Many of us rely on our smartphones for entertainment and communication, playing New York Times games such as Wordle, Connections and Strands on our phones. ( has daily answers for those games, plus Connections: Sports Edition and the Mini Crossword, if you’re ever stumped.)
Now, one very famous person recently revealed that he plays only one phone game — and it’s one you’ve likely heard of.
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Former President Barack Obama appeared on the final episode of the podcast WTF with Marc Maron on Monday. He revealed the only game he plays on his phone is Words With Friends.
Obama says he plays the word game to keep up his friendship with longtime White House photographer Pete Souza.
“I could be in the middle of negotiations on a nuclear treaty, and if that ping goes off, there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘I wonder what [word] he [Pete Souza] played,” Obama said.
Words With Friends is similar to but not associated with the world-building game Scrabble. It was released in 2009 and is owned by the game company Zynga. It can be played on devices running iOS and Android. Players take turns creating words on a game board using their rack of seven-letter tiles, trying to score as high as possible while using special bonus squares to double or triple their points. As of Tuesday, Words With Friends ranked No. 14 on the free Word Games list in the Apple App Store.
Obama did not share whether he or Souza tends to win the majority of the pair’s games.
