Words With Friends User Reviews

Customer Experience

Positive experience30.0% of reviews
Neutral12.0% of reviews
Negative experience58.0% of reviews

~ Based on 50 written reviews from the US App Store.

What users say

Is Words With Friends Safe?

Words With Friends – Word Game appears safe based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for Words With Friends is 92/100.

This assessment is based on 151,261 user ratings, with an App Store average of 4.6/5.

Safety Analysis

91.1% of ratings point to a safe experience
3.4% of ratings suggest some concerns
5.5% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 151,261 App Store ratings for Words With Friends.

Is Words With Friends Legit?

Words With Friends – Word Game is no longer available in the App Store. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Words With Friends is 35/100.

Based on 35 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Score capped because this app is no longer listed.

Top reviews

STOP IT!

2023 Review: Stop trying to trick us into paying for “passes” or whatever! You put these stupid pop-ups in the game where we can accidentally click on them. Almost happened again this morning; I promptly canceled out of “Pay Now”. Also, the waving key at the top drives me nuts! The WWF game itself is fun and enjoyable to play.
STOP THE GREED!!
Previous review: I used to love this word game; however, with each update it gets more bloated and annoying to play. Pure greed on the part of the developers, trying now to push a "points" subscription. I could care less about points, social stuff, or whether I win or lose. I only wish to play a fun word game! Please allow us to opt out of all the other juvenile fluff (exception being playing the AI character, which is cute and fun). Here is a major gripe: Lose the flashing "key" and all the rest of that junk! Some of us actually have a physical condition which makes it super-stressful to have to see this flashing nonsense. It's purely to get us to subscribe, I know. You've been losing stars for several years, Zynga. Next update it'll be down to one?
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TONS of Ads and Pop-Ups

The number of ads and pop-up notifications this game wastes your time with is disgusting, the owner of this is like a slumlord but in the app industry. I’m just trying to spend some time with my Grandma playing scrabble. Each turn you have ads you have to try waiting and clicking through, but most of the time it hits a dead end with an inability to exit out of an ad, and you have to fully close the app in order to make it go away, HUGE time waste relative to any other app I’ve used. So now I usually just end up closing and swiping away the app the moment the ads start. Then in order to see pop-up notifications of your grandma having played her turn, you have to be subjected to about 6 other pop-up notifications per turn, and you can’t select which type of notification to allow. And then you wanna basically allow people to cheat if they pay you enough money (extra no-skip tile swaps, word hints, etc.)? Owners of this app a bunch of moneygrubber dirtbags. But what else am I gonna play with my grandma other than scrapple?
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Glitching & Scamming with $99 charges!

I have 9999+ because I accidentally hit a pop up costing $99 twice in the past 3 years. The very second I hit it (because picking up an iPhone8 is an easy way to touch the hone button) its done with no way out, I actually enjoy ‘earning coins’ & cant imagine why anyone would want 9999+ coins. I try to reverse/undo the tranaction immediately & report it to Apple & my Apple Pay credit card. My card company credits me the $110, and the following month its back on my card. I am a retired teacher on a fixed, no COLA pension. I have enjoyed playing daily since 2011. The pop ups are a sneaky way to charge us for crap we don't need or want & making it so hard to reverse is a scam! Its nefarious & a bad business model. Offer all the extras you want, but please make it a 2 step verification to purchase. Simply take back the coins!! The game is fun, but the pop up traps make it a pain.
And in the last month its GLITCHING.
Its stuck so I cant go back to replay solo challenges. In speed challenges, the screen moves around keeping us from moving tiles.
Fix the bugs & quit stealing my $$$.
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Truly ruined a good thing!

1.) All of the in-app goals and achievements are new and give you NO WAY to opt out of these! They are a nuisance, they slow the game down, and I would venture a guess that these slow down the game so much they are part or all of the cause of the app frequently crashing! 2.) even with the app updated and the latest IOS, the game still frequently crashes. It’ll open for about 5 seconds and then close! This happens with regularity and NEEDS A FIX!!! Every couple of months this happens, and won’t stay open long enough to even contact their customer service to report the problem! 3.) There are all kinds of other annoying little glitches inside the game that I’ve reported many times and they have yet to be fixed! Chat feature is totally useless and messes up all the time! People who request a game and I deny them, they then show up in my friends list even though I never accepted their game! Red indicator numbers don’t disappear after whatever section is checked and scrolled through! And numerous other issues!!! ZYNGA, GET IT TOGETHER AND FIX ALL THE GLITCHES, COME UP WITH A PERMANENT SOLUTION FOR APP CRASHING ALL THE TIME, AND FOR GOD SAKE MAKE THE IN-GAME ACHIEVEMENTS AND GOALS OPTIONAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Ads are really bugging me

I love this game, and played it for years, and I’ve put up with ads after EVERY turn on my IPad. But the recent addition of the two page ads is quickly changing my mind about the game. First an ad page with multiple products appears and there is a tiny “x” in the upper right hand corner, so I tap it to close the ad and it takes me to google, so I go back to the game and tap it again, same thing. It is so sensitive, if you don’t touch it just right, it takes you google for further info about the product beneath the “x.” If I’m lucky enough to hit that “x” correctly, then it displays a second ad page with a tiny “x” in upper left corner! I know they have to make money, but this is pushing the limits with me. I don’t want these type ads anymore, and if I’m stuck with them, make the darn X bigger so I can close them out! I’ve never bought a thing from any of these ads anyways! Ok, I’m done. The game is great, but I hesitate upgrading to Words 2 in fear of finding there’s even more of these frustrating advertisements. Enjoy the game, not the ads.
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Gone downhill

I have played this game for years and HAD enjoyed it. Now, it has gotten unbearable to play. The ads are more and more frequent. You used to be able to X out of them. Not any more! You cannot get out of them. They lock up your screen and you have to close the app and reopen in order to continue. During play the screen will lock up suddenly and AGAIN you have to exit the app and start again. The updates have ruined the game. They are constantly trying to trick you into purchasing “upgrades” that help you cheat, otherwise you can’t compete with other players who have bought into it. What happened to the coins you used to win? Now all you get for bonuses is useless badges and frames! Lately I’ve been spending more time watching and trying to exit ads than playing the game! The only reason I didn’t give it a 1 is that there are actually other apps that have gotten even worse with the ads and money grubbing. I rated those a 1 (lowest rating possible) and deleted them.

Update: One more ROYAL MATCH ad and I’m deleting this app too! This is ridiculous!
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Game Used to be Favorite

I’ve been playing this game since 2009 and it used to be amazing. I’d keep the maximum allowed ongoing games and thoroughly enjoyed the competition. It was simply Scrabble, one if the most popular board games ever, straightforward in design and challenging just like the beloved board game. So why mess with perfection. The direction the developers have taken over the years has practically ruined this game and I can see by the reviews I’m not the only one that feels this way. The play is slow and all the fluff graphics that’s been added over the years is annoying and slows down play. The expanding dictionary of allowable words that aren’t words interferes with truly competitive play. I now keep a max of 2-3 games going and those are with my significant other and a real friend. I NEVER choose a random player, it’s just not fun anymore. The Solo Challenge was a welcome addition at first but with the recent update, it’s no longer enjoyable. I’m giving 2 stars only because I have such fond memories for the original game. Message to the developers…….just because you can add all the unnecessary graphics and fluff it doesn’t mean you should. I paid for ad-free years ago and would gladly pay again to get the original version back.
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Great game but too much going on in the app.

I love this game and I’ve been playing for years but I’ve found the app gets more and more annoying. I just want to play the game. I don’t need all these added features like power ups and rewards. I just want to play a word game. I do like the solo challenges. They are a fun way to practice your skills when you’ve completed your games with actual people but other than that I’m not a fan of any of the new features. In the latest update the power ups are much more forced on you. I would rather lose a game than win with power ups though. The point of the game, in my mind, is to get better at making words with higher points. It’s a game of skill and the power ups kind of ruin that. In the new update, after I get through a few levels of the solo challenge it makes it so in the next game there’s a bunch of extra triple and double word squares. Again, I just want to play the regular game. You don’t need to improve on what is already a great game as it is. It was better when it was simple. It also asks if you want to send a sticker after every move which I don’t think is needed because you could send that through the chat if you wanted. I just think it would be better if it was kept simple. Also I find the app to be slow and glitchy but I don’t mind that as much as all the unnecessary extra stuff.
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Not as trustworthy as I originally thought

I bought this as a premium app years ago. Everytime it gets updated because either the iOS or the app itself was updated, it starts showing advertisements again. I complained a few times and they fixed it until the next update. At which time they bounced me back to advertisers again. It also pleads with me once or twice a week to allow its advertisers to track me. I do not want your app tracking my phone stop asking. Stay out of my business. I do not want to keep asking you to honor the premium contract that you sold to me. I now play until you show a pop up add. So I shut this down like every other move now. You have allowed some advertisers to run during game play blocking the view of player scores which is a little bit of a buzz kill. I am very close to deleting this app that is otherwise enjoyable. If and when I do, I will make a mental note to add your organization to the disreputable list
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WORDS

We have been playing Words with Friends for a long time now and we evidently enjoy the play or we wouldn’t waste quite so much time at the app. We do find that the WORDS DICTIONARY contains words that do not appear in the other dictionaries and that the WORD DICTIONARY doesn’t contain some actual words that do appear in the WEBSTER DICTIONARY, for example.

Even if a word is recognized as a word, it should not be allowed in play if it has no meaning. Fact is, it shouldn’t be recognized as a word at all. It is only a group of letters that no one can pronounce and that fits into a space. Scrabble rules should be more of a guideline perhaps.

Updates have cluttered the app with a bunch of meaningless activity and worthless prizes. I know, its all for fun but all the extra stuff just makes the app less convenient to navigate. Regardless, we engage the Solo Challenge and find it quick and challenging but the distribution of letters sometimes stinks and the computer persons we play against surely come up with a lot of trees and vines and bugs and stuff from millions of years ago. Maybe they are in the dictionary but, if they aren’t, even the WordMasters shouldn’t be allowed to play them.
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Can we just play the game?

Do you know how many times I’m trying to play a word in a game and accidentally click on a pop up announcement that another game is available, if I have a new gift, or a goal, or any other number of things? I don’t care about earning keys to unlock new colored tiles. Or stickers to play after my moves (literally have NEVER seen anyone use the stickers). And I’m definitely not paying you $13 to unlock all of the useless crap.

This is so Zynga. You put games inside games inside games until what you have becomes unplayable. I stopped using this app a year ago because it was too much and I’ll stop again soon. I’d rather pay for the game then have to deal with all of the pop-ups and announcements and getting notifications for stuff no one wants.

Some of the innovations are actually good. Like the quick challenges of seeing who can score the most points in 5 rounds. Or having to beat the “masters”. Those are fun and actually help to improve one’s word usage and gameplay. But the all the rest can go.
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Ad Practices Should Be Illegal

I’m going to start by saying that the ONLY reason that I haven’t deleted this game is because I play back-and-forth with my senior mother. The ads that the developer runs are TERRIBLE. You as the user have ZERO ability to control volume or silence many of the ads j less you have your volume turned all the way down. Turning the sound off does not work; there are still ads that will blast sound. The only way around it is to manually turn your phone volume down. That is a huge safety concern, as I have forgotten to turn my volume back up again. Many of the ads don’t have an icon to tap to silence. This seems like something that the FCC should be notified of. I’m so tired of playing while I have a few moments, needing discretion with my activities, only tj havecan embarrassing blast of sound that I scramble to stop. Also, it’s harassing when you exit out of advertisement after waiting 25-30 seconds, only to be prompted back to the page to download the game/app again. Five times or more. Very deceptive, very unethical. Shame on you, Zynga.
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New Bells and Rolling suggestion at bottom of screen!

I have been playing WWF for many years. Please, take this rolling suggestion of which game I should play next, away! It is so very annoying! I am capable of picking the next game to play since I prefer to pick my own order. Currently I have about 56 games going, so I believe I can make that decision myself. Also, this latest update slows down my rhythm, having to wait until the opponents words displays slowly, one letter at a time, and only then can I see my available letters. When I’m playing back and forth , live with my opponent, it’s distracting to have to wait. Please give us the option to do away with the suggested next player. Now you’ve added all the extra bells when forming a word Omg, the noise is distracting, slows the game down and is redundant, we already had the thing that acknowledged an acceptable word! Then all the extra steps to get to the dang rewards. We don’t need all the new flashy bells and whistles. With all the extra time it takes now, just waiting for the bells to stop, I’ll have to cut back on the number of games I play. Probably the majority of people playing this game are adults and don’t need the flashy stuff to encourage us to play anyway.
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Great game; terrible glitches!

The game itself is awesome and a fun way to stay connected to people you know around the country and the world. But, the technical problems with the game app are the worst I’ve ever encountered! Being locked out. Childish censorship within messages that violate free speech. Notification numbers always wrong, stuck and incorrect. Being temporarily suspended by the makers just because some scammer says you harassed them when you didn’t. The number of fake players who are really scammers is out of control, where they use the game and its message system to contact legitimate players and ask them for money or contact information. Not knowing the rules of how to advance on the Progress Maps. Past badges not accessible. Links within the game not working. The list goes on. Words With Friends is a fun game if you can tolerate all of its very numerous problems, especially the technical ones. The makers need better programmers to fix the bugs!
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Brain stimulating game!

Years ago I went to nursing school and led the class in the Pre-board test out of my entire class. After working as an RN I suffered a brain injury from “lack of oxygen”. After having surgery on my painful varicose veins. It was caused by a series of events that began with pain leading to a dose of Morphine, which can suppress the drive to breath. It made me extremely nauseous , so my nurse gave me an anti-nausea medication in my IV, . The combination of drugs set up a situation that resulted in depressing the drive to breathe. Then the hospital was short of nurses and “floated a nurse from the psychiatric floor to the surgical floor. She would come into the room and look at me ,charting “patient sleeping soundly, not checking to see if I was getting enough oxygen. Meanwhile an aide had gotten me up to the bathroom, taken my oxygen off and failed to put it back on. My lack of oxygen caused the injury to my brain, so my memory is poor!
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Need a basic option

I got this app only to informally keep in touch with my mother-in-law. Have you ever visited somebody and you arrive late in the day and you’re exhausted and you crave sleep…and the guest bed has like 20 dolls and pillows and cover spreads on it and it’s a project just to get into bed?

That’s what this app is like. here’s a whole bunch of unnecessary junk everywhere — especially if you don’t get the ad free version. Ads across the top : ads after every move you make — which feels really excessive when you’re working through the final moves of a match with the low point words that nobody in their right mind uses in real life. When stuck in the throes of an ad, they made it quicker to tap an install button and the cancel out of it, and you know the heathens on the Words marketing team are probably tracking that and using it as a talking point to get even more advertisers.

And the ads… omg the ads… they force you to ask ‘whose broken minds are these made for?!’. It’s all pretty depressing. Will probably figure out a better way to stay in touch with the mother in law. Can’t wait to uninstall
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Words.

Love playing the game. The problem is most of the men are looking for more than a game. I feel like I’m always warding off guys who “ want to get to know me better.” Then when you tell them you just want to play words, they quit playing. That’s irritating. There are other sites that they can find “relationships”. Please be respectful. Say hello and move on and play words. Please. It’s making me want to sign off this game. I challenge you to put some females you know on this game and you will see. They are like wolves. If you don’t engage and give them your personal information and email they get mad and resign. COME ON. ITS A GAME. GO SOMEWHERE ELSE FOR LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS. I love this game but I’m about to resign permanently. I played this game a few years ago and it wasn’t like this. I’m tired of feeling like I have to tell my life story to play a game. This is not a dating site. I think you need to put that in your description of the game. I had 4 guys resign this morning because I don’t give my personal information. PLEASE GUYS GO TO A HOOK UP SITE WHERE THE GIRLS ARE WANTING TO “GET TO KNOW YOU BETTER! PLEASE. I hope you check this out. It makes it very uncomfortable to play.
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Tons of Potential But Falls Short

This game could be so much more than what it is. But sadly, it is rife with technical issues. The Lightning Round challenge, for example, has begun to kick me out right in the middle of the game! I recently had an issue with Duels, as well. For three days, I fought to keep my 1st place status, and was successful. However, when I logged in after the challenge was over, I couldn’t view game results to collect my winnings. I contacted tech support on 11/20, but no one ever got back with me. At the very least, they could’ve credited me with what I should’ve won, but instead, they left me hanging. Oh, and the CRAZIEST thing happened today! I was in the middle of a duel when I got interrupted by an ad! I can’t make this stuff up! The game is quickly becoming more trouble than it’s worth, and players can’t even rely on Tech Support/the developers to address the issues. It is an excellent way to pass the time, especially when you’re a word geek. But I’m afraid the constant glitches might force me to uninstall.
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Not worth playing

And this isn’t review from some disgruntled “I never win” player. I win all the time. What totally makes this just a joke is playing the AI and three out of the 5 words they play are “This is a valid Words With Friends word, and we will have a definition soon”. Total BS. Like the word played - “Alfa”, and the definition was “for the letter A”, which would be Alpha. But if I try to play the same word, it is not recognized. And every word the AI plays is worth at least 35 points, and again, most of them are BS words. Secondly, throughout all the games in WWF, it is way to common that I get 7 vowels, or seven 1 to 2 point consonants, while the AI typically gets a great range of letters and plays 5 and 6 letter words most of the time. I literally got 13 straight vowels in one game, which is statistically almost impossible. And the pop-up ads. They used to make a version that you could buy that was ad free, but now you can purchase “1 month ad free” - a straight money grab. And the game seizes up on the ads at LEAST twice a day where I have to restart my iPad. You developers have taken all of the joy out of this game and I would not recommend it to anyone.
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I'd like it better

I like the basic Words with Friends. I don't like the extra bells and whistles, and the annoying appeals to play various games with members. The ads are very annoying. I could tolerate the ads if there weren't so many glitches. Some ads won't go away no matter that I wait for the ad to run and no matter how many timed I click on the x it often will not go away. Too often the ad stays on the screen and I can not get back to the game I'm playing. Several friends I used to play with have stopped playing WWF altogether for the same reasons. You have made a good game too complicated and annoying with too many interruptions and glitches.I gave it four stars for the basic premise but I would have given it only one because of the annoyances. I need to add, your dictionary needs renovation. You accept too many very obscure words and foreign words and reject too many standard English ones that appear in most standard English and American dictionaries.
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