Support
Stuck on a puzzle, missing a reminder, or wondering about ads? Most answers are below. If yours isn’t, write to us. A real person reads every message.
Contact us
- Email: harshitkikani9081@gmail.com
- Phone: +91 95122 03345 (India Standard Time, UTC+5:30)
Email is the surest way to reach us, and we reply within two business days. If you call and we can’t pick up, an email will reach us just as quickly.
What to put in your message
- your phone or tablet model, and its iOS or Android version;
- the app’s version, which you’ll find in Settings > About Quill & Star, just under the title;
- the puzzle number, or the date of the daily puzzle, if it’s about a particular puzzle;
- what you expected, what happened instead, and a screenshot if you can.
Please don’t send passwords or other private details. We never need them.
Playing
How do I play?
Place stars so that every row, every column and every outlined region holds exactly one star. Stars may never touch, not even at the corners. Every puzzle has exactly one answer, and you can always reach it by reasoning, with no guessing needed.
The how-to-play guide opens the first time you start the app. You can read it again from the home page or from Settings > How to play.
What do the taps do?
- Tap a cell once to cross it out, twice for a star, and a third time to clear it.
- Drag across cells to cross out several at once. Crosses are your notes for cells that can’t hold a star.
- Undo takes back your last move, and Restart starts the puzzle over.
- With Settings > Cross out automatically on, placing a star crosses out the cells it rules out for you.
How do hints work?
Tap Hint and the next step is explained in plain words under the board, with the cells that matter picked out. Show me makes the move for you, and Got it puts the hint away. If one of your marks is wrong, the hint points that out first.
Hints are free on the first three puzzles of the book. After that, each hint comes after a short ad that you choose to watch. If no ad can be loaded, you get the hint anyway.
What counts as a mistake?
A star in a cell where the answer has no star counts as a mistake. Three mistakes and the puzzle is out of ink. You can then watch a short ad for one more try, start the puzzle over, or leave it. Leaving clears that puzzle, so it starts fresh next time.
If you go back to the menu in the middle of a puzzle, your progress is saved, and you can carry on later.
How hard is the daily puzzle?
There’s a new daily puzzle every day at midnight, your local time, and everyone gets the same puzzle on the same date. It grows harder through the week:
| Day | Size | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 6 by 6 | Gentle |
| Tuesday | 7 by 7 | Moderate |
| Wednesday | 8 by 8 | Moderate |
| Thursday | 8 by 8 | Tough |
| Friday | 9 by 9 | Tough |
| Saturday | 9 by 9 | Fiendish |
| Sunday | 10 by 10 | Fiendish |
What is the puzzle book?
The puzzle book is endless. It starts with small, gentle 5 by 5 boards and grows to 10 by 10, from Gentle to Fiendish, with an easier breather every few puzzles. You can open any puzzle you’ve already reached from the puzzle book page.
I think a puzzle has two answers
Every puzzle is checked by our solver to have exactly one answer before you see it. If you still think you’ve found one with two, we’d love to look. Send us the puzzle number or the daily puzzle’s date and a screenshot of your board.
Streaks and reminders
How do streaks work?
Solve the daily puzzle on its day to start or extend your streak. Finishing just after midnight still counts: you have until 2 a.m. to finish the previous day’s puzzle.
The calendar shows every day you’ve solved. You can tap any past day to play its puzzle, but only today’s puzzle adds to your streak.
What is a streak freeze?
If you miss a day or two, the calendar page offers to keep your streak. Each short ad you watch earns one streak freeze, and one freeze covers one missed day. Once you have enough freezes to cover every missed day, they’re used automatically and your streak is whole again. If no ad can be loaded, you get the freeze anyway.
A streak can be saved this way when you’ve missed up to three days. After a longer break, it’s time to start a new one.
My daily reminder doesn’t arrive
- In the app, check Settings > Reminders: Daily reminder should be on, with the reminder time you want.
- Make sure notifications are allowed for Quill & Star. On iPhone and iPad, open Settings > Notifications > Quill & Star. On Android, open your phone’s Settings > Apps > Quill & Star > Notifications. If notifications were blocked when you turned the reminder on, the app tells you, and you’ll need to switch the reminder on again once they’re allowed.
- Check that Focus or Do Not Disturb isn’t holding it back.
- On Android, the reminder is scheduled to save battery, so it can arrive a few minutes late. Some phones’ battery savers delay or stop notifications from apps you haven’t opened lately; allowing Quill & Star to run in the background helps.
- If you’ve changed time zones, open the app once so the reminder follows your new local time.
Your progress
Is my progress backed up?
Your progress, streaks and settings are saved only on your phone. We don’t sync them or back them up, so we can’t restore them for you. Deleting the app or clearing its data deletes them.
Your phone’s own backup, such as iCloud or Google backup, may include them, depending on your settings. When you move to a new phone, restoring that backup or using your phone’s transfer tool may bring them across.
Does the app work offline?
Yes. Puzzles are made on your phone, so you can play the daily puzzle and the puzzle book without a connection. Ads need a connection; when none can be loaded, hints, extra tries and streak freezes are given anyway.
Ads
Why are there ads?
Quill & Star is free, and ads from Google AdMob pay for it. We’ve tried to keep them out of your way:
- never in the middle of a puzzle;
- no full-screen ads in your first three puzzles, and after that only sometimes, after you solve a puzzle;
- a banner at the foot of the home, calendar and puzzle book pages;
- rewarded ads only when you choose one, for a hint, one more try or a streak freeze.
Can I pay to remove ads?
Not at the moment. The app has no purchases of any kind.
I saw an ad that seemed wrong
We ask Google to show only ads suitable for a general audience, but ads come from Google’s network and we don’t choose each one. If an ad seemed inappropriate or broken, email us a screenshot and the time you saw it, and we’ll report it.
Privacy
How do I turn off usage sharing?
Open Settings > Privacy and switch off Share usage and crash reports. Usage statistics and crash reports stop at once, and crash reports still waiting on your phone are deleted. The game works exactly the same.
What is “Privacy choices”?
In places where privacy laws call for it, such as the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland and certain US states, Settings shows Privacy choices, even while ads are switched off. It opens Google’s form, where you can change how ads may use your data and, in Europe, whether usage statistics may use identifiers on your phone.
Why does my iPhone ask about tracking?
Apple asks apps to get your permission before they use your device’s advertising identifier. Quill & Star asks once, never over a puzzle. Either answer is fine: the game and its features are the same, and only how ads are chosen changes. You can change your answer in Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking.
How do I delete my data?
There’s no account to delete. See Your data and how to delete it for step-by-step instructions.
Accessibility
- Paper and night editions. Choose Paper, Night or System in Settings > Appearance.
- Region patterns. Each region carries a printed pattern as well as a color, so you can tell regions apart without relying on color. Patterns are on from the start; you’ll find the switch in Settings > Region patterns.
- Your text size. Pages follow the text size set on your phone.
- Screen readers. VoiceOver and TalkBack read each cell, its mark and the tally of mistakes.
- Less motion. The app follows your phone’s reduce motion setting.
- Sound, vibration and the clock. Turn any of them off in Settings.
If something makes the game hard for you to use, please tell us. We want it to work for everyone.