• Really fix crash introduced in 4.4.189 (for non-English devices only, apparently)
• Reduce or eliminate network connections to the now-obsolete move-passing relay
• Switch any old games using the relay to use MQTT instead
• Fix handling of wordlists built using BYOD (https://eehouse.org/byod)
• Fix problems with face-up tile picking introduced by allowing 9 tile racks
• Include translations into Polish and Turkish (via Weblate)
• Don't send post-invitation messages to random garbage addresses
• Connect to MQTT relay in a way that lets it notice disconnects
• Include new Arabic translation via Weblate
• Shrink the messages devices exchange during games (breaking compatibility with PalmOS and Windows Mobile -- remember them?)
• New translations in Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, French and Portuguese, via Weblate
• Tweak board display (colors and line thickness)
• Add support for Romanian
• Fix display of translated wordlist language names
• New translations in Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, French, Indonesian, and Portuguese
• Add "Dark" mode, off by default unless "dark theme" is enabled in Android Settings
• In App Settings, replace buttons with a popup menu
• Add option to share color themes (dark or light) via URLs on clipboard
• Fix bug preventing trading when 8 or 9 tiles left in pool
• Fix bug selecting 9th tile in 9-tile tray
• Fix bug not reporting deleted games when using SMS Data
• New translations in Chinese (Simplified), French, Indonesian, Portuguese, and Portuguese (Brazil)
• Fix crash when opening wordlist browser from in-game button (Thanks for the report!)
• Fix crash cancelling new-game dialog
• Tweak invitation dialog
• Add option to show tile values on board
• Manage app Preferences the new way (rather than how it was done in 2012). You should not notice.
• Include new translations in French (via Weblate -- thanks!)
• Tweak the UI for starting new games to better remember previous choices
• Tweak preferences color editor
• Don't ever give a first tray where there's no possible move
• Remove passwords -- nobody uses them
• Fix occasional freeze in in-game Chat view
• Include new translations in Brazilian Portuguese, Italian and Norwegian (via Weblate -- thanks!)
• Send language code rather than name when checking for wordlist upgrades
• Improve play over Bluetooth (slightly)
• Include translations in Brazillian Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Turkish (via Weblate)
• Improve communication with new internet relay
• Improve tile dragging to show motion over tiles already in place
• Include translations in Norwegian Bokmål (via Weblate)
• Significantly improve inviting and playing over Bluetooth
• Add a QR code that can be used to invite to a game
• Fix showing game-deleted message multiple times
• Improve the selected-game (checkbox) icon
• Fix problem accepting invitations on Android 11
• Fix game list items sometimes being broken for new games
• Include Brazilian Portuguese translations (new) via Weblate
• Fix crash applying certain complicated wordlist filters
• When a tile drag ends where it can't be dropped, drop it on last good location instead of where it started
• Prevent deleting the default games group
• Show orphaned games in new Recovered group
• Make long-tap on word in wordlist copy it to clipboard
• When sending invitations by SMS, launch the user's SMS app directly (same as email app)
• Stop showing spurious duplicate-invitation warnings
• Fix malformed html text on old phones
• Shrink too-big icons on old phones
• Generate new address if device’s current address is not unique
• Offer to hide new-game buttons earlier
• Redo “About CrossWords” dialog
• Preserve device's new-relay address across upgrades (including this one)
• Fix crash opening game reported on Play Store (thanks!)
• Fix random number generation, e.g. for device addresses
• Fix sending of chat messages, broken on some devices since April. Sorry :-(
• Stop requiring Storage permissions in most cases
• Improve handling of incoming invitations
• Rewrite wordlist browser to support filtering by length and letters in words
• Include new networking functionality in all releases
• Remove under-construction image that flashed by as a thumbnail was loading
• Make color of line separating board tiles configurable
• Change how dialogs are handled internally. You should NOT notice!
• Improve internet/relay play by adding a second server type (MQTT)
• Add "under construction" icon for when thumbnail isn't available
• Enable new "block phonies" option that won't let you use a word not in the wordlist
• Add new Japanese and Polish translations (via Weblate)
• Fix search of wordlists containing duplicates
• Improve upgrading of downloaded wordlists
• Include new translations, via Weblate, in French and German
• Fix timing problems when the "Phonies" setting is DISALLOW
• Speed up board drawing
• Clean up "Edit player" dialog
• Add support for Hungarian wordlists
• Fix a rare crash closing wordlists
• Fix crashes reported through the Play Store (thanks!)
• Include new Turkish translation (via Weblate)
• The last release introduced a crash for those who had customized their board to have a dark background. It's now fixed.
• Show "Not here yet" in scoreboard for invitees who have not arrived yet
• Fix new failure of game list items to shrink when collapsed
• Fix stall that was sometimes triggered by an ill-timed Undo
• Make some on-board icons smoother
• Fix crash receiving in-game chat message that's too long
• Make the board look a bit better on tall&narrow screens
• Tweak the game-configure dialog
• Make some changes you shouldn't see getting ready to support "Duplicate" play
• New translations (via Weblate) for Catalan, Dutch, French, German, Polish and Portuguese, and especially for Japanese and Spanish
• Fix board sometimes being blank after chat window dismissed
• Don't show NFC stats if it's not been used
• Include new Catalan and Spanish translations (from Weblate)
• Fix crash reported via Google Play Store
• Fix crash in some localized (non-English) versions
• Fix crash dragging tiles
• Fix invite-via-NFC for Android 10 (and improve for earlier Android versions)
• Add ability to send moves via NFC
• More translations (via Weblate) in Catalan, French, German, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, and Spanish
• Tweak network traffic arrows
• Fix a couple of other crashes reported via Google (thanks!)
• Improve message delivery for new installs
• Don't offer NFC on Android 10, where it's broken
• Improve board layout on taller, narrower screens
• Fix occasional stall sending chat messages
• Fix another (very rare!) type of stall
• Add 'X' that clears contents to right of some fields
• Turn on SMS-Data changes now that everybody should have upgraded (does not apply to Google Play builds)
• Fix crash browsing empty wordlists (e.g. Greek)
• Add translations for Catalan, Chinese, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish and Portuguese (from Weblate)
• New Polish translations, from Weblate
• Add support for 64-bit ARM, per new Google requirement
• Fix a couple of infrequent crashes
• Fix network status indicator for play-via-data-SMS (non-Play Store releases only)
• Improve invite dialogs for smaller or landscape screens
• Improve Data-SMS networking (no impact on Google Play store version)
• Make word lookup work for uncommitted words too
• Fix occasional crash when network not available
• Lots of internal changes to background networking (for games using the relay, Bluetooth or Data SMS)
• Improve Invite-via-Bluetooth dialog
• Disable Play-by-Data-SMS feature (Google Play version only)
• Replace "Google Cloud Messaging" with the newer Firebase workalike
• For Spanish games only, allow trades with fewer than 7 tiles
• New translations in Arabic, German, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish and Portuguese
• Fix some infrequent crashes
• Include new translations for Catalan, French, German and Japanese.
• Don't put up multiple tile pickers. (This feature is rarely used, but had apparently been broken for a while.)
• Fix two more bugs reported by users (Thanks!)
• Include new translations for Catalan and Norwegian
• Don't crash every time a Bluetooth message arrives
• Fix two other less likely reported crashes (Thanks!)
• Integrate latest Catalan and Norwegian translations
• Add new SMS-handling code. One feature isn't compatible with the previous release so it won't be activated until there's been time for everybody to upgrade.
• Include new Catalan translations
• Fix bug causing (rarely) unending notifications of wordlist upgrade
• Flip arrow to match when board flipped
• Fix problems when undos arrive at unexpected times
• Don't crash when game connects while app's in background
• Include latest Catalan translations (from Weblate)• Include latest German translations (from Weblate)• Fix rare bug showing duplicate one-letter hints
• For better navigation with lots of saved games, make the scrollbar thumb draggable (and move it to the left side where it doesn't obscure anything)• When space is limited in Games List display, truncate player name rather than score• Include latest Catalan translations (from Weblate)
• Don't crash (even occasionally) when closing the wordlist browser. (Reported via Google; thanks!)• Prevent setting wordlist browser min word length higher than max• Don't include current player's tiles in remaining tiles display
• Communicate with relay via http when the custom protocol isn't working (e.g. when a wifi router or firewall blocks it.)• Improved translations for Catalan, French, Japanese and Norwegian (by Weblate volunteers)• Add a few menubar icons (thanks to The Noun Project)• Fix taps on left end of items in the Games List not always selecting/unselecting them
• Offer to "Archive" finished games• Make tap on thumbnail toggle whether game's selected rather than open it. (Tap to the right still opens)• Bug fix: don't allow duplicate group names• Fix battery-hogging behavior on non-Google-play installs
• Fix occasional crash closing games with timers
• Add green chat icon for games with unread messages• Display games with unread chat at top of list• Put networked games that still aren't connected right below them• Fix crash on Samsung running (obsolete) Android version 4.4 caused by the previous release• Include latest French and Japanese translations
• Fix delays bringing up the Invite dialog for new games• Explicitly specify application "theme" to fix a Samsung "upgrade" turning the titlebar white and so making menu icons disappear
• Fix failure to create game from invitation after downloading missing wordlist
• Fix crash when invitation requires a wordlist you don't yet have• Include latest Portuguese translations
• Address crash reported through Google again (thanks!)
• Address crash reported through Google (thanks!)
• Timestamp in-game chat messages when they're created• Display timestamps (if present) to left of message sender's name• For games played via SMS data, resend dropped messages periodically• Tweak game's network status icon, removing black• Don't make sound announcing moves on one-device games• Fix crash reported to Google Play store -- thanks!
• Address crashes reported through Google (thanks!)• Don't offer to upgrade F-Droid builds (since I can't)• Pretty-up expander buttons on main games list
CrossWords is played by the same rules as a famous word-formation board game. (This site's policies prohibit my mentioning its name.) CrossWords supports games between from one to four human or robot players, in most European languages via downloadable dictionaries, and between smartphones and tablets over the wireless network, Bluetooth, or using SMS/text messages. CrossWords is free/open source software, and has no annoying ads.
In fact, my Friends say I should call it Words Without Ads.
You may wonder why CrossWords requires so many permissions. Here are the ones you're most likely to question:
* Receive/send SMS messages
If, and only if, you have explicitly enabled the "Allow games via SMS" feature, CrossWords lets you exchange moves transparently via SMS so you don't require a server. The ability to send and receive SMS messages is required for this (even though the type of SMS messages CrossWords uses, "data" messages, does not show up in messaging apps.) If you do not enable this feature CrossWords will not use SMS-related permissions.
* Read call log/contacts
These permissions are also used only if you explicitly enable play via SMS. They allow CrossWords to let you lookup the phone number of someone to invite/challenge.
* Run at startup
If you are playing games via the internet/relay and don't have "Google Cloud Messaging" enabled then periodically CrossWords checks to see if there are any moves waiting for you. Without this permission it could not start checking after you rebooted your phone until you actually started it, which not everybody thinks to do.
* Prevent phone from sleeping
There is an optional setting, disabled by default, that keeps the screen on for a longer period. It was requested by users who found the board going dark while they were studying it. If you do not enable this setting this permission is not used.
*** Resources ***
You can view or download the source code for CrossWords here: http://xwords.sourceforge.net/source.php
Report bugs or request features here: https://sourceforge.net/p/xwords/_list/tickets?source=navbar
Help with translations here: https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/xwords/android/