You can play the famous NY Times Augmented Reality crossword puzzle on Instagram

The AR “Mini Crosswords 12/22” effect is available on Instagram on iOS and Android. Image: Instagram/The New York Time via AFP Relaxnews

The New York Times crossword puzzle is an institution that is going ultra high-tech. No longer do you have to buy the paper edition of the newspaper to try your hand at the cult puzzles — all you have to do is open the Instagram application and then try and solve the game using augmented reality.

This version of the New York Times crossword puzzle looks rather different from the traditional one. The famous American newspaper took to its Instagram account to unveil a new AR effect that allows you to play this puzzle in your Story thanks to augmented reality.

The effect for its Tuesday crossword, called “Mini Crosswords 12/22,” allows you to visualize in space the crossword puzzle grid and above it a cloud of “shattered” letters to be put together: “The crossword has shattered into pieces! Find the words amongst the shards by shifting your perspective,” the game prompts.

To do this, simply move the smartphone’s camera in space to find the right angle to find the letters making up the missing crossword puzzle answers by lining up the pieces. A gesture that proved to be a bit technically complicated for some Twitter users: “please enjoy this clip of me desperately trying to find the right angle to arrange four letters” one posted.

https://twitter.com/crisp_red/status/1341483320086020096

If the game doesn’t exactly recreate a traditional crossword puzzle, this little effect could help some of the younger generation get a taste for this intellectual exercise in a fun way. IB

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