Review Insights · App Store
Picture Cross
AppyNation Ltd. · 74,089 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
74,089 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 63 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"game"
48 negative reviews mention this · 76% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Excessive ads. I have played this game for a few months and really enjoyed it, but recently there has been too many ads. An ad pops up about every 15 ish seconds sometimes less. It is making it impossible to play the game. I have a feeling it's a bug so I…" - SkyHiNoooo
2
"play"
25 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Excessive ads. I have played this game for a few months and really enjoyed it, but recently there has been too many ads. An ad pops up about every 15 ish seconds sometimes less. It is making it impossible to play the game. I have a feeling it's a bug so I…" - SkyHiNoooo
3
"playing"
20 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads during game. Game is really fun and I have enjoyed it until recently. Tonight, I had 7 ads poo up during an easy level game. I spent more time watching ads than playing. I don’t mind the ads before or after games, but during is just too much. Game is no…" - appuserintx
4
"seconds"
17 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Excessive ads. I have played this game for a few months and really enjoyed it, but recently there has been too many ads. An ad pops up about every 15 ish seconds sometimes less. It is making it impossible to play the game. I have a feeling it's a bug so I…" - SkyHiNoooo
5
"years"
16 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads going crazy. Update June 2026. I received message from the developer after the first review below. I followed all their suggestions- no change. I have tried in game support multiple times. Same suggestions which still do not work. Last game I played had…" - Leader12345
6
"every"
15 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Excessive ads. I have played this game for a few months and really enjoyed it, but recently there has been too many ads. An ad pops up about every 15 ish seconds sometimes less. It is making it impossible to play the game. I have a feeling it's a bug so I…" - SkyHiNoooo
7
"tokens"
15 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The new change to make replaying levels cost tokens instead of coins is bad. Title is pretty self explanatory. I think the battle pass/tournament system are good additions that make it easier to play more for free. The old system of replaying tiles/levels to get tokens to play new tiles/levels gave me a reason to re…" - tuerry
8
"without"
14 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "So Many Ads. You literally cant play the game without an ad popping up every 15 seconds. I’ve never played a game with this many ads that literally makes it impossible to play. Zero stars if I could" - Corbinrocks17
9
"daily"
13 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Sorry you changed it. I’ve been playing for years. Used to start my day winning a game or 2 and collecting some tokens. Now you have to spend more in tokens to win the daily ones! The coins aren’t worth anything- I have $1.6M and what pray tell can I do with …" - frustrated with constant ads
10
"puzzles"
12 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Too many ads. Fun puzzles, but if an ad interrupts me in the middle of a puzzle one more time I'm deleting the whole app and never looking back." - HekkinNerd32
11
"puzzle"
12 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Too many ads. Fun puzzles, but if an ad interrupts me in the middle of a puzzle one more time I'm deleting the whole app and never looking back." - HekkinNerd32
12
"until"
11 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads during game. Game is really fun and I have enjoyed it until recently. Tonight, I had 7 ads poo up during an easy level game. I spent more time watching ads than playing. I don’t mind the ads before or after games, but during is just too much. Game is no…" - appuserintx
📋 All 63 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Excessive ads
I have played this game for a few months and really enjoyed it, but recently there has been too many ads. An ad pops up about every 15 ish seconds sometimes less. It is making it impossible to play the game. I have a feeling it's a bug so I hope it gets fixed soon.
Adds pop up during play
DO NOT PLAY! ADS POP UP DURING PLAY AND MAKES IT UNPLAYABLE.
Literally used to love this game!
This game is so addictive, I used to spend hours playing it! This was my all time favorite game ever, but after a couple weeks of having it I realized they were most likely stealing my data. The app would randomly take me to random website and some would even say I was getting “hacked”. This might be unrelated but after I got the app I realized I got 10x more spam callers than I was used to. I got up to a dozen spam callers a day.
Not worth the time
I couldn’t even get past the tutorial because it wouldn’t let me click the buttons
Ads are out of control
There are so many adds WHILE you’re in the middle of the game, makes it impossible to concentrate.
Ads going crazy
Update June 2026. I received message from the developer after the first review below. I followed all their suggestions- no change. I have tried in game support multiple times. Same suggestions which still do not work. Last game I played had 8 ads in one game in less than 5 minutes. Reported again and got the same canned responses. I do not believe anyone is reading what is submitted.
I have played Picture Cross for years and I really enjoy it. However, in the recent few weeks ads are popping up at random in the middle of the puzzle. At first it was just one or two but now 4 or 5 allowing perhaps one or two entries before starting more Ads. I have no problem with ads either before or after or perhaps to earn extra tokens. This takes all the challenge from solving in a time frame to get a chest to just solving the puzzle. I do have the most current version.
I have played Picture Cross for years and I really enjoy it. However, in the recent few weeks ads are popping up at random in the middle of the puzzle. At first it was just one or two but now 4 or 5 allowing perhaps one or two entries before starting more Ads. I have no problem with ads either before or after or perhaps to earn extra tokens. This takes all the challenge from solving in a time frame to get a chest to just solving the puzzle. I do have the most current version.
So Many Ads
You literally cant play the game without an ad popping up every 15 seconds. I’ve never played a game with this many ads that literally makes it impossible to play. Zero stars if I could
Too many ads
The amount of ads that pop up WHILE playing is insane. I understand an ad after every puzzle completed, but what they’re doing is so annoying. I can’t play a game without getting at least 10 ads. I’m so disappointed. Unless you want to pay for no ads you will be getting an ad every 10 seconds
Ads
You get a pop up that blocks your screen every 5 seconds if you play a level for too long
Where are my coins!?
I had over 800 coins and 2 puzzles (without using clues for 250 coins) my coin count went down to 65
You deceived me
You said ads would be eliminated forever if I bought any product. I did. They aren’t! Why did you make that promise when it is false?
Why must you permit ads that:
-Last up to three minutes?
- Pause and stop countdown when I touch the screen or set it down?
-Ask if I want to close the ad, and when I say “ yes “ the ad keeps playing?
-Open my browser without my permission?
-Show an X to make me think I can close it, but touching the X does nothing?
-Make me HATE the product or developer?
There are many products that I will NEVER purchase because their ads raise my anger whenever they appear. Right now, it is the incessant ads for Pixel Flow, especially the guy who gets right in my face - makes me want to punch him!
I have played this game for years. I am ready to quit online games and buy a playstation!
Adding to what I wrote below...
-
Why must you permit ads that:
-Last up to three minutes?
- Pause and stop countdown when I touch the screen or set it down?
-Ask if I want to close the ad, and when I say “ yes “ the ad keeps playing?
-Open my browser without my permission?
-Show an X to make me think I can close it, but touching the X does nothing?
-Make me HATE the product or developer?
There are many products that I will NEVER purchase because their ads raise my anger whenever they appear. Right now, it is the incessant ads for Pixel Flow, especially the guy who gets right in my face - makes me want to punch him!
I have played this game for years. I am ready to quit online games and buy a playstation!
Adding to what I wrote below...
-
Money Grab
Can only unlock levels with tokens, but you don’t get tokens when you beat a level, only coins which are useless. Designed to make you purchase coins to unlock levels, which is disgusting.
Disappointed
The app was great, until the extra ads started. An ad after every round, a couple during the round, and at any random moment in time? You guessed it. Another ad. That’s wouldn’t be nearly as bad if I hadn’t gotten 2 pop ups that took me straight to safari (many ads from the app took me to a browser. These two are the worst though) and I got a message saying my iPhone may be hacked after possibly visiting an adult website. Why the heck would you allow that in your app? I have no clue if it was real or not, but I’m still mad. I hate to do it, because I enjoy the game, but I’m going to delete. Do not get this game. There are plenty of other options out there, or better yet, activity books with griddles in them. I recommend ‘griddlers.com’ for anyone preferring them on computers though. Website
Malicious Ads
I downloaded the game to play a relaxing brain off game whenever I wanted, not only is the game filled with 1 minute long to 1 minute 30 seconds ads after each puzzle, if you accidentally click on the banner ads at the top they send you to sketchy websites. I just got one for “I may have a virus after visiting an adult website.” And “your data may be exposed in the next x amount of seconds.” “Click here to protect your device.” You’d think they’d screen ads before hand if they’re putting so many in but I guess not. Fix the ads. I get corporate greed drives mobile games but come on, this is ridiculous.
Spyware
This was a favorite game for YEARS. Now it won’t work without internet. Que tristeza!
Porn videos as ads
Had this game a while ago, reinstalled once I got my new phone and instantly deleted it again. Too many ads now, and one was literally a porn clip with stickers blocking view, for one of those games where you have to remove the screws. This is completely unacceptable and you can be sure I will never be downloading another game by this developer. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves, I understand needing ad revenue, but plenty of ads out there that aren’t literal porn clips. Do better!
Best picross UI, terrible user experience
Simultaneously has one of the best game interfaces for the genre, and a lot of gameplay decisions that are targeted to frankly make the users life difficult so that they will burn more tokens. In particular, there’s a really cool encyclopedia set of puzzles. When you finish one volume, you have to wait two weeks before getting the next one. What is the point of that? Just to make a frustrated user who is enjoying a play mode and now they are denied it for half a month? My bet it is to force you into other play modes which consume a great number more of the tokens so you end up paying more. Also, the recent change of having to play two games, draining your tokens before you get the daily game bonus, which kind of defeats the entire point of such a bonus. Love the game, hate how I’m being treated as user.
Ads have taken over
This was one of my favorite games until a recent change in how ads are presented.
Ads pop up in the middle of game play and sometimes open a separate browser to run. Often the ads are repeated within seconds....game play.... ad in a separate browser... close the browser....a moment of game play.... ad in a separate browser.. close the browser... ad infinitum (pun intended).
You've ruined a wonderful game with these ads.
******
Update - game deleted. The lack of response to the runaway ads is the reason. Do you not play your own game? I've had as many as three ads pop up consecutively, without pause. I play other games and they balance ads with game play, so stop blaming it on the ads. You ruined this game.
Ads pop up in the middle of game play and sometimes open a separate browser to run. Often the ads are repeated within seconds....game play.... ad in a separate browser... close the browser....a moment of game play.... ad in a separate browser.. close the browser... ad infinitum (pun intended).
You've ruined a wonderful game with these ads.
******
Update - game deleted. The lack of response to the runaway ads is the reason. Do you not play your own game? I've had as many as three ads pop up consecutively, without pause. I play other games and they balance ads with game play, so stop blaming it on the ads. You ruined this game.
Why 2 puzzles for daily rewards?
Why? I used to able to stockpile coins and burn through them when new puzzles came out. Kept me logging into your game daily even though I had completed all the puzzles. This game is great but getting greedy with the ads I think. Guess I’ll delete this and find something else.
WAS great, now unplayable
I had this app for YEARS. I loved it, I think the gameplay aspect is still perfect but recently they had added ads that pop up in the middle of you trying to complete the puzzle. The ads on the bottom of the screen never bothered, the ads the played at the end after you completed a puzzle were also fine but its the moment the stupid ads affect the gameplay is the moment it goes too far. It breaks my heart to delete this app after so many years of it being an app i keep coming back to but I literally cant play for 2 whole minutes without being blasted with an ad that throws off my thought process. It is literally unplayable now.
Random ads
This game is one of the original games I had downloaded years ago and I’ve loved it…. UNTIL RECENTLY. Now as you are in middle of playing, it cuts to an ad for about 5 seconds. Short enough that by the time you go ‘ugh, what is..’ the game is back.. HOWEVER, this happens every 1.5 minutes. It’s OUT OF CONTROL. I hated the ads I had to sit through to get to the next game, but I could at least understand and deal with that. This interrupts your play so much that I have no choice but to delete it. I hate that it’s brought me to this because it’s one of my favorite games, but it is maddening to deal with. I’ll be on the prowl for a similar app without the interruption of game play.
Event pass
If you purchase an event pass once, it continues to charge you for future event passes!!! Reported a problem and they denied my claim. Disappointed, loved playing the game but not now. QUIT CHARGING ME!!!! Had to change my card!
Just deleted the app
The ads are out of control. I was just playing and 6 times ads popped up in the middle of the game. I have other games that are more reasonable with the ads. Bye!!!!!
Pop-up ads gotta go
The puzzles have become nearly unplayable because of the POP-UP ADS. At first, they were only for DoorDash but now there are others. This ad strategy cannot possibly be a good way to keep us long-time players happy nor to attract new ones!
It’s hard enough to continue to play without new puzzles, but now with the pop-up ads it’s become a really unpleasant way to spend time.
It’s hard enough to continue to play without new puzzles, but now with the pop-up ads it’s become a really unpleasant way to spend time.
Ads galore
Used to be a great/fun game and now nothing but ads! Completely ruined the game for me
Adz have gotten out of control
I have been playing this game for YEARS. This wasn’t an issue before so I don’t know what recently changed but the ads have gotten OUT OF CONTROL. The game is almost unplayable. While trying to complete a puzzle, an ad now pops up every 10-15 seconds. It’s impossible to even focus on what you’re doing with ads popping up that frequently. It is so annoying and frustrating. Yall have ruined a perfect game. I’m completely done playing.
Ads are out of control
Played this game for a few years now and didn’t mind the ads until recently when the ads pop up mid game I spent almost 5 minutes watching the same ad pop up on my screen with no way to skip. Just ruined my experience
Disruptive ads
Great game, love solving the puzzles. Recently, ads take over the screen for 3 to 5 seconds then disappear or the ad opens a web browser for an ad website. Extremely annoying and disrupts game play. Used to play daily but no longer fun stopping playing until the intrusive ads are removed. Ratings are tanking due to these annoying ads. Sad to see such a fun game being destroyed.
I used to love it
UPDATE ~~ over 40 ads in 10 minutes!! I didn’t start counting until I realized they weren’t going to slow down. Then I got to a point I had to stop counting!! Literally every 5 seconds for several pop ups, then a pause & repeat.
Do they really think anyone is watching these ads? NOPE!! They are swiped off as quickly as they pop up! It’s a shame - this developer had a good thing then became so greedy in wanting more money that now they are losing the long term customers they had. When will people learn that money isn’t everything?!?
Original post…
I’m in my 60’s, I have enjoyed this challenge & completed over 5,000 puzzles to help keep my mind sharp.
It’s not a priority of my money to pay for apps so I have learned to deal with the ads.
But now constant pop-up ads that interrupt focus to try to make you pay to get rid of them.
PLUS, words directly from support about daily awards,
“You'll only be asked to play 2 puzzles to unlock the daily reward when you have a lot of tokens already saved. It will drop to 1 or no puzzles if your token balance gets low.”
So they are penalizing long term customers by making them do more puzzles to get the daily award!! I’m not concerned about the tokens, I have more than I’ll even need, it’s their thought process of how they want to treat their customers.
Got news, all that is doing is pushing me to another developer of the same type of app!!
Do they really think anyone is watching these ads? NOPE!! They are swiped off as quickly as they pop up! It’s a shame - this developer had a good thing then became so greedy in wanting more money that now they are losing the long term customers they had. When will people learn that money isn’t everything?!?
Original post…
I’m in my 60’s, I have enjoyed this challenge & completed over 5,000 puzzles to help keep my mind sharp.
It’s not a priority of my money to pay for apps so I have learned to deal with the ads.
But now constant pop-up ads that interrupt focus to try to make you pay to get rid of them.
PLUS, words directly from support about daily awards,
“You'll only be asked to play 2 puzzles to unlock the daily reward when you have a lot of tokens already saved. It will drop to 1 or no puzzles if your token balance gets low.”
So they are penalizing long term customers by making them do more puzzles to get the daily award!! I’m not concerned about the tokens, I have more than I’ll even need, it’s their thought process of how they want to treat their customers.
Got news, all that is doing is pushing me to another developer of the same type of app!!
So Many AD Pop Ups
The game has become unplayable. I was use to seeing ads before and after a game is completed. But now, ads are popping up during the game. They must be hitting every 10-20 seconds.
Ads are RIDICULOUS
Two weeks ago I was perfectly fine now I can barely go 10 seconds without an ad popping up (NOT an exaggerating. I wish it was) and interrupting my game. this is absolutely ridiculous. i’ve loved this game for years because it used to be a calming but brain boosting game. now it is infuriating to play. Will be deleting.
Abandoned
Why are you selling customer location data to Venntel?
Last update over a month ago killed it. Does not work. Can you fix it? Is anybody out there?
Last update over a month ago killed it. Does not work. Can you fix it? Is anybody out there?
I remember when developers actually wanted you to play their games
Now it’s just a constant string of ads interrupting any real gameplay and new schemes to get more and more money out of players. I used to play this game a ton on another device, redownloaded to a new one after remembering how fun it was, now it’s virtually unplayable with the ads and time gates.
Broken now
It was the daily favorite until it recently stopped awarding green tokens. Too bad.
Update Ruined The Game
I don’t have time to be forced to complete 2 puzzles to get daily prizes. Replaying puzzles for 1-3 tokens no longer works… it’s terrible now!!!
Broken
I’m posting this 3/11/26. So I better not get a year old developer response. Daily rewards haven’t worked in two weeks. Replaying maps for tokens doesn’t reward tokens. I’m poor so I watch every single ad to help these devs get paid. Least they could do is fix the game.
Garbage
1 star for the daily rewards change.
Fun game but unplayable without ads or purchases
This game is fun, and I’ve had it installed in my phone since at least 2019. It went unplayed for most of that time until I got back into it this week. However, it’s basically unplayable unless you spend money or watch thousands of ads. It takes tokens to unlock each game, and you only generate 10 tokens max over time. After that you have to buy tokens or watch ads. To unlock just one puzzle costs anywhere from 10-40 tokens each puzzle. So once you’ve unlocked the few that are just 10 tokens, you are forced to buy more tokens or watch 1 ad to unlock just 1 token. You can also replay completely puzzles to earn 1-3 tokens, but that’s only IF the game is not glitching and gives coins as a prize instead, even though it says the prize is tokens. Absolutely ridiculous.
this sucks.
Absolutely terrible. This game was not fun and an EXTREME time waster. Ads are annoying, and gameplay is just straight up boring.
No Longer Gives Free Tokens Can no longer play without purchase
You no longer receive free tokens daily in order to play the games. They have not updated their playing instructions to show this. The only free tokens are from watching one ad per token for a total of nine tokens per day. Other than this, you can join their market research program, which is an invitation to scams. This used to be one of my favorite games I. I played for years, but without daily tokens, I will no longer be playing..
Too many ads
Fun puzzles, but if an ad interrupts me in the middle of a puzzle one more time I'm deleting the whole app and never looking back.
Ads during game
Game is really fun and I have enjoyed it until recently. Tonight, I had 7 ads poo up during an easy level game. I spent more time watching ads than playing. I don’t mind the ads before or after games, but during is just too much. Game is not enjoyable either the pop up ads.
The new change to make replaying levels cost tokens instead of coins is bad
Title is pretty self explanatory. I think the battle pass/tournament system are good additions that make it easier to play more for free. The old system of replaying tiles/levels to get tokens to play new tiles/levels gave me a reason to replay through the game AND helped get currency. This new change is really bad and does not allow me to play as much as I want to
Great but I literally CAN'T GET TOKENS
Amazing game, but I genuinely can't play half of it because I just about NEVER get a token reward, and I don't want to shove 29 ads down my throat to play one level :(
Sorry you changed it
I’ve been playing for years. Used to start my day winning a game or 2 and collecting some tokens. Now you have to spend more in tokens to win the daily ones! The coins aren’t worth anything- I have $1.6M and what pray tell can I do with them??? I obviously can’t buy tokens. I only play occasionally anymore. Was a 5, now a 2
Pop up and pop out ads are a huge problem
I understand free apps being ad supported. But ads that cause Safari to open with (hopefully) fake “your device is infected” garbage are unacceptable. I’ve been playing this game for years, but it’s time to delete it. The trust is gone.
Latest update may make me quit after years of play
I have played Picture Cross daily for years. It used to be that you could balance your amount of play and the daily rewards enough to get enough coins and tokens to play without buying anything. The latest update rewards only with coins so that my token bank is down over 1000 tokens from playing one board. If they force me into having to purchase in order to continue playing, I will delete the app.
Not for phones
Seems like a good game but good luck being able to place pixels down close to the edge of the screen - the alternate mode helps slightly but is so cumbersome to use that it’s not worth it. If it had a zoom feature for the larger puzzles that would fix the problem.
Going downhill
The puzzles are decent, although I have encountered quite a few that come down to multiple solutions in the end. I paid to have ads removed, yet still see ads after every puzzle. Their customer service can’t seem to figure out how to fix this issue. You used to be able to collect daily rewards to get tokens to keep playing, but now you have to complete multiple puzzles to collect the meager rewards. I just had to spend 30 tokens to collect 10. It shouldn’t take a math wizard to figure out how this will go. When I run out of tokens, I plan to delete this game and the others I have from this developer.
Ads are ridiculous
I love the game but I had pop up ads showing up so often that I couldn’t even play the actual game.
+ 13 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
91%
Positive (4-5★)
5%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)