Hashtag lays sixteen letters out on a grid shaped like a hash: two five-letter words across, two down, crossing at four squares. Every letter you need is already there, just in the wrong place, and you have twelve swaps to sort them out. Colours tell you how close each tile is after every move.
How to play Hashtag
The grid holds four five-letter words — two reading across and two reading down — sharing four crossing squares.
All sixteen letters are on the board from the start, scrambled. Nothing is ever added or taken away.
Tap one tile and then another to swap them, or drag a tile onto the one you want to exchange it with.
Each swap uses one of your twelve moves, and the counter above the grid shows how many are left.
The colours update after every swap: a tile is green when it is in the right place for a word it belongs to, and yellow when that word wants the letter somewhere else.
A crossing square belongs to both an across and a down word, so it shows the better of its two verdicts.
The Hint button highlights one useful swap without making it, and you get one per puzzle.
Get all four words right to win. If the twelve moves run out, that day's puzzle is over and the four words are shown.
Two yellows that want each other's square
Say the top across row reads C R N A E and the answer is CRANE. The C, R and E come up green. The N and the A are yellow, because the word wants both letters but not in those squares. Swapping those two tiles puts both of them right and finishes the word in a single move. Two yellows inside the same word are the cheapest thing on the board, so look for that pair before you touch anything else.
Hashtag strategy
Make every swap fix two squares
Twelve moves only stretches to sixteen letters if most of your swaps do double duty. Before moving anything, scan each of the four words for two yellow tiles that plainly belong in each other's squares — that is one move for two fixes, and a board solved mostly with those swaps comes in well under budget.
Grey tiles are the ones that have to leave
A tile with no colour at all is in a word that doesn't want that letter anywhere, so it is definitely in the wrong word, not just the wrong square. Pair two greys from different words and there is a good chance each belongs where the other is sitting.
Be careful with the crossing squares
The four shared squares serve two words at once and display the kinder of the two verdicts. A crossing tile that looks settled may be green only for its down word, and moving it can undo an across word you had already completed. Work out which word a crossing green belongs to before you trade it.
Read the whole board before your first move
You are given all sixteen letters up front, so the puzzle is solvable on paper. Thinking costs nothing and swapping costs a twelfth of your budget: pick out likely five-letter words from the letter pool, decide which four use all sixteen between them, and only then start moving tiles.
The hint is free in moves
The hint only highlights a pair — it doesn't perform the swap, so it costs you nothing from the counter. It looks first for a swap that puts two tiles right at once, and failing that one that fixes a square without breaking a green, which makes it a good way to break a stalled board rather than a last resort.
Frequently asked questions
How many moves do I get in Hashtag?
Twelve swaps. Running out ends that day's puzzle and reveals the four words.
Are any letters missing from the board?
No. The sixteen tiles on the grid are exactly the sixteen letters the four words need, so it is purely a matter of arrangement.
What do the green and yellow tiles mean?
Green means the letter is in the right square for one of the words it sits in. Yellow means that word needs the letter, but in a different square. No colour means the word has no use for it.
What does the Reset button do?
It puts every tile back to the opening scramble and starts the move count again, in case you would rather rethink the whole arrangement. The day's result is recorded as soon as you solve the grid or run out of moves.
Do I get a hint?
One per puzzle. It highlights a swap worth making and costs nothing from your twelve moves.
Is there a new Hashtag every day, and do I need an account?
A new grid every day, free, with no sign-up. You get one attempt at it, and your progress is stored in your own browser.