Heardle game: what is music version of Wordle, has Spotify bought it, can I access through app - how to play

The Heardle game is another spin-off of the fast-popular Wordle - but this time the goal is to guess the song
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The daily puzzle game Wordle quickly became a fan favourite across social media channels, and now there is a new variation called Heardle targeted at music lovers.

The streaming giant, Spotify, has bought the musical guessing game hoping to integrate it more fully into its platform in the future to allow “music lovers to connect more deeply with artists and challenge friends”.

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Announcing its acquisition, the company promised that the “look and feel of the game will stay the same and it’ll remain free to play for everyone”.

Heardle involves people listening to the intro of a song and trying to name it - a fun twist on the Wordle format.

This is not the only variation of the Wordle game - there have been other variations including Worldle, Quordle and Octordle.

Let’s take a look at the World spin-off, Heardle…

Heardle is the new viral music game (Photo: Heardle.app)Heardle is the new viral music game (Photo: Heardle.app)
Heardle is the new viral music game (Photo: Heardle.app)

What has been said about Spotify’s takeover of Heardle?

Spotify’s global head of music Jeremy Erlich said “the game has quickly built a loyal following, and it aligns with our plans to deepen interactivity across the Spotify ecosystem.”

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He added: “We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans”.

The streaming giant has not disclosed what it paid - but Wordle was sold to the New York Times for a seven-figure sum earlier this year.

However, some fans have expressed their outrage at the takeover, with many now unable to access the daily challenge.

This is because the game is now only available in the UK, US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

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One user wrote on Twitter: “Thank you so much I can’t play in Spain... I hope you fix it soon. I was lucky to do today’s one before but this is so lame”.

While another wrote: “Why do big corporations ruin everything”.

People also took to social media to complain that their scores have not been transferred over and have lost all of their gaming statistics.

One person said: “Very bummed that my stats are gone. A heads up would have been nice. Also, the player doesn’t work as well”.

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Spotify suggested that people head over to the Heardle app to transfer their stats but said it was aware that users were having issues.

The streaming giant said: “We know that stats aren’t carrying over for everyone.

“We are actively working on the issue so that you can keep your winning streak alive”.

How does Heardle work?

The music-based guessing game invites players to guess the track from a pool of the most streamed songs in the last 10 years, using only brief snippets from the intro.

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You have six guesses (just like Wordle) to try and nail what the song is from the audio clues.

Simply type the title and artist to guess.

In the first attempt, you are played one second of the song, in the next attempt, you hear two seconds, then four seconds, then seven seconds, then 11 seconds and, finally 16 seconds to decipher what it is.

The game does give a little bit of assistance - it auto-fills the songs it could possibly be as you type.

There’s one game per day and the website stores your scores.

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And like Worlde, you can share your results on social media to gloat to your friends.

Heardle has a similar sharing feature that lets you copy a series of emoji to your clipboard so you can tell people how quickly you guessed the song.

How do you play Heardle?

To play Heardle, all you have to do is visit the Heardle website: www.heardle.app.

The app then tells you to follow three easy instructions. The first is to guess today’s song by listening to its intro.

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The second instruction is that incorrect or skipped guesses unlock more of the song, and thirdly, guess correctly in as few tries as possible and share your score.

How is it different to Wordle?

Heardle is not officially affiliated with Wordle in any way.

Despite the main difference of this app being music-based, another twist is that Heardle gives you a skip button.

With Wordle, you only get closer to the answer by guessing a word and seeing what letters are or aren’t in the correct answer. But when you are guessing a song, hearing a new snippet will give you more information regardless of whether you’ve made a guess.

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Heardle’s about screen says that it pulls songs from “a list of the most streamed songs in the past decade,” which hopefully means you won’t be too stuck trying to identify the song.

What is Wordle?

Wordle is a daily, viral game. If you’ve spent any time online this year chances are that you’ve heard about it.

The game involves people trying to guess a five-letter word in six tries and it’s so popular that it was sold to the New York Times for over $1,000,000.

If any of your letters is highlighted as green, that means that you’ve got the right letter in the right place. If any are highlighted as yellow, that means that that letter is in the word, but it’s in the wrong place.

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Finally, if any of your letters is highlighted as grey, it means that that letter isn’t included anywhere in the secret word.

The game has inspired variations including Taylordle (a Taylor Swift version) and Queerdle (an LGBTQ+ version).

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