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Add to your Home Screen

Words can live on your Home Screen and open like an app, in a window of its own with no address bar.

Add it before you start playing. On iPhone and iPad, progress made in the browser stays in the browser and does not move to the new icon.

iPhone and iPad

Safari and Chrome both do this the same way. The only difference is where each keeps the Share button.

  1. Open this game in Safari or Chrome.
  2. Tap the Share button , the square with an arrow coming out of the top. Safari keeps it in the bar at the bottom of the screen, and Chrome keeps it in the menu behind the three dots.
  3. Scroll down the list of actions and tap Add to Home Screen.
  4. Tap Add, at the top right.

Android

Use Chrome, or another Chromium browser such as Edge or Samsung Internet. The wording differs a little between them.

  1. Open this game in Chrome.
  2. Tap the three dots at the top right.
  3. Tap Install app, or Add to Home screen if that is what your version calls it.
  4. Confirm with Install or Add.

Either way, it stays a web page: nothing from an app store, nothing to sign in to, and removing the icon removes all of it, progress included.

How to play

Make words from the letters in the circle to fill the grid.

  • Tap letters, then press Check. Or slide your finger across them.
  • Words need at least 3 letters.
  • Hint fills in one letter. Hints are free, so use as many as you like.
  • Shuffle moves the letters around, which can help you see new words.
  • Other words the letters can make count as bonus words.
  • Every 10 puzzles, the season changes, and the colors change with it.
  • Each day brings a bonus puzzle. Finishing it adds an apple to your tree.

There is no timer and no rush.

About Applewood

I made Applewood so the people I love can enjoy a puzzle in peace.

Many free games come with strings attached, especially for older players. Ads pop up in the middle of a puzzle, some try to install other games and apps, and others push coins and purchases. That is a distraction at best, and a security risk at worst.

Applewood is free, with no account or sign-in, no purchases and no ads, and it will never try to install anything. Nothing you do here leaves this phone, there is no timer, and a missed day never costs anything.

I have no plans to sell it. No subscription, no advertising, and nothing about you to sell.

I am Greg Peddle, and I built Applewood for my family. If you enjoy it too, I'm delighted. Please enjoy it as a gift.

Your privacy

Everything stays on this phone. There are no accounts, no ads and no tracking. The game only asks its own website for new puzzles and updates, and it sends nothing about you.

Your progress, bonuses, and settings are saved locally. Deleting the game from your Home Screen removes them too.

Word list credits

The puzzles were built from word lists that their authors shared freely. Their notices follow.


      

      
    

  

  
  
    

      

        
Reset to zero

        
This will erase your progress and you will start at the very beginning. Are you sure?

        
Your bonus words, apples and trees will be erased too. Your sound setting stays as it is.

        
This cannot be undone.