How to play Minesweeper well on a phone
Minesweeper was built for a mouse, with a left button to open and a right button to flag. A phone has one finger and no right button. That makes a few things awkward, but it’s easy to fix once you know the options.
Three ways to flag
Press and hold. Hold your finger on a covered square for about a third of a second and a flag appears. You’ll feel a short buzz on phones that support it. Let go before then and the square opens instead.
Flag mode. Tap the Flag mode button under the board. While it’s on, every tap places or removes a flag. This is handy when you’ve found several mines in a row and want to mark them quickly. Tap it again to go back to opening squares.
Don’t flag at all. On small boards you can skip flags and just open safe squares. It’s quicker and avoids mis-taps, as long as you remember where the mines are.
Chording with a tap
Chording works on touch too. Tap a number that already has all its flags and the rest of its neighbours open. Holding a number does the same thing. Since flags matter for chording, be careful with them: a wrong flag makes a chord open a mine.
Boards that fit your screen
Expert and Master boards are much wider than they are tall. On a phone held upright, the game turns these boards sideways so they use the height of the screen, which makes each square noticeably bigger. Turn the phone to landscape and the board goes back to its usual shape.
If the squares still feel small, try Beginner or Intermediate, which fill a phone screen comfortably. You can also use the Full screen button to hide the browser bars, on browsers that allow it.
Habits that help
- Tap the middle of a square, not the edge. Near the edges it’s easy to hit the neighbour.
- Slow down near the end. Most phone losses come from a rushed tap, not a wrong deduction.
- Scroll with care. If a board is too big to fit, move it by dragging. A drag doesn’t open anything.
- Use hints to learn. The Hint button shows a square that is certain from what’s on screen. It’s a good way to spot a pattern you missed, though a game with hints doesn’t count toward your best time.
Add it to your home screen
Open the site in your browser’s menu and choose Add to Home Screen. You’ll get an icon that opens straight into the game, like an app, with nothing to install.
Ready to try? Start a Beginner game and give press and hold a go.