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The New York Times' Connections game is, like Wordle before it, an online game that a lot of people play every day. But what is Connections? How do you play Connections? And what do you need to know about Connections before you dive in?
What Is the New York Times' Connections Game?
Connections is a daily logic puzzle created and curated by the New York Times. It’s available to play online for free by visitingthe Connections websiteon desktop or mobile. Or you can play it onthe New York Times Games app, which is home to all the publication’s various games.
The New York Times has offered a crossword since 1942. But in more recent years, the NYT has introduced a broader range of games. These include Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles, Vertex, and Wordle. The latter being a phenomenon that spawnedcountless Wordle alternatives and spin-offs.
In 2023,the New York Times launched Connections. The game has since grown in popularity due to being simple to play but difficult to master. The basic rules are simple enough for anyone to understand, but actually succeeding at the game day-in, day-out can be a tough ask.
How to Play the NYT’s Connections Game
To play Connections, first visit the Connections website or open the New York Times Games app if you have it installed.
ClickPlay, and after the splash screen that tells you how to play Connections, you’ll be faced with a wall of 16 words.
The idea of the game is to place these 16 words into groups of four based on a connection they share with each other. I say “a” connection, because some words share multiple similarities. You need to find the correct one in each case.
Look for the similarities and differences between the words—and try to find the first group of four. Once you are confident you have identified it, select each one on the screen, and hitSubmit. If you change your mind after selecting four, you’re able to click it again to deselect it or click theDeselect allbutton underneath the puzzle to wipe the slate clean.
If your grouping is correct, the words will move to the top of the game and that bar will change color. The groups are given colors to indicate their difficulty level, with green at the top; followed by yellow, blue, and purple in that order. But you don’t need to get them in that order—you just need to get them, period.
If you get a grouping wrong at any point, the words will be automatically deselected and you’ll lose one of your four lives. The NYT refers to these as mistakes and you can see how many mistakes you have remaining underneath the puzzle.
Continue guessing the groupings until you either fill out the whole board and complete the Connections puzzle for that day or you run out of lives. Either way, you then have to wait until midnight in your local timezone before the next puzzle goes live.
How to Share Your Connections Results With Others
To share your results, whether to celebrate success or to admit failure, click theShare Your Resultsbutton that pops up when you finish the game. Sharing your results is a way of engaging in some friendly competition with others who also play Connections on a daily basis.
On desktop, this copies your results to the clipboard. You can then paste them into an email or on your favorite social media site. On mobile, this also copies your results to the clipboard for pasting. However, you’ll also be given a number of ways to share it directly depending on what apps you have installed on your device.
Your Connections results for that day are shared as colored squares. This ensures that you’re not spoiling the game for anyone else by revealing the words or groups that they need to end up in.
If Connections isn’t your thing, there are plenty of othertwo-player mobile games to play with friends or strangers.
Things You Need to Know About Connections Before You Play
Before you start playing Connections, there are a few things you should understand:
Connections has become one of several games I play daily. Alongside Wordle and The Mini crossword, it offers both a fun diversion and some friendly competition with my partner. Unfortunately, she generally beats me at all of the above.
