iOS 17.5 Adds New 'Quartiles' Word Game for Apple News+ Subscribers

While the first iOS 17.5 beta is slim on new features, there is one fun addition for Apple News+ subscribers: a daily word game called Quartiles.

iOS 17

Quartiles tasks you with combining tiles to form words and earn points. Each puzzle starts with a grid of 20 tiles, and words can be formed with one to four tiles. A quartile is a four-tile word, and if you find all five in each puzzle, you earn a 40-point bonus. The website Gadget Hacks shared a walkthrough of the game with more details.

Quartiles is the third puzzle game included with an Apple News+ subscription, alongside Crossword and Crossword Mini. Starting with the iOS 17.5 beta, all three games integrate with Game Center to display leaderboards.

On an iPhone updated to the iOS 17.5 beta, Quartiles can be found in the Apple News app under the Following tab → Puzzles. The game is also available on the iPad and Mac starting with the iPadOS 17.5 and macOS 14.5 betas.

Apple News+ is available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the U.K., but the puzzle games seem to be limited to the U.S. and Canada for now.

iOS 17.5 will likely be released in May.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

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Top Rated Comments

vegetassj4 Avatar
13 months ago
Similar to the original Wordle Code, a months worth of words is stored in an iCloud text file:

Here is tomorrow's puzzle



Attachment Image
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
13 months ago
Oh cool, I imagine they'll add more in the future to try to compete with NYT Games.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EightyEight Avatar
13 months ago
Courage and innovation. Awesome!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Account25476 Avatar
13 months ago
I'm honestly baffled.
There are many boring and age-old bugs throughout the ecosystem and the development team spend their time playing "games" which among other things are already available for free with third party apps that are even better.

I don't get it.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pappl Avatar
13 months ago
Apple News+ is available in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Seems a non-important app.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DougieS Avatar
13 months ago

I have AppleNews+ and am based in the UK but don't have a Puzzles tab and haven't been able to find the crosswords in the past. I know Quartiles comes with 17.5 but not found crosswords before either. Is this a US only feature?
Seems likely it’s another USA only feature.
Never had Puzzles either in UK.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)