The creator behind Wordle says the viral word-guessing game will remain simple and ad-free, despite the stigma around mobile games being riddled with ads and notifications.
In case you haven't bitten by the Wordle bug, the browser-based puzzle game tasks you with identifying a five-letter word. You guess blindly at first, but with each guess you're told if any of the letters in your word are in the secret word, and whether they're in the right position on the 6x5 graph. The instructions are presented to you before each round, but other than that, the experience goes entirely uninterrupted. And it sounds like it'll stay that way.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4, creator Josh Wardle explained an almost philosophical approach to Wordle that doesn't ask for too much of your time, providing a short and sweet experience you can rely on every day. "I am a bit suspicious of mobile apps that demand your attention and send you push notifications to get more of your attention," he said.
It's a common gripe of browser-based and mobile games that they're often plagued with all-too-frequent ads and constantly ping you with notifications. Thankfully, Wardle doesn't envision a similar future for Wordle.
"I like the idea of doing the opposite of that - what about a game that deliberately doesn't want much of your attention? Wordle is very simple and you can play it in three minutes, and that is all you get ... There are also no ads and I am not doing anything with your data, and that is also quite deliberate."
