Getting Started with Osmo Words

What's Included?

Each Words game contains 2 sets of English alphabet letter tiles for a total of 52 tiles:

• 26 blue letter tiles
• 26 red letter tiles

Blue A-Z Letter Tiles Quantity: 26

Red A-Z Letter Tiles Quantity: 26

Osmo also offers uppercase/lowercase letter tiles for sale on their shopping page. These tiles have uppercase letters on one side and lowercase on the other, and can be used with 'Proper Noun' (case-sensitive) albums. To find albums playable with lowercase tiles, choose 'Proper Noun' from the 'Show all' menu.

The Words app is available for free on the App Store (for compatible iPads) and on Amazon (for compatible Fire tablets). Please check this list of Osmo-compatible devices.

Menu Navigation

Tap the myOsmo icon (or your avatar if logged in) in the upper right corner of the home screen to access the myOsmo account screen. For more information, see the guide to myOsmo accounts and profiles.

Play

Select one of the following modes:

• Adventure mode: Play with an Osmo character. In non-competitive mode, the character provides hints. In competitive mode, players race to spell the word first.
• Versus mode: Use both sets of colored tiles to play against a friend and see who guesses the word and spelling first.
• Zen mode: Play at your own pace, practicing deduction and spelling skills.
• Zen Junior mode: Play with easier words at your own pace, with more letters revealed to aid guessing.

Library

Your albums are organized into sections: Installed, Mine, Featured, and Other languages.

To return to the home screen from any point in the game, tap the Settings icon ⚙️ and select “Home”.

Game Manual

A. Object of the Game

Osmo Words teaches spelling, social-emotional skills, and critical thinking. The objective is to guess the word corresponding to the displayed image. The image could represent a color, object, theme, or book reference. Guess the correct spelling by placing letter tiles in front of the device before running out of chances. The game may not always present obvious clues.

A visual representation of the game screen shows a word with some letters missing and a hint indicating 'Only 2 mistakes remain!'.

As players complete puzzles, points are awarded and displayed on the side of the screen. Special recognition is given for achieving certain milestones:

• Dedication: Guess 1000 words correctly
• Sprint: Get 5 in a row correct
• Marathon: Get 30 in a row correct
• Warming Up: Reach medium difficulty
• Getting Hotter: Reach hard difficulty
• On Fire: Reach impossible difficulty
• Cutting it close: Finish the whole word with 1 error remaining*
• What Goes Up: From a score of 50 or more back to 0
• Merely Improbable: 10 correct in a row on impossible difficulty*
• Nice try: A humorous note about incorrect word attempts.

* These are “Mystery Achievements”. Keep playing to uncover how to reach these goals!

B. Game Play

Identify the image on the screen and spell the word using letter tiles placed in front of the device. Correctly guessed letters appear on the screen as many times as they occur in the word. Incorrect guesses are added to the missed guesses at the top of the screen. The goal is to guess the word before exhausting all missed guesses.

Letter tiles can be placed in any order or orientation; Osmo's technology can read the letters regardless. Multiple letters can be placed simultaneously, as long as they do not overlap.

A hand icon ✋ may appear to prompt the player to clear the game surface.

C. Selecting which albums to play with

To choose albums for Versus and Zen sessions, go to the Library from the main menu and check the desired albums. To download public albums shared by other Osmo users, log into myOsmo via a browser or device, enter the album URL, and tap 'Add to Words game'.

The Library interface shows sections like 'Installed', 'Download More', 'Spelling', 'Guessing', and 'Junior'.

Your own albums are found under the 'Mine' section. After selecting an album, remember to deselect any albums you do not wish to include in the game.

User-made albums can only be played in Zen or Versus modes, not in Adventure mode.

D. Non-English albums

Osmo Words prompts are available in Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese. Two albums are available in the Words Library for each of these languages. Adventure mode is exclusively in English. The game currently uses only English alphabet letter tiles.

To change Osmo interface messages to another language, adjust the language setting on your device. Instructions for iOS and Amazon Fire are provided. After changing the setting, open an Osmo app to select between English and your preferred language for the app.

While there are currently few non-English albums shared on myOsmo, users can create more by following instructions in section F and share them with the community.

Note: Before selecting albums, deactivate all albums not in the desired language. Otherwise, the device will default to English.

Visit the forums for custom album tips and curriculum discussions.

E. Changing game settings

Adventure Mode

In Adventure mode, settings can be adjusted via the Settings icon ⚙️ on the map page. If Osmo World app is installed, click the globe icon, and the Settings icon will appear.

You can modify Character difficulty and Word difficulty. You can also enable or disable Speech to hear words read aloud and turn the background music on or off.

For Character difficulty: Competitive Play can be turned ON or OFF.

When OFF, the character offers hints and time for the player. When ON, the character competes against the player for points. Competition difficulty can be set to easy, medium, or hard, with harder settings featuring faster and more accurate character play.

For Word difficulty: The number of hints can be adjusted across four levels.

The document displays examples of letter hints for an image across four difficulty levels, showing varying numbers of revealed letters and hints.

To hear the word read aloud, turn on the Speech option and tap the image during the game.

Versus and Zen Modes

In Versus and Zen modes, tap the Settings icon ⚙️ anytime to toggle Speech, Hints, or lowercase recognition. If Osmo World app is installed, tap the globe icon. Word difficulty can be adjusted using a dial and locking the selection.

F. Creating your own Words albums

a. How to create your album

1. Navigate to your myWords dashboard.
2. Click 'Create New Album' to go to the new album page.
3. Click 'Add Title' (or 'Untitled Album') to name your album.
4. Click 'Add Image' to upload a picture or take a new one with your device. Multiple files can be uploaded in a batch by dragging them.
5. Hover over the added image and click the 'Edit' button.
6. In the 'Add Word' field, type your chosen word. Hints can be provided by enclosing letters in parentheses (e.g., A(NT) displays as _NT). Add multiple words for variety. For example, 'Mona Lisa' can be set to Easy difficulty, and 'Leonardo Da Vinci' to Medium. The game will randomly select one of these words based on the chosen difficulty level.
7. Return to the album homepage to add more pictures and words.

b. How to edit images in your album

Uploaded images are automatically resized and may be cropped if too large. To ensure images fit well and are not blurry, maintain dimensions between 768x1024 and 385x512 pixels.

While editing an image, use the Settings icon ⚙️ for options like Crop, Set as Album Cover, Replace Image, and Delete.

When searching on Google Images, use the 'Tools' button and select 'Large' size for appropriate image dimensions.

Alternatively, image resizing can be done with programs like Paint.NET (Windows) or Preview (Mac).

c. How to create a Proper Noun (case sensitive) album

To create case-sensitive albums for uppercase/lowercase Words tiles, your account must first be set as a 'Teacher' account.

1. Log into https://my.playosmo.com/.
2. Click your username in the top right corner and select 'Account'.
3. Scroll to the section labeled 'This Osmo will be used...'.
4. Check either the 'At School' or 'Homeschool' box.
5. Create your album as described previously. At the bottom of the album homepage, click the 'Regular' link next to 'Album Type' and select 'Proper Noun album'. This can also be done for existing albums.

When entering words, the case used will be the one the game expects (e.g., 'frank' or 'Frank', 'us' or 'US').

The 'Album Type' selection screen shows 'Regular' (not case-sensitive, works with any Words titles) and 'Proper Noun' (case-sensitive, requires new lowercase Words tiles).

Additional resources include this video and this video from the teacher resource page.

d. How to add tags to your album

Click 'Add tags' at the bottom of your album homepage to add descriptive tags for categorization (e.g., "Phonics", "Math", "Animals", "ESL").

e. How to set the language for your album

If your album is in a language other than English, select it from the language dropdown menu at the bottom of the album homepage. If the language is not listed, keep English as the album language and add your language name as a tag.

f. How to share your album

To share an album, log into myOsmo, open the album, and select 'Share' from the Settings menu ⚙️. A link will be provided for emailing to friends.

Publishing an album ('Make Public') requires review by Osmo staff, typically taking up to 2 business days. For expedited review, contact Osmo with the album name and associated myOsmo account email address.

Public user-made albums can be found on the myWords Discover page.

g. How to unpublish your album

Unpublish an album by visiting its homepage and selecting 'Unpublish' from the Settings menu ⚙️.

h. How to delete your album

Delete an album by visiting its homepage and selecting 'Delete' from the Settings menu ⚙️.

Storage Overview

Place letter tiles in the trays.

A visual shows letter tiles (A, C) and a device with the Osmo reflector.

Best Practices for Effective Osmo Detection

Follow these tips for optimal Osmo performance:

1. Keep hands and fingers away from game pieces after placement so Osmo can detect them.
2. Ensure the reflector is centered on the device's top edge for the camera to see the play space.
3. Keep letter tiles close to the device for camera visibility.
4. Play in a well-lit room.
5. If the tabletop surface is dark, it may affect software detection. Try placing an 8.5 x 11 sheet of white paper on the tabletop and then the pieces on top of it.
6. Verify that your device is compatible with Osmo. Check this list of Osmo-compatible devices.
7. If issues persist despite proper setup, contact support@playosmo.com for assistance.