What is Wits, the brain games app?

01Wits in brief

Wits is a daily brain-games app with the tagline “Keep your wits.” It mixes short games across six skills (knowledge, language, reasoning, numbers, memory and focus) with one-minute lessons in the iPhone app. There are 43 games in all.

Wits for iPhone is available on the App Store. On the web, a free Wits account plays Dot Path, Color Clash and Word Code. Wits is for fun and learning; it doesn’t claim to improve brain health, memory or mood, and it doesn’t diagnose or treat anything.

02A day in Wits

Every day starts with Dot Path, the daily logic puzzle: draw one line through every blue dot, avoiding the red ones. Each day opens your next level, with no timer and no lives.

In the iPhone app, a set of quick games from the skills in your plan comes with it, so the skills take turns: 3, 6 or 12 quick games for the 5, 10 or 20 minutes a day you choose. Each game takes a minute or two, and each lesson about a minute. On the website, a day is Dot Path, Color Clash and Word Code.

03One-minute lessons

In the iPhone app, lessons take about a minute and explain one idea, like chunking a long number or finding the forced move in a puzzle, before a question or game asks you to use it. Anything you miss comes back another day. The website plays games only; lessons are in the app.

04The six skills

Each skill has its own Wit, its own color and its own games:

05Stars, hearts and the Wits card

Clear a level to earn up to three stars: one comes off for each mistake, and one for finishing in the last fifth of the clock. Timed games give you hearts; a wrong answer costs one, and the level ends when they run out. You can always try again.

Your first three games unlock the Wits card, a trading card with your play style, such as The Strategist or The Wordsmith, and your two strongest skill moves. It describes how you play, not a score of you.

06What’s free and what Premium adds

Wits Basic is free in the iPhone app and on the web. In the app: Dot Path, Sort It, Word Wheel, Speed Math, Card Pairs and Color Clash, plus daily trivia. On the web, a free Wits account plays Dot Path, Color Clash and Word Code (Word Code is Premium in the app).

In the iPhone app, Premium adds every game, every lesson, puzzles and tests and daily hints, with no ads between games. It costs $39.99 a year with a 3-day free trial for new subscribers, about $0.77 a week, or $6.99 a week. Premium is for the Wits iPhone app. You buy Premium in the app, through Apple. On the website, a free Wits account plays Dot Path, Color Clash and Word Code. Playing on the website and playing in the iPhone app are separate for now: the app has no sign-in, so what you play on the web stays on the web. The free plan in the iPhone app shows ads between games. Premium removes the ads between games; reward videos stay optional. The website doesn’t show ads.

07Where you can play

Wits for iPhone is available on the App Store. You can also play on the web with a free Wits account.

On the website, which works on a phone or a computer, a free Wits account plays Dot Path, Color Clash and Word Code. The other 40 games play in the iPhone app.

08Who Wits is for

Wits is for anyone who wants a few minutes a day of thinking instead of scrolling. The games start easy and get harder as you clear levels, so they suit beginners and people who already love puzzles alike.

09How Wits compares

Wits is one of several brain training apps. Next to Elevate, Lumosity, Peak and Impulse, the main differences are its general-knowledge games, the one-minute lessons in its iPhone app and the Wits card. Our comparison pages set out each app’s facts side by side, using what each one says about itself.