Apple’s New Emoji Puzzle Game Is the Perfect Daily Brain Teaser You Didn’t Know You Needed
Apple has just launched a fresh daily puzzle game called Emoji Game, now available on the Apple News+ app in the U.S. and Canada. If you’re into word puzzles and love emojis, this might become your new daily habit.
- What Emoji Game is and how it works
- How it fits into Apple’s lineup of puzzle games
- Why it feels a lot like Wordle
- Where you can play it
Emoji Game: Apple’s new twist on word puzzles
To celebrate World Emoji Day, Apple rolled out Emoji Game, an original word puzzle where you fill in missing words or phrases by dragging emojis into blanks. Each day brings a new challenge with six phrases to solve. You get a selection of emojis at the bottom of the screen, and your job is to figure out which emoji fits where.
For example, if the clue is “Disap_ _ _ _” and you see a pear emoji, dragging it in completes the word “Disappear.” But it’s not always that straightforward—some emojis can represent multiple meanings. The pear could stand for “fruit” in another puzzle, so you need to think creatively.
More than just single words
Emoji Game also challenges you with multi-word phrases that require a bit more brainpower. One puzzle might show something like “_ _ _ _ _ _ Year _ _ _ k” and you have to use a fish and a ghost emoji. Dragging the ghost into the second word cleverly creates “Yearbook” (using the ghost for “boo”), while the fish stands for “school” (a school of fish). The final phrase? “School yearbook.”
If you get stuck, each puzzle offers a quick hint to nudge you in the right direction.
Apple’s puzzle lineup just got more interesting
Emoji Game joins Apple’s existing daily puzzles: Crossword, Mini Crossword, Sudoku, and Quartiles (introduced last year). What makes Emoji Game stand out is how it’s designed with iOS features in mind, including support for iOS 18’s Genmoji. In one puzzle, an eaten apple emoji was used to represent the word “core” — a clever nod to Apple’s own branding.
Feels like Wordle, but with emojis
It’s clear Apple took inspiration from the Wordle craze. Emoji Game has a similar daily puzzle format, keeps track of your stats and streaks, and even lets you compete with up to 16 friends for high scores. The goal is to solve each puzzle in six turns, mirroring Wordle’s challenge level.
While Emoji Game may not be a dealbreaker for subscribing to Apple News+, it’s a fun distraction if you’re already part of the ecosystem and enjoy daily brain teasers.
Where to play Emoji Game
You can start playing Emoji Game today on any iOS device through the Apple News+ app, available in the U.S. and Canada. If you’re a fan of daily puzzles and emojis, this one is definitely worth a try.
