To uninstall a custom Words album, first tap on it in the Library section of your Words app. A small trashcan icon will appear in the top right corner of the image. Tap on the trashcan icon to delete the album from your iOS device.

You can upload image files that include only words (no pictures). Please do a Google search for "text to image". Here's one helpful article:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2046324/convert-text-to-image-and-image-to-text.html

Here's one example of an album that uses only word images:

https://my.playosmo.com/words/album/1jrbnqq3xts

You can find other similar albums at this link:

https://my.playosmo.com/words/browse

Please see our PDF guide for more help with custom albums:

https://www.playosmo.com/static/downloads/GettingStartedWithOsmoWords.pdf

To play one of your own albums in the Words app, go to the Library and look under "Mine" (the second section from the top). All of your albums should be there.

Tap any album to include it in the game. Please don't forget to deselect the albums that you don't want to be included. You may need to scroll down and open all of the subsections in your Library to make sure only the right albums are selected.

Then go back to the home screen, tap "Play", and choose any mode to play the album(s) that you have selected.

Please note that custom albums only work in Zen, Zen Junior and Versus modes, and not in the Adventure Mode.

When you're playing an album, you can tap the gear icon in the top left corner to change the settings (which include the ability to hear the words, turn hints on and off, enable lowercase letter recognition, and set difficulty level so that only easier or harder words from the album are shown in the game).

Find more information about custom albums in our PDF guide to the Words app here:

https://www.playosmo.com/static/downloads/GettingStartedWithOsmoWords.pdf

Also please check out this video from our teacher resource page:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNDzeTbpE9g

Junior Mode - if you're in Junior mode, tap on the settings button ('II') in the top left hand corner. Once here you will see the words 'Home, Restart, and Achievements.' Underneath these words is the option to turn on or off the 'hints' and 'speech.'

You can publish your custom Words album by clicking "Make Public". It is then reviewed by Osmo staff. The approval process currently takes less than one week. If you need it reviewed fast, please let us know the exact name of the album as well as the email address used for your myOsmo account.

Osmo Words is a puzzle game. Players guess and spell out the on-screen hidden words by tossing down letter tiles. A related picture gives the clue.

Words is fun to play alone, but also has modes for playing with friends and family. Work together as a team in Zen mode or compete with Versus mode.

Words comes with over 150 default puzzle images, but if you guess your way through those it's easy to log on to myOsmo and download new albums created by the community. This added content can extend your playtime endlessly!

Here is our PDF guide to the Osmo Words app

Words is available for purchase worldwide on our website as part of our kits: https://playosmo.com/en/shopping/.

Words is not available for sale separately at this time.

The Words Kit (Osmo Base + Words) is only available at BestBuy, and at $49.99 USD, it's one of the cheapest ways to get started with Osmo:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/osmo-words-multi/5459202.p?skuId=5459202

Osmo Words Junior is appropriate for kids aged 3+, while Classic is appropriate for ages 5-11.

The Osmo Words box contains 26 red and 26 blue English alphabet tiles (all uppercase) for a total of 52 tiles.

In the Fall of 2017, the Words tiles will transition to upper case on one side and lower case on the other. And these new upper/lowercase tiles will be available for sale for educators as a stand-alone product, for those who wish to replace their uppercase tiles.

Osmo fosters learning in key areas such as creative problem solving, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics), and Common Core. We believe in healthy tablet play for kids with a good balance of fun and learning with plenty of physical play away from a screen. Each of games offers unique educational value.

Words teaches spelling, social-emotional skills, and critical thinking. Players can tackle the puzzles on their own or play in Versus mode for increased competitiveness.

Here are some materials to help you get acquainted with Words:

• PDF guide: https://www.playosmo.com/static/downloads/GettingStartedWithOsmoWords.pdf
• Let's Play Osmo Words videos:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJw4jdRaVX8
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B9--JtWKQg

We switched from Siri to a different voice synthesizer, and we now force an English voice on the synthesizer because that was the most natural one we could find. In a future update we will look into using the region of the iPad (or the language set on the game) to determine which voice to use (some have accents).

To share one of your Words albums with other people, log into myOsmo in any browser on your iPad, open the album you want to share, click on the gear icon in the top right corner, and select 'Share'.

You will then be given a link that you can email anyone who needs to access your album.

You can search for custom Words albums at this link:

https://my.playosmo.com/words/browse

Junior Mode in the Words app means that some letters appear on the screen as hints.

To do that in a custom album, you need to put parentheses around the letter or letters that you wish to appear as hints. E.g., '(p)arrot' will be presented on the screen as 'p' followed by five blank circles.

You can use these step-by-step instructions to create your own custom Words albums (which may feature words of varying difficulty in different languages or any other kinds of visual prompts):

https://my.playosmo.com/words/help

Please see the custom albums other people have shared at this link:

https://my.playosmo.com/words/browse

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You can unpublish an album by visiting the album link in myOsmo and clicking 'Unpublish' in the top right corner.

To edit an image in one of your Words albums, log into myOsmo in any browser on your iPad, open the album you want to edit, then hover your cursor over the image you would like to edit and click 'Edit'. Once you are on the Edit Image page, click on the gear icon in the top right corner and select one of the options (Crop, Set as Album Cover, Replace or Delete).

To download custom albums in the Words app, go to the Library and tap "Download More At myOsmo" under "Installed" (the top section of the Library). You'll be redirected to the myWords page of the myOsmo website.

Select any of the albums and tap "Add to Words game". You'll be prompted to open the album in the Words game.

Tap the album to include it in the game. Please don't forget to deselect the albums that you don't want to be included. You may need to scroll down and open all of the subsections in your Library to make sure only the right albums are selected.

Then go back to the home screen, tap "Play", and choose any mode to play the album(s) that you have selected.

Please note that custom albums only work in Zen, Zen Junior and Versus modes, and not in the Adventure Mode.

When you're playing an album, you can tap the gear icon in the top left corner to change the settings (which include the ability to hear the words, turn hints on and off, enable lowercase letter recognition, and set difficulty level so that only easier or harder words from the album are shown in the game).

Find more information about custom albums in our PDF guide to the Words app here:

https://www.playosmo.com/static/downloads/GettingStartedWithOsmoWords.pdf

To delete a custom Words album, log into myOsmo in any browser on your iPad, open the album you want to delete, click on the gear icon in the top right corner, and select 'Delete'.

Here are the steps for creating a Proper Noun (case sensitive) album. To do this, your account must be flagged as a 'Teacher' account, so let's check that first.

1. Log into https://my.playosmo.com/ with your myOsmo account.
2. In the left column (you may need to scroll down a bit), click on the 'Account' link.
3. You should see a section labeled 'This Osmo will be used...' with some checkboxes.
4. Either the 'At School' or 'For Homeschooling' checkboxes need to be checked.
5. Once we have that set up, let's go and create the actual Proper Noun album.

Now you are ready to make a proper noun album.

1. Log into your myOsmo account.
2. Click the myWords link at the top of the screen.
3. Click the blue 'Create new album button' on the left. It will be called 'Untitled Album' to begin with, click on the title to rename it to whatever you want.
4. At the very bottom of the webpage, you will see 'Album Type: [A] Regular'; click the 'Regular' link.
5. You should see a pop-up asking if you want to make this a Regular or Proper Noun album. Choose Proper Noun album (you can also do this on albums you've already created).
6. Click 'Add Image' and continue creating your album like you would normally. (See this video for more info on that.)

When you type in the words for each picture, just remember that whatever case you use here will be what the game expects. So you can do 'Frank' or 'frank', 'us' or 'US', etc.

To see albums that are already available for play with lowercase tiles, please go the myWords search page in myOsmo and choose ‘Proper Noun’ from the ‘Show all’ menu.

After you tap an album to include it in the game, please don't forget to deselect the albums that you don't want to be included.

It may require scrolling to the bottom of the library and checking all of the subsections.

Then return to the home screen to play the album.

If that doesn't work, please try reinstalling the Words app, restarting the iPad, and updating your iOS.

If the above doesn't help, please write us at support@playosmo.com with a screenshot and the myOsmo URL of the Words album that isn't working for you!

In Osmo Words, you have the option to play against an opponent or play together. When you're playing against each other, the different colored letter tiles correspond to each of the two teams. When you're in the single-player mode, you can use either color to play.

Words Junior has easier words and is meant for younger children. You can also use the Versus and Zen modes to play together or against each other.

• Junior mode

Junior mode will show most of the letters in the word so the player can guess the missing letters. Words Junior is appropriate for kids aged 3+.

• Versus mode

Use both sets of colored tiles to play against an opponent. See who guesses the word and spelling first!

• Zen mode

Play alone at your own pace. Practice deducing what the image is representing as well as honing your spelling skills.

Nope! Osmo is so smart; you can put the letter tiles in front of Osmo in any order and at any angle.

You'll see this image after each round as a reminder to clear your pieces from the game surface. On to the next word!

Osmo now sells lower/upper case tiles exclusively on our website, and they are found on the shopping page at the very bottom, in the 'Add-ons & Replacements' section:

https://playosmo.com/en/shopping/

They are $19 USD, and do NOT ship in a stackable storage container.

Yes! We encourage players to make their own Words albums.

Creating an album

1. Go to your myWords dashboard.
2. Click on Create New Album, and you will be automatically taken to the new album page.
3. Click on Add Title (or on Untitled Album) to add your album title.
4. Click on Add Image to upload a picture (or to take one, if you are using your tablet or phone). You can also drag multiple files to upload images in a batch.
5. Hover your cursor over the image you have just added and click the Edit button.
6. Type your chosen word in the Add Word field and select a difficulty. If you want some of the letters to appear as given on the screen, you can put them in parentheses. A(NT) will show as _NT, for example. Add a couple more words; the more the merrier!
7. Return to your album homepage to add as many images and words as you wish.

Creating Proper Noun (case sensitive) albums

If you are making case sensitive albums (for use with lowercase Words tiles), your account must first be flagged as a 'Teacher' account, so let's check that.

1. Log into https://my.playosmo.com/.
2. Click on your username in the top right corner and choose 'Account'.
3. Scroll down to see a section labeled 'This Osmo will be used...'.
4. Either the 'At School' or 'Homeschool' checkboxes need to be checked.
5. Proceed to create your album as described above, with one modification. At the very bottom of your album homepage, you will see 'Album Type: [A] Regular'; click the 'Regular' link and choose Proper Noun album (you can also do this on albums you've already created). When you type in the words for each picture, remember that whatever case you use here will be what the game expects. So you can do 'frank' or 'Frank', 'us' or 'US', etc.

See this video for more info. Also see this new video from our teacher resource page.

Editing images

When you upload your images, they are automatically resized and may also be cropped if they are too large. If you want to make sure all of your image fits and it isn't blurry, make sure it isn't larger than 768x1024 or smaller than 385x512.

When you're editing an image, you can click on the gear icon on the right to choose from several editing options: Crop, Set as Album Cover, Replace Image, Delete.

If you're searching on Google Images, try clicking the 'Tools' button at the top, then choose 'Large' size. That should get images that are mostly the right size.

Alternatively, you can resize the images you already have. Paint.NET is a great free program that manipulates images easily if you are using a Windows PC. If you are using a Mac, you can resize photos directly after opening them in Preview.

Adding tags

Please click 'Add tags' at the bottom of your album home page, to add descriptive tags to your album. The tags should define various categories that your album may be classified under (such as "Phonics", "Math", "Animals", "ESL", etc.)

Setting album language

If your album is in a language other than English, please select it from the language dropdown menu at the bottom of your album home page. If your album language is not on that menu, please keep English as the album language and add your language name as an album tag.

Sharing an album

To share one of your Words albums with other people, log into myOsmo, open the album you wish to share, click on the gear icon in the top right corner, and select Share. You will then be given a link that you can email other people to have them access your album.

If you decide to publish your album (by clicking 'Make Public'), it will be reviewed by Osmo staff. The approval process currently takes up to 2 business days. If you need it reviewed fast, please let us know the exact name of the album as well as the email address used for your myOsmo account. 

All public user-made albums can be searched at the myWords Discover page.

Unpublishing an album

You can unpublish an album by visiting the album homepage and selecting Unpublish from the gear menu in the top right corner.

Deleting an album

You can delete one of your own albums by visiting the album homepage and selecting Delete from the gear menu in the top right corner.

Downloading and playing your own album

Please see this question:

How do I play the custom albums I have made in Osmo Words?

Osmo's Words tiles were made specifically for the game, so we can't guarantee that any other letter tiles will work.

Any time an app crashes, it's good practice to close other open apps (double tap home button and swipe the windows up to close them). Also please try reinstalling the Words app and restarting the iPad. If it doesn't help, please write us at support@playosmo.com with your iPad model number. You can find the model number printed on the back of your iPad.