Same word, friendly rivals.

A group is a private leaderboard for the Daily word. Everyone in it plays the same word as every other GuessWord player that day — groups don't get a special word — and the group's boards rank just its own members. You can be in several groups at once, so one for family and one for the office is no problem.

Groups need an account, because your results have to be saved under your name. Log in, then open Groups from the menu or the home screen.

• Create: choose a name, and GuessWord gives the group an eight-character invite code, such as A1B2C3D4.
• Invite: send the code to the people you want in — by message, email or however your group talks.
• Join: they open Groups, enter the code, and they're in. Codes aren't case sensitive.

Whoever creates the group owns it and is the only one who can rename it. Any member can leave at any time.

The daily board ranks everyone in the group who has finished today's word:

• Solvers come before anyone who ran out of guesses.
• Among solvers, fewer guesses ranks higher.
• If two players used the same number of guesses, the faster time wins.

Time is measured from when you open the day's board to when you finish, so if you want a fast time, don't open the word until you're ready to play. After you finish, the result screen tells you where you placed in your group — “You're 2nd in Family today” — or, if the word beat you, how many of the group solved it.

The weekly board covers Monday to Sunday and ranks by total wins first, then by average guesses on the words you solved, then by average time. Only solved words count towards the averages, so a loss doesn't drag your average up — but it does cost you a win.

That makes the weekly board a test of consistency. Someone who solves all seven words in five guesses beats someone who solves six in three, because seven wins beat six.

When you finish the Daily word you can share your result as a grid of coloured squares, or as an image, without the word itself. Your friends see how your game went — not what the answer was.

A shared link also invites friends to play the same day's word. Because the Daily word changes at midnight UTC, invite links are meant for the same day — send them while the word is still live.

• Agree a time: some groups all play at lunch, then compare grids.
• Run a weekly winner: whoever tops the weekly board on Sunday picks everyone's opening word for the next week.
• Try the same opener: everyone uses the same first word for a week and sees whose follow-ups are best.
• Add Infinite: groups only rank the Daily word, but you can compare tiers and climb together on the Infinite leaderboard.

New to the game? Start with how to play, then pick an opener from the best starting words guide.