A Consumer Review of WordWise Pro 1.35 for iPhone

WordWise Pro is a Scrabble-type game that has an interesting premise but is hampered by problems such as touchscreen controls that are very poor. Also very annoying is that in order to play, you have to log in using your Google account. The privacy statement, tucked away in a website that’s disappointingly difficult to track down, claims that claims that no personal information will be shared with anybody; however, the Terms of Service makes a point of saying that the company won’t accept any liability under any circumstances, and that, rather worryingly, the privacy policies can be changed at any time without any notification. The reason claimed for requiring your Google info is to enable you to play your friends, which is not very convincing at all. It would be extremely simple to set up a different system that could achieve the same goal by using unique log-ins. There’s simply no persuasive justification for asking for such personal data simply in order to be able to play the game on a network.

You also need to download the AirMail app in order to play, which in theory sends you a notification electronically every time another player has made a move. I say ‘in theory’, because it doesn’t actually do any such thing; all it seems to do is use up large quantities of battery power.

From the WordWise Pro main screen multiple games can be set up. In the free version, you are allowed a maximum of five games, and it’s also advertising-driven. For a dollar, you get rid of the ads and there are no limits on the number of games. From the main menu you can choose games, look for a random stranger to play against, invite your friends to play, or you can choose to skip one of your turns. However, when trying to select a game, sometimes the menu shows it as wanting to invite a friend. Not even restarting the program seems to fix this very annoying bug; the only thing that seems to take care of it is turning the phone off and turning it on again.

Lastly, the game board interface is not responsive enough, and is generally quite awkward. This forms a huge contrast to the interface of WordFeud, which is quite beautiful. Generally, WordWise makes WordFeud seem like a work of genius by comparison and I would choose it over WordWise any day of the week.