Well, do not take me wrong for saying this considering that the custom challenge feature has been developed by developers in order to make the game more appealing. However, it was my first reaction until I found the "Challenge a Friend" section on wordleunlimited.dev. But now I realize that the process of challenging my friends has become much more important than any high score. Here is the explanation.
Why the Idea of High Score Is Wrong
Of course, high scores make the game more competitive and social in theoretical terms. However, beating xXwordkingXx by two seconds gives you nothing since there is no any connection between you and this gamer and you do not even know if this is actually a human or a bot. Moreover, if you challenge your friends in order to beat their high scores, raw scores are useless since you play the game at different times and with different words. No connection and no way to feel competitive.
What Is the Custom Challenge on wordleunlimited.dev
The idea of "Challenge a Friend" section on wordleunlimited.dev is changing everything completely. You are not competing with other gamers for the better position on the scoreboard but you are choosing the word, creating the link and sending it to your friend. He or she opens the link and tries to guess the word in six attempts. That is all. No registration, no leaderboard, no ranking – just you and your friend trying to guess the word which has some meaning for you both. You need to choose any word from 4 to 7 letters, type in your name to let the other person know that it is you who challenges him or her and optionally choose the timer for 30 seconds, 1 minute or 2 minutes and also whether your friend should get hints or not. All this takes only 15 seconds in the Unlimited tab.
The Moment When I Finally Understood the Idea
And that is the moment when I finally got the idea. Once when my wife and I were in bed with our smartphones, I was thinking about wordleunlimited.dev, I clicked on the "Challenge a Friend" tab and chose a 5-letter word – the name of our dog. I generated the link and sent it to my wife via WhatsApp without any explanation. She opened the link and I started laughing because I saw the word. She managed to guess it in one attempt because she knew the name of our dog. After that, she sent me the challenge with the word from our wedding vows. The whole process took only five minutes but it was much more entertaining than an hour of playing Wordle games. And that is the moment when I understood that custom challenges are not about the game itself but about the person you are challenging.
Why This Feature Is Better Than Any Other Leaderboard
The thing is that the word you choose becomes the story of the relationships between you and your friend. When I send the challenge to my brother with the name of the cricket player we argued about when we were kids, this word becomes the whole story. When I send the challenge to my mom with the name of her favorite flower, she understands immediately that I am the one sending her this challenge. No leaderboard can tell the same story. Moreover, there is no pressure anymore since there is no leaderboard to defend and no reputation to maintain. If you lose, you laugh and send another challenge. If you win, the screen share will tell your friend the number of attempts you needed. It becomes competitive in the friendly way.
How to Create the First Custom Challenge
Sending custom challenge on wordleunlimited.dev is very simple. You just need to go to the website, click on the "Challenge a Friend" tab, type in any word from 4 to 7 letters that you want to challenge your friend with. Type in your name if you want the other person to know that you sent this challenge. Also, you may choose the time limit if you want to make the game more difficult for your friend or leave it as None if you want to let your friend relax and just play. Then toggle hints on or off depending on how mean you want to be. Click on "Create challenge link". The link will be generated instantly. You may share it or copy the URL and send it wherever you want. Nothing is stored on any server as it is said explicitly on the website, so this process is more private and lightweight.
Some Small Features Making Everything Possible
I like some small features on wordleunlimited.dev making the process of creating custom challenges even more interesting. For example, the share-back button after you complete the game shows exactly the number of attempts your friend needed and the word, so you can start the discussion immediately. Also, there is no need to register and create the account for both sides, so you can challenge your grandmother who barely uses Internet and can easily play this game. Also, you can share the same challenge with several people at once and compete with them in solving the puzzle faster. To do this, send the same challenge to your friends in the group chat asking who solved the puzzle first. To sum up, this is the social process based on word puzzles and I have not seen any other Wordle website offering such experience.
Conclusion
High scores show who is the best. Custom challenges show who cares. The "Challenge a Friend" section on wordleunlimited.dev is not just an additional feature; this is the whole reason I keep coming back to this website instead of using any other Wordle version. If you have never created your custom challenge for a friend, just try it once and you will understand me.
