“the game itself is good, but the ads are excessive, I spend more time watching ads than I do playing the game. so I'll be removing the game due to too many ads.”
Independent automated assessment · 6 signal sources · 1,006 reviews scanned · analyzed 2026-10-04.
4.7 ★334,823 ratings
10M+Downloads
12+Age rating
265 MBApp size
FreeIn-app purchases
About this app
Discover a new way to solve crossword puzzles with Crostic! Crostic combines crossword clues, word puzzles, cryptograms, and fascinating facts in one relaxing game. Read the clues, guess the words, connect letters with numbers, and reveal hidden quotes, proverbs, facts, and phrases.
SOLVE WORDS AND REVEAL THE MYSTERY
Each level starts with clues and definitions. Find the correct answers and place the letters into matching numbered spaces. Every solved word reveals new letters across the puzzle. Follow the connections, complete missing answers, and watch the final message appear step by step. Can you decode the hidden message before solving every clue?
MORE THAN A CLASSIC CROSSWORD
Crostic brings a fresh twist to crossword and word games.…
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
Evidence and review signals
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
Which version this describes
When we ran this analysis, and what the store lists now.
App Store
This analysis describes version 7.2.3 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-04 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 7.2.3, updated 2026-09-21.
Google Play
We cannot tell which version of the app this analysis describes. It was run 2026-10-04 , and the app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 7.1.1, updated 2026-08-03.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to at least 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Does not say how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
2 themes reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
80–89% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the package we scanned
From the package we downloaded and read — version 7.1.1, scanned 2026-10-05.
Permissions Android classifies as dangerous
None requested
Counted against the eighteen permissions listed in collect-package.ts. A dangerous permission is one Android asks the user to grant; requesting one is not itself a finding.
Analytics or tracking SDKs in the scanned package
3 or more found
Advertising SDKs in the scanned package
10 or more found
Counted as distinct SDKs in the package we scanned. One mediation bundle can contribute several, so this is not a count of advertisers.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
The catch list 2
Charges we publish at a strength we stand behind: measured from an artefact, agreed by independent sources, or reported by enough users to clear that charge's own published bar.
Multiple ad networks bundled
The package embeds several distinct advertising or mediation SDKs — a stack built for ad volume, not for a single house ad.
What we saw: Bundles 16 distinct ad networks / mediation SDKs: Amazon Publisher Services, AppLovin MAX, BidMachine, Chartboost and 12 more
Reported by users: Aggressive ad load
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
What we saw: Raised by 113 distinct reviewers — 20.6% of the 548 reviews scanned on this store leg (Google Play).
Positive evidence 1
Things this app does right, published at the same strengths as the catch list.
Developer says data deletion can be requested
The developer's data-safety disclosure on the store states that users can request deletion of their data, or the app's own text offers a way to delete the account. This restates what the developer declares; it is not a test of whether deletion works. Apple publishes no equivalent disclosure, so on an Apple-only listing only the app's own text can support it.
What we saw: The developer's store data-safety disclosure states that data deletion can be requested; we have not seen a deletion control in the app's own text
One source only — shown, not confirmed 2
A single kind of evidence. We publish these because withholding them would be the bigger distortion, and we do not treat any of them as a finding we stand behind.
Reported by users: Reports that the ads misrepresent the app
Reviewers repeatedly report that the app is not what its advertising showed. We never see the ad creative itself, so nothing we collect can corroborate or refute this — it is published as an attributed user report: what reviewers say, and how many of them said it.
What we saw: Misleading advertising: raised by 6 distinct reviewers (1.3% of 458 reviews scanned)
From the store listing: Usable without an account
The app's own screens offer a way past sign-up — guest access, skipping, or browsing before registering — rather than gating the product behind an account. The store's privacy disclosure is checked alongside it: that disclosure is self-reported, so it corroborates this credit rather than establishing it.
What we saw: The store privacy disclosure (4 entries) links no contact details or identifiers to the user — consistent with an app that does not require an account. Self-reported by the developer.
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
“Two many ad it's crazy but the game is awesome”
“too many ads”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version 7.2.3.
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Items shown0
Lowest—
Highest—
Google Play does not publish per-purchase prices.