Words With Friends is like that one friend who’s super fun to hang out with…until they start talking about crypto and won’t let you leave. We love it. We hate it. We delete it. We re-download it two days later.
For all its charm, Words With Friends has issues. The kind of issues that make you stare at your screen in quiet fury while your phone starts to melt in your hand. Here are five things about WWF that drive us all absolutely nuts — and yet, somehow, we keep playing.
1. The Never-Ending Adpocalypse
We get it. Ads pay the bills. But Words With Friends has turned them into a full-blown lifestyle. There’s an ad after every move, multiple ads during solo challenges, and even the occasional “Congratulations, you leveled up!” screen that leads to…you guessed it, another ad.
Want to remove them? Sure — just fork over a monthly subscription fee. Not a one-time payment. Not even a “pay once per year and forget about it”. No. Zynga said “monthly, forever,” like some kind of rent-controlled nightmare.
If you don’t want to pay up, keep an eye out for the Legendary Ladder event. Occasionally, you can snag a “No Ads” reward — anywhere from 5 glorious minutes to 4+ hours of peace. It’s like winning the lottery, but instead of cash, you get uninterrupted word domination.
2. Animations That Make You Question Everything
The popups. The stickers. The little badges and cartoon sparkles every time you breathe near the app.
WWF really wants you to know you’ve earned a new badge for “50 games where you played a Z”. Unfortunately, all this fanfare comes at a cost: your sanity. The game slows to a crawl as it loads each little celebratory animation. Yes, you can now “tap to skip” some of them, but even that button is flaky. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s just for vibes.
3. Hot Phone Summer (Even in Winter)
If you’re playing on an iPhone or iPad, you’ve probably noticed that your device starts to overheat fast. Around the 10-minute mark, the back of your phone starts to warm up. By 20 minutes, you’re cooking scrambled eggs on it and the game begins to lag like it’s powering a space shuttle.
It’s a well-known problem among iOS users, and it’s one of the few things that can actually make you stop playing — unless you’re the type who’s willing to risk second-degree burns for a triple word score. (Respect.)
4. The Dictionary of Chaos
We need to talk about the “words” this game allows.
COVFEFE? Valid. HARKLE? Go for it. ITD? Apparently, yes. In 2017, WWF added tens of thousands of words, including slang, abbreviations, and gibberish that even autocorrect doesn’t recognize. It was supposed to be fun. It mostly turned the game into a free-for-all where anything goes.
The most frustrating part? A lot of these valid words have no definitions in the game’s dictionary. So not only are you losing, but you’re losing to someone who played a word that literally doesn’t exist.
5. Your Podcast Just Died (Again)
Another iOS quirk: If you’re listening to music, an audiobook, or a podcast while playing WWF, chances are it’s going to randomly pause. Sometimes just once. Sometimes repeatedly.
It’s unclear why this happens, but it’s annoying enough to make multitasking impossible. You either listen to Crime Junkie or play Words With Friends. You can’t have both. Not in this economy.
It’s Annoying, But It’s Ours
Words With Friends is the classic toxic relationship. It’s smart, nostalgic, and gives you a serotonin hit when you absolutely destroy someone with OXAZEPAM, but it also crashes your background music, melts your phone, and throws animated stickers in your face every five seconds.
And still we play. Because we are competitive. And because QI on a triple letter score is just too satisfying.