With this new game, Apple is adding to its collection of Apple News+ Puzzles. This time, Apple is using emoji, which we are all familiar with.
More games are a new incentive from Apple to upgrade to its subscription news service, Apple News+. The company revealed on Thursday that the Emoji Game, an original game, will be available in English in the United States and Canada. It will join its existing games, which include Sudoku, the word game Quartiles, the Crossword puzzle, and Crossword Mini.
At WWDC, the new Emoji Game was first revealed as part of iOS 26. However, all iPhone users running iOS 18.4 and later, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4 are now able to play the game.
According to Apple, the Emoji Game “challenges players to use a selection of emoji” to complete short phrases using the fewest possible movements. Messages, Mail, Game Center, and other apps can be used to share results. Later this year, as part of iOS 26, Emoji Game will also be integrated into the Apple Games app.
Emoji Game makes use of Genmoji and Apple Intelligence. The Genmoji feature was used to create some of the emoji characters you see throughout the game; these aren’t your normal unicode emoji characters.
The New York Times and even LinkedIn have found that combining gaming with other services is a good way to draw in users and keep them interested. Apple says that many people sign up for News+ only to solve the puzzles, but it won’t disclose its user numbers for games.
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.
Apple’s other puzzle games, such as Sudoku, Quartiles, the crossword, and the crossword mini, are joined by the Emoji Game. Lauren Kern, Apple News’s chief editor:
“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.”
The new Emoji Game, which was released on World Emoji Day, is a word game and logic hybrid that draws inspiration from the way we communicate with each other through emojis. In order to finish the puzzle in the fewest amount of moves allowed, players try to solve phrases using emojis in this daily game.
For example, the letters “ap” might be followed by four blank spaces if the word “appear” appeared in the problem. To finish the word, you would then drag the pear emoji up into the blanks. Of course, it will be a little more difficult to predict the phrases in the Emoji Game. Additionally, emoji combos or puzzles that need some abstract thought to solve will frequently contain the emoji you need. Filling up blank spaces with additional letters between them is another usage for the emoji word.
You can reveal a hint behind the phrase if you’re stuck, but you’ll lose one move.
To complete the full puzzle, you must solve several phrases every day. A perfect score is achieved by finishing in six moves, and leaderboards allow you to monitor your scoring trends and compare them to those of friends and other players. The new Games app in the next iOS 26 will allow you to invite others to play with you.
The game also makes use of the recently released Genmoji, or bespoke emojis made with Apple Intelligence, the company’s artificial intelligence, to make it more Apple-specific. By doing this, you can use more emojis than the less than 2,000 that come with your emoji keyboard. For example, the word “purée” may be represented by an emoji of a tomato and a Genmoji of a blender.
The Puzzle Society (now GoComics), a third party, collaborated with Apple puzzle editors to create the game. Apple News+ customers in the US and Canada can now access it on their Mac, iPhone, and iPad. (Those using iOS versions older than 18.4 won’t need to upgrade their app in order to play the game.)
Access to more than 400 premium publishers, narrated audio, local news, sports, and, most recently, Apple News+ Food—a tool that saves recipes—are all included with the News+ subscription.
Every day, new Emoji Game puzzles will be made available. The game is available to English-speaking users in Canada and the United States.
The cost of Apple News+ is $12.99 per month. It can be shared with up to five people and is also offered as part of the Apple One Premier bundle for $37.95 per month.