Apple News is testing a game that kind of looks like NYT Connections

Apple News is testing a new game for iOS 17.5 called Quartiles, which requires players to arrange a grid of 20 syllables into 5 four-syllable words. Spotted by Gadget Hacks, Quartiles’ interface looks a lot like the new New York Times hit, Connections. Did Apple News steal the New York Times?

Okay, Quartiles isn’t exactly like Connections, where you organize 16 words into four coherent categories of four. It’s perhaps closer to something like Boggle, since you’re tested on your ability to put words together from their component parts. But there’s something about finding groups of four that we seem to find really appealing these days: Connections is now the Times’ second most popular game, after Wordle.

Last year, Apple added crosswords and mini crosswords for Apple News+ subscribers. While it may seem strange that a news aggregator would continue to invest in games, that’s exactly what worked for the New York Times. When the newspaper purchased the game Wordle in 2022 for an undisclosed seven-figure sum, the purchase attracted “tens of millions” of new users in just one quarter. In recent months, Times data shows that users spent more time playing its games than reading the news.

Apple is just testing Quartiles in beta, which doesn’t mean it will definitely appear in iOS 17.5. But given that The New York Times now quietly runs a games studio, it’s not a bad idea for Apple to produce new games, preferably square-shaped.