AlWird: there's now an Arabic version of the viral game Wordle

AlWird has started gaining popularity online over the past few days thanks to Twitter

The viral word game Wordle now has an Arabic counterpart.

Named AlWird, the webpage game is identical to the original in that it is a daily puzzle of five letters and a word. However, unlike Wordle, AlWird gives players eight chances to formulate the right word.

Any letter that is in the word, but in the wrong place, shows up as yellow, and any correct letter guessed in the right place shows up green. There is only one word each day, and it’s the same for everyone playing across the globe.

Unlike Wordle, AlWird doesn’t have a hard mode. It does have a dark mode feature, though, and keeps a record of your games and winning streaks.

AlWird has a dark mode feature, and keeps a record of your games and winning streaks. Photo: Screenshot

AlWird seems to have no connection to Josh Wardle, the software engineer behind Wordle. According to the AlWird webpage, the game was developed from the open-source Wordle Clone. It was adapted to the Arabic language by software engineers Abdellatif Al Sharif and Amr Keleg.

The game has started gaining popularity online over the past few days as Twitter users began posting screenshots of their attempts to solve the daily puzzle. A hashtag of the game, #AlWird, has also started trending in Lebanon.

This is not the first adaptation of Wordle in another language.

Launched in November, the original Wordle game turned into an internet phenomenon in the past month, now with more than two million daily users.

There are iterations of the game in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, German and Norwegian. There is also a Cantonese version, created by linguistics professor Lau Chaak Ming.

AlWird doesn’t have an app, but there is a way to pin the website to your home screen if you want to get to it quicker every day. Users only need to open the website in their phone’s browser, and find the option to pin the web page.

For iPhone users, open the web page in Safari and find the Share icon in the centre of the bottom toolbar (the square icon with the upwards arrow). Scroll down and select “add to home screen”.

For Android users, open AlWird in Google Chrome. Tap the three dots to the right of the web address and scroll down to find the “add to home screen” option.

Both will then ensure AlWird appears on your homepage, taking you straight to the game. You can do the same for Wordle, too, of course.