You’re staring at the grid. It’s a Wednesday, maybe a Thursday, and the clues are starting to bite back. You’ve got "ALE" for the fourth time this week, but the long acrosses are a mess of blank white squares that seem to be mocking your vocabulary. Then you see it—or rather, you use it without thinking. Smart sort NYT crossword functionality isn't just a tiny button in the corner of your app; it’s basically the secret sauce for anyone trying to shave seconds off their personal best or just survive a Saturday grid without throwing their phone across the room.
Solving the New York Times crossword used to be a linear, almost ritualistic experience. You started at 1-Across. You moved to 1-Down. You hoped for the best. But the digital era, specifically the NYT Games app led by Sam Ezersky and the editorial team, has introduced quality-of-life features that purists might scoff at, but modern solvers absolutely crave. Smart sort is the king of these features. It’s the difference between wandering aimlessly through 140 clues and having a guided path through the carnage of a difficult rebus.
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What Smart Sort NYT Crossword Actually Does (And Doesn't Do)
Let’s get one thing straight. This isn't a cheat code. It won't give you the answer to "Etui" or "Oreo" for the millionth time. Honestly, it’s a navigation logic. When you toggle this on, the app stops just moving you to the next numerical clue. Instead, it prioritizes. It looks at the board and says, "Hey, you just filled in a letter here, maybe you want to finish this specific word?"
It skips the clues you’ve already filled. It jumps over the ones you’ve skipped three times already because you clearly don't know the capital of Burkina Faso. It’s an algorithm designed to maintain your "flow state." If you’ve ever read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work on flow, you know that interruptions are the enemy of brilliance. By using the smart sort NYT crossword setting, you stay in the zone.
The logic is surprisingly intuitive. Most digital solvers find that the "Standard" sort—which just moves 1, 2, 3, 4—feels clunky. It forces your eyes to jump from the top left to the bottom right for no reason. Smart sort keeps your focus local. If you’re working in the Northwest corner, it stays in the Northwest corner. It understands proximity. It understands that your brain is currently thinking about "7-letter words for fabric," not "3-letter birds."
Why Your Solve Time Is Faster With Smart Sort
Efficiency is a weird thing in crosswords. Some people want to linger. They want to spend an hour over a cup of coffee. That’s fine. But for the competitive set—the people who live on the Wordplay blog or Reddit’s r/crossword—every tap matters.
Think about the physics of it. Every time you have to manually tap a square because the cursor jumped to a clue you already solved, you lose about 0.5 seconds. In a Sunday grid with 140+ clues, that’s over a minute lost just to bad navigation. Smart sort NYT crossword settings eliminate that "manual correction" tax. You just type. The app handles the steering. It’s like lane-assist for your brain.
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The Psychological Edge of Intelligent Navigation
There is a specific kind of frustration that comes with "clue fatigue." You’re staring at a clue you don't know. You hit 'Next.' The app takes you to another clue you don't know. Suddenly, you feel like you’re failing.
Smart sort changes the dopamine hit. By skipping the "completed" and "difficult/skipped" clues, it keeps feeding you the "fillable" ones. This builds momentum. Once you have a few crosses in a difficult section, the smart sort logic might bring you back to a previously skipped clue because now, with three letters filled in, it’s actually solvable. It’s reactive. It’s almost like having a partner who points at the grid and says, "Try this one now, it’s easier."
Common Misconceptions About App Settings
Some old-school solvers think that using the smart sort NYT crossword feature is "hand-holding." They argue that the struggle of finding the next clue is part of the game. I disagree. The game is the wordplay. The game is the "Aha!" moment when you realize the theme is puns about fish. The game is not fighting with a user interface designed in 2012.
- It’s not an "Easy Mode."
- It doesn't reveal errors (unless you have 'Auto-check' on, which is a different beast entirely).
- It doesn't change the clues.
- It simply respects your time.
How to Optimize Your NYT Games App Experience
If you’re going to use smart sort, you might as well go all in on the settings. Most people never touch the gear icon. That’s a mistake. You’ve got options for "Skip filled squares," "Stay in current direction," and "Space bar toggles direction."
Pairing smart sort with "Skip filled squares" is the ultimate pro move. It creates a seamless typing experience where you can essentially speed-type an entire corner without ever looking away from the clues. It’s how the top solvers at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) handle digital grids. They aren't just fast thinkers; they are efficient operators of the software.
The Evolution of the NYT Crossword App
The NYT didn't always have this. Back when the app was a janky standalone, it was a nightmare to navigate. Since the integration into the broader NYT Games app—the one that houses Wordle, Connections, and Strands—the UX has seen a massive overhaul. The smart sort NYT crossword feature was a response to data. The developers saw where users were dropping off. They saw the "rage quits" happening when solvers got lost in the grid.
Will Shortz might be the face of the puzzle, but the software engineers are the ones making sure you actually finish it. They’ve looked at heat maps of where people click. They know that we tend to solve in "chunks." Smart sort is the digital manifestation of that human behavior.
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Actionable Tips for Better Solving
Stop manually clicking squares. It breaks your concentration. Trust the smart sort. If it jumps to a part of the grid you aren't ready for, use the "back" button or the directional toggle, but let the algorithm do the heavy lifting for 90% of the solve.
- Turn on "Skip filled squares" alongside smart sort to avoid overwriting your correct answers.
- Use the "Next Clue" button instead of tapping the grid; the smart sort logic is baked into that button’s behavior.
- Practice on the Minis. The Mini crosswords are the perfect testing ground for these settings. You can see how the cursor behaves in a 5x5 environment before committing to a 21x21 Sunday behemoth.
- Watch your stats. Check your "Average Time" over a week of using smart sort versus a week without. Most people see a 10-15% improvement in speed simply because they aren't fighting the interface.
The real goal of the smart sort NYT crossword feature isn't just speed—it's enjoyment. It removes the friction between your brain and the grid. When the technology gets out of the way, the brilliance of the construction shines through. You can focus on the puns, the tricks, and the satisfaction of a completely filled board.
Go into your settings right now. Toggle it on. Try the next daily puzzle. You’ll probably find that the "Smart" in smart sort isn't just marketing—it's actually a much more natural way to think through a puzzle. No more hunting for that one empty square in the middle of a 15-letter across. Just smooth, uninterrupted solving. That’s how the New York Times crossword was meant to be experienced in the digital age.
Next Steps for Mastering Your Solve:
Open the NYT Games app and navigate to the Crossword settings (the gear icon). Enable Smart Sort and Skip Filled Squares simultaneously. Head over to the "Archives" and pull up a Monday puzzle from six months ago to test the feel. Focus on keeping your hands in one position and using the navigation buttons rather than tapping the screen. Once you've mastered the movement, you'll find your brain has more "bandwidth" to tackle the actual wordplay of the harder Thursday and Saturday puzzles.