Review Insights · App Store
Words With Friends Word Game
Zynga Inc. · 744,688 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
744,688 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 60 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"
38 negative reviews mention this · 63% of all complaints
★★★★★ "So man ads you can’t mute or close. They must keep lowering their ad standards to the point that I can’t play this game without spending as much time trying to close ads and restart whatever I was listening to as I do playing the game." - Boba the hut
2
"play"
19 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No means no. Disabled notifications for the entire app in the phone settings since the publisher doesn’t know the meaning of “no.” Now I get to enjoy playing with my friends without 50 notifications per day. I win." - WolfieR1
3
"games"
13 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Messaging. What is the push for LQBT in all the games - much of this going over the top and I'm sick of it. The Muslim headscarf is ridiculous." - Worder1234
4
"every"
11 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads ads ads ads ads. I have been playing for 13 years and enjoy the game. While there has always been ads, it has really increased. I get an ad after every single word I play, and it is really frustrating. I know that you can buy ad free bundles but it is only …" - sulky mom
5
"years"
10 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads ads ads ads ads. I have been playing for 13 years and enjoy the game. While there has always been ads, it has really increased. I get an ad after every single word I play, and it is really frustrating. I know that you can buy ad free bundles but it is only …" - sulky mom
6
"playing"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No means no. Disabled notifications for the entire app in the phone settings since the publisher doesn’t know the meaning of “no.” Now I get to enjoy playing with my friends without 50 notifications per day. I win." - WolfieR1
7
"word"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads ads ads ads ads. I have been playing for 13 years and enjoy the game. While there has always been ads, it has really increased. I get an ad after every single word I play, and it is really frustrating. I know that you can buy ad free bundles but it is only …" - sulky mom
8
"friends"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No means no. Disabled notifications for the entire app in the phone settings since the publisher doesn’t know the meaning of “no.” Now I get to enjoy playing with my friends without 50 notifications per day. I win." - WolfieR1
9
"been"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads ads ads ads ads. I have been playing for 13 years and enjoy the game. While there has always been ads, it has really increased. I get an ad after every single word I play, and it is really frustrating. I know that you can buy ad free bundles but it is only …" - sulky mom
10
"these"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "And NOW 2/25 we have annoying scammer ads pretending to be Nordstrom and Talbot!. Modvani (or Modanova) is not affiliated with Nordstrom. This is a common online shopping scam. These deceptive websites often advertise on TikTok or Instagram using stolen photos of clothes from reputable brands (like Nordstrom) or lure use…" - Roxy Montana
11
"played"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "An error in my game for over a year!!. Over a year of “we know about it but can’t tell you when it will be fixed”. I have played this game for at least 14 years or more and know how to fix glitches I get the same nonsense response It is now just a joke! I received a respo…" - NATEHRH
12
"another"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Advertising scam. It is completely toxic and assault on your senses. Loved the game but the developers have gone full on magat scam spam campaign. 1. The scam where the x to close ads are misaligned so when u hit x to close it launches th appstord anyhow…" - Jimbonic1234567
📋 All 60 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").
No means no
Disabled notifications for the entire app in the phone settings since the publisher doesn’t know the meaning of “no.” Now I get to enjoy playing with my friends without 50 notifications per day. I win.
So man ads you can’t mute or close
They must keep lowering their ad standards to the point that I can’t play this game without spending as much time trying to close ads and restart whatever I was listening to as I do playing the game.
Ads make this game unplayable
This game has so many ads loaded it makes the game so unbearable. There is no way in the world there needs to be this many ads.
Beware of scammers!
Over the last several months, there has been an increase in fake players who try to get you to chat with them outside of the game platform. I have made several reports on this however the developer refuses to do anything about it and constantly says that my reports are not valid and that the player is not violating the game policy.
Be wary of these bad actors and if they try to get to chat outside, the game just block them. Reporting them does nothing because apparently the developer doesn’t care.
Be wary of these bad actors and if they try to get to chat outside, the game just block them. Reporting them does nothing because apparently the developer doesn’t care.
Coins
Bought and pad for two coin pkgs, got billed on my Apple Pay! Didn’t get any coins, I’m still waiting!,,, Why do I get double vowels when I buy letters!!! It happens every time. Stop trying to get people to buy coins! Why!!!😡
Advertising scam
It is completely toxic and assault on your senses. Loved the game but the developers have gone full on magat scam spam campaign.
1. The scam where the x to close ads are misaligned so when u hit x to close it launches th appstord anyhow.
2. No click ad click scam. Playing game not even in an ad and suddenly app store opens or browser opens as if u clicked on an ad.
3. Insanely excessive ads. Like 3minutes of ads per tirn u play. Catch that. Like a songle opponwent match u might play 20words? Times a few minutes after each word played (app lovks u cant go to another match nor continue in existing match u must watch lengthy ads). So a single match is 15 minutes of play and 60minutes of ads. And tgats even if there were nos cams of autoclicks.
The game itself would be awesome. But given the developers have gone total batsheet crazy on ad crack, its a delete app level ossue. Dont let ur kids download either. In the attention economy these scammers are eating ur brain.
1. The scam where the x to close ads are misaligned so when u hit x to close it launches th appstord anyhow.
2. No click ad click scam. Playing game not even in an ad and suddenly app store opens or browser opens as if u clicked on an ad.
3. Insanely excessive ads. Like 3minutes of ads per tirn u play. Catch that. Like a songle opponwent match u might play 20words? Times a few minutes after each word played (app lovks u cant go to another match nor continue in existing match u must watch lengthy ads). So a single match is 15 minutes of play and 60minutes of ads. And tgats even if there were nos cams of autoclicks.
The game itself would be awesome. But given the developers have gone total batsheet crazy on ad crack, its a delete app level ossue. Dont let ur kids download either. In the attention economy these scammers are eating ur brain.
Holy ads! Unplayable
There are way too many long and repetitive ads between most turns. It’s impossible to enjoy a game when bombarded with another very loud ad every minute. I spend more time on ads than gameplay. The interface is slow and unnecessarily animated. I love games like this, but with so many other options that are far more enjoyable, I’d skip this one! Deleted.
Annoying Ads
I’m no longer playing this game. Not because I don’t like it but the ads are so annoying and difficult to get out of. WHATNOT is about the worst.
SO MANY ANNOYING WINDOWS and animations
There are SO MANY ANNOYING WINDOWS that relentlessly pop up interrupting gameplay. Additionally, this game has increasingly gone downhill with slow boring useless animations. I’ve played it for over 10 years, I’ve paid for ad free. The windows are game related (if you want to call it that).
Zynga supports soft @ORN
Disgusting ads, this company has no integrity left with the type of ads it allows. No matter how many times you block them, they cycle back around. There, I updated my review.
Slower Than Molasses
I’ve been playing for over 10 years & can say I’ve seen molasses move faster than it takes this game to download.
Too many ads
It was a fun game, but the amount of ads and the length of the ads is really getting old. A thirty to sixty second ad in between every play is just boring. Stupid ads too.
Forces launch of SHEIN repeatedly
I loved this game but now when I play it launches SHEIN without me tapping on any ads. Like, I’m in the middle of trying to figure out my next move and it leaves the app and launches SHEIN. It’s happened at least a dozen times over two days of game play. I uninstalled SHEIN so hopefully that will help, but I’m sure that’s not what the sponsor of Words was going for.
Words Casino
I’ve played this game for over 10 years and loved it in the beginning because it was very simple. Now it’s become a rigged casino, and to be honest with you, I plan to delete this from my phone real soon.
Keeps Crashing
Twice in the last two months, this glitches for days at a time and there is no way to open it.
Excessive notifications
The gameplay itself is nice but I receive way too many notifications from this app. The only notifications I want to receive are if it is my turn to play. I’ve disabled all of the notifications possible in the app but I am still inundated with excessive notifications at all hours of the day. The notifications are for game features and whatnot that I am not interested in. They even come in the middle of the night when I am sleeping. If I completely disable notifications in iOS then I do not get notified when it is my turn. My friend and I are leaving this app and searching for a replacement app that does not send excessive notifications.
no point
don’t waste your time
Scam
Bought no ad Words for friends. Paid and then started to get ads after renewal.
Worst ad exeperience
This ap will literally show you ads in the middle of trying to make a move. Cancerous app
Forced Shien App
Why am I being forced off of WWF to the Shien App? Annoyed!
Ad Fatigue
Formerly the game that kept me in contact with multiple friends. Over the last several years the accumulation of ads and other distractions in combination with the inability to turn them off for any reasonable duration have led to complete attrition. No longer our go to which is sad because it was quite fun and an effective way to remain in contact across continents.
Filled with too many ads
There’s so many ads that you can’t even play one word without an ad showing up
This game went off a cliff
Forced to upgrade. The main page is so confusing now with just too much stuff. Original was easy to use. Looking for another game to play regularly now.
Filled with ads and broken notifications
Despite setting the app to not notify me about daily puzzles or promotions, the app fills my Notification Center with dozens of them. Meanwhile, some ad for scam gambling games or AI slop creators show up after every turn in-game. I wish a better company would rip off this game like they ripped off Scrabble.
Edit:
I received an email from the support team. Like every ad that this game has, the message was most likely written by AI. If it wasn’t, the message still managed to basically amount to “Sorry the notification settings in our app are broken. We’re not doing anything to fix it, but sorry.”
Edit:
I received an email from the support team. Like every ad that this game has, the message was most likely written by AI. If it wasn’t, the message still managed to basically amount to “Sorry the notification settings in our app are broken. We’re not doing anything to fix it, but sorry.”
Lost my ad free game
Been playing this game for several years. About 10 days ago it went screwy and I couldn’t do anything! Could work on current games, couldn’t start new games, NOTHING. I tried restarting everything and nothing worked. My only recourse was to start a new account and find my friends again. I found all but one and she is having problems on her end too. I lost all my acquired point but the worse part is that I now have to endure your endless ads. How do I get back to ad free? Not get an ad free pass for a short period of time but forever ad free? I miss my old words with Friends application.
Ads….
I don’t mind paying to not see ads, but when I pay $10 a month and they still show me an ad because the Word Strength Meter won’t activate unless I watch an ad, that’s not fair. I complained, and they told me that the money covered ads just between turns - that is nonsense.
If somebody pays $10 a month, that should cover all ads.
If somebody pays $10 a month, that should cover all ads.
Ads Ads Ads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This game wants you to watch the longest ads that have no way to be canceled or cleared and you can’t even pay to remove the ads unless you want to do it for a few days at a time.
Update: after the words with friends reached out to me I will not change my score as the game hasn’t changed.
Update: after the words with friends reached out to me I will not change my score as the game hasn’t changed.
Stop Dice Challenge Invites!!
Stop with the dice challenge invites!! I hate them! Hate Them!! I only want to play the regular game. I need a way to opt out of these stupid invites.
Word Wheel needs to accept actual words
I have a problem with Word Wheel. I typically find an average of 12-15 bonus words per game. However, in searching for actual words to complete a puzzle I've just been putting in random letters. And to my surprise it has accepted many of these "non words." I've researched these words and found that 1) they are not words accepted in Scrabble (basically Words with Friends) and should thereby not be allowed; 2) they are words in another language other than English, so not commonly known to every-one; 3) whomever is picking the "words" for the game, could easily use the plethora of bonus words (actual words) that l am finding, and I'm sure other players are finding. It is extremely frustrating, and actually quite stupid to form a game like this.
I don't claim to be a wordsmith, but I do have a masters degree and consider myself logical. There should not be a game that allows non-words, when they are not even accepted on Words with Friends.
I don't claim to be a wordsmith, but I do have a masters degree and consider myself logical. There should not be a game that allows non-words, when they are not even accepted on Words with Friends.
Limited Play
Works great for the first 24 hours then app pushes you to ads that make you go to the App Store to X out of the ad …play a word and start all over again. App is slow and will freeze causing you to have to reboot your phone.
Mega Ads
This game is fun but the ads are insane. There is practically an ad you have to watch after EVERY SINGLE move. Some games will make you watch an ad after a few moves but this is nuts. It makes you not want to play unless you spend money.
I’m mad
I’m so mad right now at word with friends it’s saying that my account is Banned again I’m over Stupid words with friends i”ll never play again
More ads than gameplay
This app is ad heavy and slows. Sometimes ads play both before and after a guess. It’s also glitchy and slows your phone down and kills your battery. Game is fun but user experience is awful
Hacking
I got hacked and they tried to hack my facebook as well! locked out of the game multiple times. I enjoyed meeting people from all over the world playing and chatting.
Way too many ads
Extremely unenjoyable due to the hot garbage ads for terrible games and temu that pop up over and over and over. Goodbye.
Ad after every turn.
What is this BS? Is this how you scam and ruin a good app?
Ads ads ads
The ads make this game unplayable. So many times I think about opening the app and then I think about the ads and I back out. Ended up deleting it
Not working
This game doesn’t let you get your prizes collect any coins
Poor sponsors
Anyone that advertises poly market or Kalshi gets one star
DIE KALSHI, DIE!!!!
For crying out loud what in the world is up with the nonstop KALSHI ads? Your app is now supported by KALSHI? What’s the matter with you people? Do you not realize or even remotely care that children play this game? How about adults who could care less about such nonsense? Who are you intending to target with KALSHI ads? Ridiculous.
Too hard
This game is way too hard.
Ads ads ads ads ads
I have been playing for 13 years and enjoy the game. While there has always been ads, it has really increased. I get an ad after every single word I play, and it is really frustrating. I know that you can buy ad free bundles but it is only for a limited period of time. The game just isn’t enjoyable anymore
And NOW 2/25 we have annoying scammer ads pretending to be Nordstrom and Talbot!
Modvani (or Modanova) is not affiliated with Nordstrom. This is a common online shopping scam. These deceptive websites often advertise on TikTok or Instagram using stolen photos of clothes from reputable brands (like Nordstrom) or lure users with fake "5 billionth Google search" pop-ups. Why do you allow these scammers?
Messaging
What is the push for LQBT in all the games - much of this going over the top and I'm sick of it. The Muslim headscarf is ridiculous.
An error in my game for over a year!!
Over a year of “we know about it but can’t tell you when it will be fixed”. I have played this game for at least 14 years or more and know how to fix glitches I get the same nonsense response It is now just a joke!
I received a response she from the developer to contact them 😂. As if I haven’t contacted them about 1 every few months and I get the same response “we are working on it”. Sure 😬😬
I received a response she from the developer to contact them 😂. As if I haven’t contacted them about 1 every few months and I get the same response “we are working on it”. Sure 😬😬
Progressive insurance characters
I’ve opted out of games with Wordmasters, yet, the games are still forced on me. I don’t want to play a game with “Flo” or “Jamie Rita” from the Progressive Insurance commercials, yet games are still initiated by the system. How do I get rid of this stuff?
App never fixed
Many times when you complete an objective the app becomes unresponsive and you need to restart it to continue. The developers are trying to get me to uninstall the app and reinstall it this way I will lose my purchase and they can display more ads.
Still shows unread tile style even though it was read, it’s been like this for 11 updates now. Never goes away. Another update and no bugs fixed.
Still shows unread tile style even though it was read, it’s been like this for 11 updates now. Never goes away. Another update and no bugs fixed.
Ads
I enjoyed the game at first. Next day it was littered with ads. Okay no big deal, well now after every match or every other match the ads completely freeze the app or the ads are so long my phone screen blacks out 2x and I just cancel it out and have to reopen. To much of a pain to keep doing.
Ads Ruined it for me
I like the game itself, but I spend more time watching and trying to close ads than the game itself.
Frustrating
I have played this game since 2012, so no one can say I’m not invested. However, I have become extremely frustrated by the constant (and I mean constant) barrage of game suggestions, attempts to get me to start games with strangers, etc. It never ends. Worse, I will regularly be shown an ad for another game which I do not want. This ad takes up my whole screen and commandeers my phone and will not allow me to x out of it. There is literally no way to close the ad except to click on “Check it out” and then complete a tutorial about the game. I thought this must be a glitch so I messaged support about it. Turns out, it’s intentional. Here is the response from support:
“ you can close it by press check-out button. Then, make sure to complete the short tutorial/instruction about the game feature.”
Seriously guys?!?! There are too many of these intrusive ads in the first place, and to have several that sort of hijack your game play is way over the top. I’m this close to deleting the game because of this.
“ you can close it by press check-out button. Then, make sure to complete the short tutorial/instruction about the game feature.”
Seriously guys?!?! There are too many of these intrusive ads in the first place, and to have several that sort of hijack your game play is way over the top. I’m this close to deleting the game because of this.
+ 10 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
90%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
6%
Negative (1-2★)