Review Insights · App Store
Words With Friends Word Game
Zynga Inc. · 744,608 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
744,608 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 58 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"
35 negative reviews mention this · 60% of all complaints
★★★★★ "help desk is a joke. it is now a full YEAR that I have an unknown red dot on my name 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! Will be posting all over social…" - NATEHRH
2
"play"
18 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "help desk is a joke. it is now a full YEAR that I have an unknown red dot on my name 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! Will be posting all over social…" - NATEHRH
3
"every"
18 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads are INSUFFERABLE!!. I deleted this app and don’t play this game anymore because ads were INSUFFERABLE!!! After every move there is an ad that has like 3-4 segments. It’s TORTURE." - Snjavister
4
"playing"
11 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Awful. Can’t even enjoy playing the game because after every move you make, you get ad after ad. The ads will get stuck with no way to close them out, forcing you to have to close and restart the app. It is ridiculous that to remove the ads you ha…" - Teatedpeak
5
"years"
9 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "help desk is a joke. it is now a full YEAR that I have an unknown red dot on my name 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! Will be posting all over social…" - NATEHRH
6
"friends"
9 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Update needed. I’ve played this game for years but something is wrong now. Ads freeze, players are missing from my list and I can’t connect with friends. Please fix it!" - nunyabizness920
7
"annoying"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "So many ads omg. Literally an ad after every word you play its so annoying omg" - Novamayleigh
8
"games"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not working. Games are not syncing." - Customer999
9
"been"
6 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bloat and distractions. I love playing the core game, Words With Friends. I’ve been playing with friends and family for many, many years. It’s great. I think the app itself is awful. Full stop. AWFUL. 95% of the stuff in here is completely worthless. I’m talking …" - onedollarninja
📋 All 58 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").
help desk is a joke
it is now a full YEAR that I have an unknown red dot on my name 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! Will be posting all over social media; maybe embarrassment will make them fix this
Ads are INSUFFERABLE!!
I deleted this app and don’t play this game anymore because ads were INSUFFERABLE!!! After every move there is an ad that has like 3-4 segments. It’s TORTURE.
Ads
You guys are crazy for these ads after every move we have to see a ad honestly I’d give no stars because after every update y’all do all you do is make these ads longer and harder to get out but I’ve found a solution on the ads part so that way I see no ads after every move
Awful
Can’t even enjoy playing the game because after every move you make, you get ad after ad. The ads will get stuck with no way to close them out, forcing you to have to close and restart the app. It is ridiculous that to remove the ads you have to pay to then only have them gone for 7 days. Would be a really fun game but the ads and pop ups ruin it
So many ads omg
Literally an ad after every word you play its so annoying omg
Ads don’t go away
Many of your ads take 10+ clicks to go away. I’d like a response.
I’m Out
I stopped playing for a while because my mom passed, and it made me sad that I couldn’t play with her anymore. Now that I’ve come back, I can’t get into my old account and there’s no more ad free subscription. I’m not willing to pay weekly. I’m really sorry…I love playing with my friends, but Zynga- you’ve made a mistake here. I’m out.
Not working
Games are not syncing.
To many ads
Great fun game, enjoy playing. But an ad after each turn… that’s a little excessive.
What have you become?
I recently redownloaded this cause I used to love it. The absolutely insane amount of ads and microtransactions have ruined it. I can’t even find the classic Scrabble-based game anymore.
If you want to actually play, try the new NYT Crossplay.
If you want to actually play, try the new NYT Crossplay.
Ads
They started having ads that last way too long in between every play. Sometimes you have to tap the X 3 to 5 times to get out of the ad. Sometimes they automatically open up Safari and go to whatever ad it is. Very frustrating. Not sure why they changed the way they do this! Probably so you would spend three dollars a week to eliminate the ads!
Ads, ads, more ads!
Was a decent app, but now just bombards you with advertising. Garbage.
Ads
There are ads after every single play. And the ads are long, or the ads freeze and you have to close the game out and reopen. Every time. Support doesn’t care. Clearly there is a bot or something giving this game 5 stars. It’s the worst.
Bloat and distractions
I love playing the core game, Words With Friends. I’ve been playing with friends and family for many, many years. It’s great.
I think the app itself is awful. Full stop. AWFUL. 95% of the stuff in here is completely worthless. I’m talking about all the side games, the constant notifications in app, the store, the clubs, the AI player stuff, the myriad of different rewards and currencies. It. Is. EXHAUSTING. I hate it. I hate that I can’t do anything in the app without annoying popups every 30 seconds or so.
Zynga could strip out all this nonsense, fire 95% of the staff working on the game, and end up with a better experience.
Think about it.
I think the app itself is awful. Full stop. AWFUL. 95% of the stuff in here is completely worthless. I’m talking about all the side games, the constant notifications in app, the store, the clubs, the AI player stuff, the myriad of different rewards and currencies. It. Is. EXHAUSTING. I hate it. I hate that I can’t do anything in the app without annoying popups every 30 seconds or so.
Zynga could strip out all this nonsense, fire 95% of the staff working on the game, and end up with a better experience.
Think about it.
Ads Make it UNPLAYABLE
The tricks to keep you sticky in between games are impossible to exit out of and there is no clear way to purchase an ad-free version. This is beyond frustrating and a TERRIBLE business practice.
Can’t finish a game
Don’t get too invested in this game because the chances of actually getting to complete the game before it crashes or glitches are slim to none. Every time.
Full of Bots
Playing this game is a complete FRAUD. About 90% of the players are BOTS. They are not real and Zynga will not comment on whether they are or are not. Trust me, they are all bots. There are few people playing that are actually human. Reddit has lists upon lists of “players” that are bots. It has been accumulated over a few years. WWF is a complete FRAUD
Ugh
10 year user. I've quit over the ads
Game not fun
Too many ads; too many pop-ups; not fun to play anymore.
Temu Ads
The temu ads are rampant and they open a new tab in your browser every time you click the x button.
So Bad
I remember playing this when it was first released, figured I’d give it another shot. What an absolute flaming pile of garbage with unavoidable ads galore. Not even a button to close them, I have to hard close the app to get rid of them and take my next turn. Shameful.
Junk
App is so rigged and always gives either all vowels or all consonants. In the true game, that’s pretty hard to do when pulling your own tiles! Not a true and fair game!!! Plus having to watch lengthy dumb videos several times in a row to earn bonuses is ridiculous! Who wants to watch two people playing Vita Mahjong for 30 seconds each video?!
Nonsense Words
A friend asked me to play this game. I could not find words like “chazmy” in any English dictionary.
Help!!!!! 😳😳😳😱😱😱🤬🤬🤬
Too many ads and repeatedly taking me to websites and scamming. . I’m getting scammed again and again. The game lags. I’ve been playing this game for several years and I still haven’t received any help from.
Stop the Dice Bots!
Used to play regularly. I have no interest in the dice version of the game and being forced to decline a dice game every time I open Word makes me want to play less and less.
Brain Rot
This used to be a good game. Nothing lasts.
Too many adds
Game ruined with way too many long ads between moves, from companies I’ve never heard of and places you should never give your credit card number to. Find something better to play. Beware.
Unplayable
I played this years ago (15 years) and recall it as very fun. Now, with max monetization and adds it is essentially unplayable.
ADS AFTER EVERY WORD
I have ads after every single word I play. This is insufferable. Actually so insane this is the state of this app.
Fraudulent scam ads won’t close
Just returned after years away from game, I remembered tons of ads, which was why my friends and I left. Now, though, ads are fraudulent medical scams about honey curing serious illnesses like diabetes and Alzheimer’s! Shocking and should be illegal, but when you try and tap the x to get out, a window opens instead trying to take you to the site - god knows what scam hacking trash would infect your device! Horrible, hope they get sued
UX from hell
The app seems like it was designed to be as annoying as possible. It’s nearly impossible to find your games that are in progress. Uninstalled after just a few minutes of use.
Punishment
We used to be able and watch videos and get coins 🪙 for in game play. Now since I’ve complained about game play being horrible it seems that has been taken away AND OR REDUCED TO ALMOST NOTHING. And sometimes/a lot of times when I click on whatever I’m clicking on….nothing happens!! Daily bonuses are gone. Rewards that used to be 20 coins are now 5 or even 1 coin. SHAMEFUL!!
Temu!!
Even when I click cancel on the Temu add, it opens Temu.. then that kicks off a load of spam emails. Sick of it. About to delete the app
Ads Everywhere
This game is so annoying. You have to keep closing and opening after two moves. The bombardment of ads takes away from the experience of playing. More still, they assign losses if you decline game invites from strangers. If you don’t want to play 10 games at a time, you’ll have a long tally of losses to the point where your record means nothing at all. Just trash, all around.
Respect your customers
I opted out of being matched with people I do not know in settings. It finally worked after months of declining random people’s games. Now with the last two updates people are randomly matching me again. If I don’t want random people I do not know and am not friends with nor connected to in game to be able to contact me or start games, that’s a basic opt-out privacy setting you already have in your settings options, THEN RESPECT YOUR CUSTOMERS CHOICE TO NOT BE MATCHED WITH RANDOM PEOPLE. I’ve tolerated this for over a year and if you’re back to doing this forced matching nonsense then you lose my purchases and my business for permanently. Fix it, now.
To Many Ads
There is literally an ad after every move you make.
What the heck
I paid for no advertisements and I get 1 wk now advertising. FIX IT PLEASE I’m not made of money the season pass was paid for on 3/30/26. Via Apple fix it ASAP or I’ll report it to Apple & if you check the Montana AG has serious fines for taking advantage of seniors whose sole income is Social Security. Thank you for you assistance.
WELL IT’S been 15 days into my pass and I’m now experiencing MORE ADS ! Needless to say I’m not happy and I’m questioning your abilities to adequately provide maintenance for this app. You can’t ask someone to pay for something and then not provide the service you promised that was going to be provided for that financial investment. While it’s diddly to you on social security it adds up.
WELL IT’S been 15 days into my pass and I’m now experiencing MORE ADS ! Needless to say I’m not happy and I’m questioning your abilities to adequately provide maintenance for this app. You can’t ask someone to pay for something and then not provide the service you promised that was going to be provided for that financial investment. While it’s diddly to you on social security it adds up.
Respect player choices
You allow players to opt out of random matches with people we do not know in settings, but add new player v. player options (e.g. dice game) that seems to have overridden that choice. I now get dice AND regular game matches with people I do not know despite opting out in settings. Respect player choices to not have to interact with people they do not know and are not friends with, and let us out of matching with non friends if we set that in settings.
Nothing but ads
I wish I could give this game zero stars. This is just ads with a little bit of game every now and then.
should be called “Ads with friends”
Too many ads!!!! Every time you make a word there is an unskippable ad. Then when the “x” pops up to close the ad it actually tricks you and opens Temu instead. Makes the game very unenjoyable.
Ads with Friends
Ridiculous amount of ads makes the game borderline unplayable
Sooooo many Ads!!!
I haven't played in awhile so I decided to play again. I don't remember so many ads and the length of them is ridiculous! There's an ad after every single play. I finished my game and deleted it. It's not fun.
Cheater game
This game is horrible- allows letters that are not words- names- Absolutely the crappier pp on here
Overbearing Adds
Wow. How does one play this without going being blocked all over with adds? I used to play this years ago, but now this app is so trashy and feels super scammy with too many pop-ups
Ads are excessive
The game may be a good concept but the ads are so persistent that it makes playing this game near impossible.
Ads
I paid $16 for no ads and I didn’t even get a full month, I thought I would at least get a few months at that price. I will be deleting the app
Update needed
I’ve played this game for years but something is wrong now. Ads freeze, players are missing from my list and I can’t connect with friends. Please fix it!
Too Many Popups
The game is fine, and I like the board more than Scrabble or Cross-Play; however, the ads and pop ups are insane. I just find myself closing the app after every turn I play because I’m just bombarded with ads, or rewards, or the battle pass, or tile styles, or whatever other bloat this game has. I just go play the new Crossplay game from NYT, there’s still ads but it’s not nearly as egregious
Ads with Strangers
I love the gameplay. It’s fun,educational and a time passer but I don’t spend much time on it because it’s more ads than anything else.
Terrible chat
Well the awful chat feature was made even more awful. I’ve accidentally erased one too many messages and I will be deleting the app. What a shame in this day and age.
+ 8 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
91%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
6%
Negative (1-2★)