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Strands, The New York Times’ very good word search game, has been officially added to the NYT’s Games app on iOS and Android.
For me personally, this is huge. Strands has become my favorite of the NYT’s games since it launched in beta in March, but I was annoyed that I had to bounce between the app and a browser to complete my daily Wordle, Connections, and Strands. Now, I can do all of the puzzles right in the app over my morning coffee. It’s the little things!
Each Strands puzzle has a theme. That theme hints at the words you’ll need to find — including the “spangram” word that spans across opposite sides of the puzzle. Every letter in the puzzle is used for a themed word or the spangram. If you need some help, you can get hints by finding three non-themed words on the board.
Strands is currently the NYT’s “third most searched game, behind Wordle and Connections,” and is “nearly as popular” as Spelling Bee, The New York Times says in a blog post. Most people are actually finishing their Strands puzzles, too: “We consistently see 83% of Strands players finding the Spangram each day, and completion rate is around 81%, similar to the Mini Crossword and Tiles.” Strands will be added to the Game tab in the main NYT app “later this year.”
The New York Times’ games aren’t always hits on the level of Wordle, Connections, or Strands. Digits, a math-based puzzle game, was only available in beta for a few months. At least it had a clever title.
