Apple News+ launches clever new ‘Emoji Game’ for iOS 18.4 and later

Apple is expanding its collection of Apple News+ Puzzles with yet another new game. This time, Apple is tapping into something we all know and love: emoji.

The new Emoji Game was initially announced as part of iOS 26 at WWDC. The game, however, is now rolling out to all iPhone users running iOS 18.4 and later as well as iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4.

Apple explains that Emoji Game “challenges players to use a selection of emoji” to fill in the blanks of short phrases with as few moves as possible. Results can be shared via Game Center, Messages, Mail, and other apps. Emoji Game will also integrate with the Apple Games app coming later this year as part of iOS 26.

Emoji Game utilizes Apple Intelligence and Genmoji. Some of the emoji characters you’ll see throughout the game were generated using the Genmoji feature; they aren’t just normal unicode emoji characters.

Here’s Apple’s full description of Emoji Game:

Emoji Game challenges players to use a selection of emoji — including Genmoji created using Apple Intelligence — to fill in the blanks of three short phrases using as few moves as possible. Each phrase is accompanied by a clue, which the user can choose to reveal, but that will count toward the player’s total number of moves.

Results can be tracked on Game Center leaderboards, or shared with friends and family through Messages, Mail, social media, or other platforms. Subscribers can access daily and archived Emoji Game puzzles in the Puzzles section of the Apple News app. Apple News+ subscribers will also be able to access Emoji Game this fall through the Apple Games app, an all-new destination designed to help players jump back into the games they love, find their next favorite, and have more fun with friends.

The Emoji Game joins Apple’s other puzzle games, including the crossword, the crossword mini, Quartiles, and sudoku. Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News:

“Emoji Game is the perfect addition to the Apple News+ suite of word and number puzzles, turning the emoji we use every day into a brainteaser that’s approachable and fun.”

New Emoji Game puzzles will be released on a daily basis. The game is available in the U.S. and for English-speaking users in Canada.

Apple News+ is priced at $12.99 per month. It’s also available as part of the Apple One Premier bundle for $37.95 per month and can be shared with up to five people.

9to5Mac’s Take

Apple is quickly building a robust set of daily games and puzzles, rivaling the likes of The New York Times. The biggest problem with Apple’s implementation of its puzzles, however, is discoverability.

My bet is that most Apple News+ subscribers don’t realize that their subscription includes access to these daily puzzles. As mentioned earlier, the “Puzzles” section of Apple News+ is located under the “Following” tab of the app. I’d love to be able to customize the tab layout to include a dedicated “Puzzles” tab in the navigation bar.

Perhaps part of Apple’s thinking is that discoverability will improve once the new Games app debuts as part of iOS 26. I certainly hope that’s the case, as the Apple News+ Puzzles truly are excellent.

Do you play any of the daily puzzles in Apple News+? If so, which one is your favorite? Let us know down in the comments.

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