What's new
What's changed in Knobelarena lately — short, and without the tech jargon.
English: A1 gets a deeper-dive section
The English course now has a “Vertiefung” (deeper dive) section for A1: 5 optional units with 120 more words, each with pronunciation. It opens once you have finished the A1 core and is not needed for A2. The level header now also shows what percentage of the A1 vocabulary the course covers.
Challenges: you now find out when someone beats you
If someone accepts your challenge and does better than you, you get a notice. Under “Challenges” (the crossed-swords icon at the top) you see them all at a glance: the ones you sent, with the best result, and the ones you accepted, with how you stand. New results carry a “New” tag. Open your own link and it tells you right away whether someone has already beaten you.
Tupfen: numbers fade as soon as their dabs are right
If you played without ✕, hardly any number faded: a number only faded once every square around it was dabbed or marked with ✕. Now it fades as soon as exactly as many dabs surround it as it shows – so a 0 from the start. Whatever has not faded still needs dabs, which makes the spot where something is missing easier to find.
Tupfen & Pinseln: hints now show what you can paint
The ✕ for “stays empty” is optional – you are done as soon as every dab and colour is right. Even so, the bulb often showed only squares that stay empty, and anyone playing without ✕ paid 30 seconds in the daily round for nothing. Every hint now shows squares you can dab or paint.
Schlängeln: fast solves count again
Drawing a 6×6 puzzle in under seven seconds showed “too fast”, and the solve was not scored. Since Schlängeln is a single stroke, the limit is now much lower. The solves it rejected are being scored after the fact.
Three new picture games: Ausmalen, Pinseln and Tupfen
Ausmalen is a calm colouring book: every picture is split into numbered areas, each number suggests a colour, and finished pictures go into your gallery – no ranking, no clock. Pinseln (a colour nonogram) and Tupfen (a mosaic puzzle) are picture logic puzzles: the numbers tell you which squares to paint, and a picture appears. Both have three pictures a day with a leaderboard, plus a library to solve at your own pace. Stuck? Take a hint in two steps: first where to look, then what follows from it. In the daily round each hint costs 30 seconds; in the library it is free.
Verknüpfen: fast solves count again
Solving a 6×6 puzzle in just under seven seconds showed “too fast”, and the solve was not scored. That limit was too strict and has been halved. The solves it rejected over the last few days are being scored after the fact.
Matchday: the improvement bonus is now part of the score
In the “Matchday total” table each game showed placement points only, while the “Total” column on the right also counted the improvement bonus — the row did not add up, and nothing said why. Every cell now shows the score that lands in “Total”, bonus included, and a small star marks the ones that contain one. The same mark and the same number in the summary table, in each game's own table and in the daily recap. The maths was always right; it just could not be seen.
The German addresses are now in German
The German pages have German addresses: /spiele/summen instead of /games/summen, plus /tagesrunde, /arenen, /profil, /impressum. The English pages keep their own words under /en. Old links and bookmarks keep working and redirect to the new address.
Suchen & Schütteln: trace words with your finger
On a phone, dragging across the grid only marked the first letter — every swipe quietly turned into a tap. The selection now follows your finger across the whole word. Playing with a mouse was never affected.
Englisch: A2 and B1 are open
The English course grows from 14 to 40 units: after A1 you can now carry on with A2 and B1 — work, shopping, health, environment, technology, culture and more. The units are grouped by level so you can see where you are.
Englisch: listening in every unit
Every unit now has a listening part: you hear a word or a sentence, then pick or type what you understood. Over 200 new recordings came with it.
Suchen & Schütteln: show or hide the word paths
During the round you can now use “Show all” to decide whether the paths of found words are drawn on the grid. And tapping a found word in the list lights up just its own path.
Platzen: the next colour sits at the cannon
The next bubble no longer waits up in the corner but sits visibly inside the cannon you shoot from — with a hose it travels in through. One place to look while you aim.
Kreuzen: resuming and finishing work reliably again
Reloading a fully filled grid landed you on an error page, and typing fast could make solved words disappear again. Both are fixed — an unfinished round opens again and completes properly.
Shorter addresses
The “/de” is gone from the address: the German pages now live directly under the main domain, so /games/summen instead of /de/games/summen. Old links keep working and redirect automatically.
Suchen & Schütteln: a clearer solution view
Found words now stay marked on the grid instead of just flashing briefly. In the solution view, “Show all” reveals everything at once, or tap a single word to see just its path.
Pflanzen: drag to mark cells
In cross mode you can now drag across multiple cells to mark them all at once — no more tapping one by one.
Summen: your own default
You can now choose whether a fresh puzzle starts in “remove” or “keep” mode for you — the app remembers your choice.
Google sign-in and a feedback button
You can now sign in with your Google account too, alongside the existing email-link login. And the new speech-bubble button lets you send feedback, suggestions, or bug reports from anywhere in the app.
What's new page
From now on you can see what's changed in Knobelarena here — miss a few days, and the short version is waiting for you on this page.
Arena: “Matchday total” above the single tables
The Matchday view only had one table per game. Above them there is now “Matchday total”: one row per member, one column per game played, and the day's total points. Tap a column heading to jump to that game's own table, or tap a score to open the run behind it. The single tables now start collapsed and open on a tap — with many games, everything used to be open at once.