Words With Friends- Back and Better than Ever

Earlier this month, Zynga released a major update of their 5 year old game, Words With Friends for IOS 8. So major, in fact, that it required its own standalone app- rather than updating the old version.

Words With Friends is very much like the classic game Scrabble- the only difference being that it is played over the internet, with whomever and wherever you wish.

In the new version, the game itself remains pretty much the same, as the company doesn’t want to alienate long-time users says Vaibhav Sahgal, Zynga’s general manager for Words with Friends. The interface is now easier to navigate, and the new features make for better gameplay.

The biggest feature that players are most excited about is the new Solo player feature. Players can now play with no internet connection and practice their word skills while on long flights or waiting for friends. “This is really huge for us,” says Sahgal, “It has been requested by our players for a long time.”

And while they have down toned the social interaction with the Solo mode, Zynga has balanced it out with a new Community feature. Players can now choose who they want to play with- either based on how good they are at the game, or simply how good looking they are in their profile pictures. The app can also match players automatically based on their previous stats in the Smart Match feature.

“Our users love stats,” says Sahgal. “They love competing with others but they also like competing with themselves. They like seeing how they’re progressing in the game and how they’re getting better.”

To help players become even better at their game, Zynga included a new in-app dictionary powered by Dictionary.com, which allows players to check the definition and pronunciation of 170,000 words. They can also look up how many players have played a certain word. The dictionary also includes a new Word of the Day to help expand players’ vocabularies.

New Words With Friends is free to download in the Playstore and the Apple Appstore, and can also be played on computers through Facebook and Google+.