New York Times ends third party app access to its crossword puzzles

1comment
New York Times ends third party app access to its crossword puzzles
The New York Times is known for its motto, "All the news that's fit to print." It also is known for having arguably the most difficult crossword puzzle printed in any newspaper. The Times announced on Monday that starting on August 10th it will no longer make its crossword puzzle available to third-party apps. Previously, New York Times crossword fans could access the puzzle using the .puz format on the Across Lite platform.

A message written by editor Everdeen Mason explains that "starting Aug. 10, we will no longer support crossword play on Across Lite. This means we won’t provide downloadable .puz files for use on that platform. You can play the NYT crossword on our Crossword App and on desktop and mobile web. Thank you for supporting our team as we improve and streamline our processes to allow our editors to do what they love best: edit fun puzzles our community submits to us."

With the change, Times crossword fans will still be able to do the crossword on the Times website and from the dedicated New York Times Crossword app for iPhone and iPad. For the first seven days, the crossword and the daily Mini crossword are free. After that period has expired, the daily Mini is on the house.

The daily puzzles available from the app include:

The Crossword- the same puzzle printed every day in the New York Times. It increases in difficulty from Monday to Saturday. The Sunday puzzle is midlevel but is the largest.

The Mini Crossword- the Mini is a short crossword that takes only a few minutes to complete. The mini is great to play during those short breaks you have during the day. Unlike the Crossword, the Mini doesn’t increase in difficulty throughout the week and features simpler clues.

Spelling Bee-How many words can you make with seven letters.? That's the Times' Spelling Bee game in a nutshell. New Spelling Bee puzzles are available every day at 3 a.m. E.T. An annual subscription is $39.99 or you can choose to pay $6.99 per month instead.

If you want to show off your intellectual abilities or keep your brain muscles extra sharp, the New York Times Crossword app for iPhone and iPad can do the job. You can install it from the App Store by tapping on this link. If you're an Android user, you can install the very same app by clicking on this link. And if you want to see how well you did on the Times crossword, you can see the answers to previous puzzles by clicking on this link!

Recommended Stories

Loading Comments...
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless