On Thursday, Apple introduced Emoji Game to Apple News+, a new game that joins the service’s offerings of word and number puzzles. Emoji Game is available to subscribers of News+ in the U.S. and Canada.
The object of Emoji Game is to complete word phrases by interpreting a given set of emoji, including Genmoji. For example, in the Emoji Game I just played, the first word in a phrase had five letters, and one of the emoji sets I could pick from was 😴💭, which I guessed (correctly) represented the word “dream.” The object is to finish the phrases in as few moves as possible. Clues are provided, but using a clue counts as a move. That full clue also included an homage to Apple’s founder with a black turtleneck, jeans, apple, and iPhone emoji to represent “Jobs.”
Emoji Game is a daily game, so once you’ve finished the game for the day, you have to wait until the next day to play again. Results are tracked on Game Center so you can compare your score with others, and scores can be shared through Mail, Messages, and social media. Subscribers can also play previous games if they miss a day.
The emoji game was first spotted as part of the iOS 26 beta following WWDC. We assumed it would arrive in September, but Apple appears to have released it early. The public beta of iOS 26 is expected to arrive next week.
The release of Emoji Game coincides with World Emoji Day, a day created 11 years ago by Emojipedia. World Emoji Day celebrations include the World Emoji Awards, a sing-along with the World Emoji Day anthem, and parties where you dress up as your favorite emoji. I tried to commemorate the day by writing this paragraph in just emojis, but it was 🤯.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor, Macworld
Roman is a Macworld Senior Editor with over 30 years of experience covering the tech industry, focusing on the Mac and other products in the Apple ecosystem. He is also the host of the Macworld Podcast. His career started at MacUser, where he received Apple certification as a repair technician (when Apple did that kind of thing). He's also worked for MacAddict, MacLife, and TechTV.