The Cryptogram App for iPhone
Written and checked by hand. Last reviewed July 25, 2026.
Everything on this website stays free: today's cryptogram, the whole archive, the printable sheets and the solving guides. The iPhone app is for the parts a website genuinely cannot do well — keeping a streak, playing with no signal, replaying years of puzzles, and carrying your progress from your phone to your iPad without an account.
Coming soon to the App Store
The app is finished and going through review. When it is live, this becomes a link straight to it.
What the app adds
| This website | iPhone app | |
|---|---|---|
| Today's puzzle, in full | Yes, free | Yes |
| Past puzzles by date | Yes, the whole archive | Yes |
| Printable sheets and answer keys | Yes | — |
| Solver, guides, frequency chart | Yes | — |
| Source of every quotation | Yes | Yes |
| Daily streak and streak protection | — | Yes |
| Play with no internet connection | — | Yes |
| Statistics, history, personal records | — | Yes |
| Sync across your devices via iCloud | — | Yes |
| Reveal a word, clear mistakes, choose a feedback mode | — | Yes |
| Account or sign-up required | No | No |
The streak
Solve the day's puzzle and the streak goes up by one. Miss a day and it would normally go back to zero — which, if you have been at it for eight months, is a genuinely disheartening way to be punished for a hospital visit.
So the app carries freeze tokens. You earn them by keeping the streak going, they are spent automatically on a day you miss, and there is a short window afterwards in which a missed day can still be repaired. The intent is that a long streak reflects a long habit rather than an unbroken run of convenient weeks.
Offline
The puzzles live on the device, so the app works with no signal at all. This is the feature people tell us about most often after they have had it for a while, usually in connection with a commute or a waiting room.
The whole archive
Every puzzle we have published, playable at any time, in any order, at whatever pace you like. Fifty in an afternoon if that is your mood. The website keeps the archive too, but the app is where it is comfortable to work through in bulk, and where it works without a connection.
Made for the way this puzzle is actually solved
- Large type as standard, with the letter grid sized so that similar shapes stay distinct, and full support for the iPhone's own text-size settings.
- Three feedback modes. Relaxed shows a mistake and clears it after a moment; standard leaves it marked until you fix it; expert says nothing at all until you ask for a check. The check is always free.
- Unlimited undo, back to the first letter you wrote. Nothing is ever lost by experimenting.
- A letter frequency tool built in, so you do not have to count by eye.
- Hints when you want them — reveal a letter, reveal a word, or clear the wrong answers — and never a hint you did not ask for.
- The source of every quotation, exactly as on this website. Author, year and original work.
What it costs
The app is free to download and the daily puzzle is free in it. An optional subscription unlocks the complete archive and the rest of the extras, with a free trial period, and there is a one-time purchase for people who would rather not subscribe to anything ever again. Current prices are shown in the App Store and in the app before you buy anything.
There is no account, no email address, no password. Purchases are handled by Apple in the usual way, and can be managed or cancelled from your Apple account settings. What is collected, and by whom, is set out in our privacy policy; the purchase terms are in the terms of use.
If you would rather not install anything
That is a perfectly good choice and nothing here is designed to wear you down about it. Today's puzzle is on the front page, the archive is open, and the printable sheets need nothing but a printer. The app is an offer, not a toll gate.
Questions we get
Is the daily puzzle the same in the app as on the website?
Yes, exactly the same. The cipher is generated from the puzzle's own identifier by the same procedure on both, so a given date produces an identical puzzle for everyone, everywhere, on either.
Do I need the app to solve the daily puzzle?
No. Today's puzzle is free on this website with no account and no app, and it always will be. The app exists for the things a web page does badly: streaks, offline play, the full archive and syncing.
Does it work without a signal?
Yes. The puzzles are on the device. Aeroplanes, trains, basements and waiting rooms all work.
Is there advertising in the app?
The app does not currently show advertising. If that changes it will be optional and it will never interrupt a puzzle in progress. Our privacy policy is kept current with whatever is actually running.
What happens to my streak if I miss a day?
The app carries streak protection: a small number of freeze tokens that cover a missed day automatically, and a short repair window afterwards. It is designed so that one bad week does not undo a year.
Is it on Android?
Not at the moment. The website works on any phone, tablet or computer, and today's puzzle is always playable there.
Keep reading
- The daily archiveEvery past cryptogram, filed by year and month.
- How to solve a cryptogramThe full method, step by step, with a worked example.
- About Cryptogram PressWho makes these, and where every quotation comes from.
- Privacy policyWhat the app and this site do and do not collect.
- Terms of useThe terms covering the app and this website.
- Free printable cryptogramsPDF puzzle sheets with the answer key on page two.