Scrabble Go vs. Words With Friends: Which Android Game Is Better?

Published 19 January 2023 at 23:10

Tickikids Blog Dubai >  After-School Activities >  Scrabble Go vs. Words With Friends: Which Android Game Is Better?

Words With Friends and Scrabble are the two most popular word games. Before the rapid growth of the mobile and gaming industries, people usually played these games on the board. But today, Words With Friends has more than 13 million active users monthly on its Android and Apple games. The Words With Friends game is similar to Scrabble, which debuted in 1938.

Both android games have noticeable differences in gameplay, user interface, sounds, graphics, and more. You will need different strategies, words, and letter combinations in both games. 

But which one is better on the Android platform? Let us look at the worst and the best bits of these two Android games, and which one will suit you the most?

1. Dictionaries

Dictionaries play a primary role in all word games, and these two are not different. You might not notice this difference in four or five games, but once you play 15-20 games, you will see it too. Both the games use different dictionaries.

Words With Friends uses their own words and a public dictionary(ENABLE), while Scrabble only uses a dictionary(Hasbro)

Do different dictionaries make any difference? Yes, they do make a lot of difference. Since Words With Friends does not have a prime dictionary, you will find a lot of inconsistencies regarding the words you can make. For instance, it will allow you to use the word Parrot, but it will not allow you to use Parrots, which is the plural form of Parrot and makes equal sense. 

You will find the same pattern in acronyms, plurals, and other words. It makes the game unpredictable, and you need to remember more words to win against a strong opponent.

This inconsistency forces you to use specific tools made for these games. For instance, using an online tool that can give or check all accepted words in Words With Friends or Scrabble individually will make a significant difference. You can search for a specific word according to its initial letter, final letter, letter length, number of vowels, and more conditions. You can use the Words With Friends Word Finder tool to search for all the valid words in Words With Friends. 

2. Board Layout and Gameplay

Both games have a different board layouts but use the same 15*15 grid system. Scrabble Go follows the traditional pattern of the original board game, which has triple-word bonus squares or boxes in the corners. These triple-word bonus squares are along the outer edge of the Words With Friends game.

This layout helps the players with the first turn in Scrabble. The Scrabble app uses the same traditional system of giving an edge to the first player by counting the central square as a double word. It does not happen in Words With Friends, as it gives you the same points for the middle square/word.

Letter Tiles:

Letter tiles' values and bonuses are also different as Scrabble GO uses the traditional Scrabble letter tile distribution and value as the original game. However, Words With Friends uses a different approach for calculating value and distribution systems.

The number of double or triple-letter squares is also different in both games. However, the total number is the same.

1. A Scrabble board gives you 17 double-letter squares, whereas a Words With Friends board gives you 12 double-letter squares,
2. Similarly, a Scrabble board gives you 12 triple-letter squares, whereas a Words With Friends board gives you 16 of them.

But, what difference does it make in the game strategy or approach? According to the different placements of the square boxes, 

1. You can score more points using a high-value letter in a word in Words With Friends,
2. However, while playing Scrabble Go, you need to use words with more characters or letters to have a better chance of winning the game.

3. Bonus Point System

Scrabble is also a little unfair in the Bonus Point System. It gives you a massive 50-point bonus if you play a word with seven tiles. Scrabble calls it Bingo. Try to score one or two Bingos every game to increase your chances of winning the game. Always try making your strategies around Bingos to score more bonus points.

You can also try to make unique words with uncommon characters that will give you bonus points in Scrabble..

Words With Friends does not give you a massive 50-point bonus for Bingos. I find this approach more ideal because Scrabble already gives an advantage to the player that goes first. Giving a 50-point bonus does not help the other player much.

Words With Friends gives you an equal opportunity to score more points even if you can not make a Bingo. You can make unique and short words and score more points than a Bingo.

4. In-Game Power-Ups

Both android games offer different power-ups and boost to get an edge over their opponents. Here are some primary ones you would like to learn before playing the game.

Boosts You Get in Scrabble Go

Scrabble Go gives you gems as you progress in the game. You can use these gems to buy different types of boosts in the game. Almost all these boosts cost 10 or 5 gems each, depending on the mode you play. Here are some famous boosts or power-ups of Scrabble Go:

1. Magnifying Glass: You can only use this boost in the duel mode. It gives you the best word you can play at a particular location.
2. Quick Word: You can use this boost only in lightning mode. It plays a random word for you from your rack.
3. Word Spy: You can use this boost in the Binoculars mode. It shows you all the locations of possible words.
4. Rack Swap: You can use it during your bonus swap. It allows you to swap letters, but you do not lose a turn.

Boosts You Get in Words With Friends

There are two ways to earn power-ups or boosts in Words With Friends. You can purchase coins (in-game currency) to buy power-ups or boots, or you can complete daily challenges and collect daily bonuses.

Here are some of the popular game boosts of Words With Friends:

1. Word Clue or The Purple Magnifying Glass: You can use this boost or power-up to highlight a space on your board and the tile you can place there. However, it will not tell you if that tile is the highest-scoring word.
2. Word Radar or The Green Radar: This boost allows you to see where you can play most words according to the letters in your rack.
3. Hindsight or Blue Glasses: You can use this boost after you play a word. It tells you about the more positions you could play this word for more points. Yes, it is a somewhat depressing tool.
4. Swap+ or The Pink rotation: This boost is similar to the Rack Swap boost of the Scrabble GO game. You can change your letter tiles without losing a turn using this boost.

6. Game Modes

As mentioned earlier, both games have more game modes than offline versions for obvious reasons. You can use these modes to make the game more interesting for yourself and your opponent.

Words With Friends Game Modes

Here are some most popular game modes of Words With Friends.

1. Lightning Round: The lightning round creates two teams with five players on both sides. Both teams try to win by collecting 750 points by scoring words from shared game boards.
2. Solo Challenge: You can use Solo Challenge mode if you want to play against fictional characters. These characters will have different difficulty levels as per your themes. You have to defeat these characters and earn bonuses. Several people complain about this mode getting stuck frequently. You can minimize the app for 1-2 minutes and try to connect to the game again.
3. Word Wheel: This mode is similar to games like Word Yard, Word Scapes, etc. It gives you more opportunities to earn bonuses.

You can also play weekly challenges to unlock custom tiles and earn bonuses. 

Scrabble GO Game Modes

Here are some most popular game modes of Words With Friends.

1. Scrabble Classic: You can use this mode to play without boosts against AI and humans both.
2. Single Player Scrabble: You can use this mode if you want to play against a computer-controlled opponent(Bot), Zoey. You can choose any difficulty level from: Grand Master, Master, Hard, Medium, Easy.
3. Scrabble GO Duels: You can use this method if you want to play on a smaller board (11*11). Each player only gets five moves in a limited time in this mode
4. Tumbler Classic: It is a mini-game like Wordscape or Wordyard that you can use to make a word from given six-letter tiles.
5. Rush Classic: You have to score as many points as possible in 10 turns in this mode. 

Wrapping Up

It depends on you and your friend(s) which type of word game you want to play. For instance, you can play Scrabble if you do not want inconsistencies in words. Also, you can try Words With Friends, which has a better interface than Scrabble Go.