Apple News+ just added a new daily word game called Quartiles. It’s a fun word-building puzzle with a clean interface and no ads. If you want to score maximum points each day, you’ll need to know how to play Quartiles and all the tips and tricks you need to succeed.
Daily word games have been making a big comeback ever since Wordle went viral a few years ago. Sites like Puzzmo and lex.games offer a whole catalog of daily games. The New York Times offers Wordle alongside Connections, Sudoku, the crossword and others.
Apple is now getting in on the game, possibly to boost subscribers to Apple News+, adding Quartiles alongside two daily crossword puzzles that arrived in iOS 17. Here’s how to play Quartiles — keep reading below or watch our instructional video.
How to play Quartiles in Apple News+
Time needed: 15 minutes
How to play Quartiles in Apple News+
- Update to iOS 17.5
Apple introduced Quartiles in iOS 17.5, released on May 14, 2024. The free update is compatible with all the same devices that run iOS 17 — the iPhone XS, XR, SE (second-generation) and newer.
To upgrade to iOS 17.5, go to Settings > General > Software Update to download and install. It should take about 20 minutes, although the time depends on your device and internet connection.
If you’re playing on a Mac or iPad, you similarly need to update those devices to macOS Sonoma 14.5 and iPadOS 17.5. - Subscribe to Apple News+
Quartiles, alongside the daily crossword and crossword mini, are only available to Apple News+ subscribers. Aside from the games, Apple News+ includes access to news sources and magazines like Consumer Reports, National Geographic, Time, Wired, The Athletic and Wirecutter.
Apple News+ is available alone for $12.99/month. Or you can get it bundled with 2TB of iCloud+ storage, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness+ for $37.95 per month with the Premier tier of Apple One. Either subscription can be shared with up to five other people.
- Open Apple News and find Quartiles
After you’ve updated (and subscribed) to Apple News+, launch the News app. Just below the Top Stories section, you’ll see Latest Puzzles. You can also tap the Following tab; on the top, you’ll see Puzzles, where you can see today’s crosswords and Quartiles game.
Scroll down to continue a game you left in progress or tap the Quartiles tab on the top of the screen to play a game from a previous day. - The rules of Quartiles
When you play your first game, you’ll see a series of screens that explain the game. (You can bring this up again later to refresh yourself on the rules.)
You’ll see a giant grid of word segments — common single syllables, letter patterns, prefixes and suffixes. You need to combine them to make as many words as possible. It works a little like old-school game Boggle, where you compose words out of letters displayed on dice.
In Quartiles, a word can consist of a one, two, three or four tiles. In every game, there are five words that use four unique tiles. These are called “quartiles.”
Each quartile earns you eight points. Find all five quartiles and you earn 40 points, plus an additional 40 bonus points. But the game doesn’t end there — you can always score at least 100 points by building as many shorter words as you can. - How to play Quartiles
After you tap on a puzzle, you’ll see the grid of word tiles. Tap on a tile to select it, then tap on other tiles to build a word. Tap the ✓ button to see if you’ve cobbled together a valid word. You can tap the × to clear the current word at any point.
Note: You do not need to find all the quartiles at first. You can start with shorter words and build from there.
As you play, the button in the bottom right will sort quartiles you’ve found to the bottom of the board, making it easier to solve the remaining quartiles you haven’t located yet. Tap the button to toggle sorting.
The button in the bottom left will shuffle the tiles on the board, which might be helpful if you get stuck.
Tap the Words Found bar at the top to expand the complete list of words you’ve already found and how many points they’re worth.
Tap the ⋯ menu for options. You can redo the tutorial or give up and see the list of all possible words.
Tap the Back button in the top left to save your progress and come back to the puzzle later.
