ _ _ k with a fish and ghost emoji? Spoiler alert: ghost for “boo” in Yearbook and fish for “school.” Ah, School Yearbook. If you’re lost, there’s a hint button. Had to use it, not gonna lie.
Also, not just mixing emojis, there’s this Genmoji thing on iOS 18. Saw an eaten apple emoji making “core” in a phrase. Yep, you read it right—gotta think outside the fruit basket sometimes.
Apple’s totally riding the Wordle wave here—daily puzzles, archives back to July 1, all that jazz. Got leaderboards, streaks, social bits for some friendly competition with up to 16 peeps. It’s like Wordle’s cousin who’s really into emojis. Not sure if it’ll make you grab a subscription, but hey, if you’re already there, why not add it to your daily app-stroll?
So, Emoji Game? It’s out today on iOS via Apple News+. Dive in if you’re curious, I guess.
