Small bug fixes and Visual improvements.

New games • Power Battles: four in a row with powers. Your power charges as you play and you choose when to use it. Ten powers to start, and new ones come out one at a time over the coming weeks. Ranked games open with a ban and a pick, and you can star two powers as your mains. • Each new power is marked New for its first week, with a short intro to try it and a week of challenges for a title. Turn on new power alerts to get a notification the day each one comes out. • Power Battles tournaments, against the computer or with friends, online or on one phone. • Vanish, ranked: you only ever have three marks, and a fourth takes away your oldest. • Stack: bigger pieces cover smaller ones, and you can move a piece instead of placing a new one. Halloween, 22 October to 5 November • New powers come out during the event. • The whole game dresses up for Halloween. Play a game during the event to keep its themes, boards, chips and avatars. • Two weeks of challenges, a free event pass, a treat to open each day you play, and titles to earn. Taunts • Stickers to send in online games, unlocked as you level up or from the Halloween pass. Puzzles and practice • Game Review now works for every game. • "Why that isn't the best move" shows the threat or escape you missed. • Every puzzle has one answer, with a worked solution and hints. • See how your friends did on the daily puzzles, earn mastery badges by puzzle theme, and get one free lesson a day. Other changes • The computer thinks faster and no longer freezes the screen. • Ranked ratings now take into account who moved first. • Reports are reviewed, and you can appeal a decision. • Screen readers now hear turns, clocks and every Power Battles move. • Playing on two devices no longer undoes progress on either one. • Many smaller fixes.

A better-feeling match, from first move to rematch. • More polished win and rating-change animations • Better-balanced computer opponents and more natural rematch behavior • Clearer move confirmation and explanations for forbidden Renju moves • Smoother menus and improved layouts on smaller screens

Winning feels like winning. • Bigger wins hit harder: the celebration, sound and haptics now scale with upsets and win streaks • Chips fall like they were dropped, and ranking up is a real moment • A full 3D coin toss decides the draw rule before ranked games Learn from every game. • After a game, see the move that turned it and whether your opponent had a forced win from there • A free lesson and practice set for everyone, with interactive examples you can play out • New fork lessons and challenges, and a clear explanation of how accuracy is graded Play with confidence. • Online Gomoku and Ultimate now ask you to confirm each move, so a mis-tap never costs you a game • Staging a move no longer shifts the board or the clock, and draw offers stay out of the way • The Gomoku computer defends properly and no longer walks into an early five in a row Cleaner and easier to read. • Game modes are back on two shelves: Connect and Tic-Tac-Toe • The Puzzles tab puts your Journey and today's set first, with streaks and history under Progress • Sharper text on every theme, readable pop-ups on light themes, and colour bars in the move list • Plenty of smaller fixes and polish

connect4.life is now Dropline. Your account, rating, and history carry over untouched. • Every game is free to try. • Quick play drops you straight onto a board • Gomoku and Ultimate work on a phone now. • A optional move list under every board. Tap any move to jump back to it, and the last move played is marked • See the win — the four connecting, now in Spin and Ultimate too • Every mode explains itself — the rules, and the shapes that win, one tap from the board • Puzzles appear instantly. The slowest ones used to take thirteen seconds • Daily works without an account • Rebuilt rank ladder — Gold is where the middle actually is • Game Review can't get stuck, and if it ever fails it gives your free daily review back • The Daylight theme is easier to read, with contrast fixed across headlines, buttons and boards • Clearer forfeit costs, fairer openings, and ads that wait until you're done • Recovers from errors instead of showing a white page, including on first launch • Bug Fixes

bug fixes on Ranked Gomoku now uses Renju, the tournament ruleset — squares you can't play are marked, and tapping one explains why. Practise it against the computer too. New: Learn (Pro) — seven lessons on the tactics behind every game. Gomoku now appears at Journey level 12 instead of 81, and each game explains its rules the first time you meet it. Fixed: a winning move in the Journey could be scored as a mistake.

Ranked Gomoku now uses Renju, the tournament ruleset — squares you can't play are marked, and tapping one explains why. Practice it against the computer too. New: Learn (Pro) — seven lessons on the tactics behind every game. Gomoku now appears at Journey level 12 instead of 81, and each game explains its rules the first time you meet it. Fixed: a winning move in the Journey could be scored as a mistake.

Endless puzzles, and a Journey that's 38 levels longer. ENDLESS PUZZLES — NEW • Puzzles that never run out. No timer, no lives, nothing to fail. • It starts easy: the first ones are "spot the winning move", and it climbs slowly from there. Sit down for two minutes or two hours. THE JOURNEY • 38 new levels — 150 in total, with two new tiers at the top that mix every game together instead of settling into one board. • Fixed ten levels labelled harder than they actually were. A few "mate in 4" puzzles had a winning move sitting in plain sight. • You can play a move you're not sure about now. It lands on the board, you see what it does, and you take it back — instead of the board refusing it and telling you nothing. RANKED • Streaks keep raising the stakes. Three straight wins pays x1.25, and every win after that adds another x0.25, up to x3 on a run of ten. Losing runs cost more the same way. • Ultimate and Gomoku are worth more per game than the quicker boards — they ask more of you, so they move your rating further. YOUR RECURRING MISTAKES — NEW • The app now looks across the positions you got wrong and tells you what they have in common: how many, in which games, and which patterns keep coming back. • Pro reads them with the engine — whether you had a forced win, whether it needed a setup move, whether only one move worked, and whether your move walked into theirs. FIXES • Fixed a bug where a move could take a long time to appear, leaving the board frozen while the clock kept counting. • Notifications now explain themselves before asking permission. • Connect flags new messages and requests straight away, and clears the badge as soon as you've dealt with them. • The message box reaches the edge of the screen. • When no ad is available, that space shows something useful instead of sitting blank.

Faster ranking up, and a fix for moves that seemed to hang. • Fixed a bug where a move could take a very long time to appear — the board looked frozen while the clock kept counting, and taps did nothing. Your move is now recovered in about two seconds instead of up to a minute, and the game tells you it's still sending rather than leaving you staring at a stuck board. • Streaks keep raising the stakes. Three straight wins pays x1.25 as before, but now every win after that adds another x0.25 — x1.5 at four, x1.75 at five — up to x3 on a run of ten. If you're better than the rank you started at, the ladder finds you far faster. Losing runs escalate the same way. • Notifications are on. Messages, friend requests and game invites now reach your phone even when the app is closed. • Connect flags new activity right away instead of up to 45 seconds later, and clears the moment you've read it.

Small fixes, one of them overdue. • Your rating in the match header is now the rating for the game you're actually playing. Big Tac Toe, Gomoku and the rest were all showing your Connect 4 number. • Ranking up finally feels like it. Every promotion gets the moment now — not just changing tier — with a shockwave, a burst of colour and a sound to match. Climbing a division was landing as a small grey label. • Fixed a bright streak of light that stayed stuck across the rating card after a promotion instead of sweeping away. • Fixed the Add Friend button overlapping Game Review on the result screen.

Every mode now has a real game review — and ranked has stakes. REVIEW, EVERYWHERE • Ultimate, Gomoku and Shots now get the full graded review: accuracy score, every move graded, and the engine's better move marked right on the board. • Ultimate and Spin can be watched back move by move, with Ultimate's nine boards replayed properly. • Every finished game offers a review — modes without grading open a free replay that never spends your daily one. • Spending your free daily review asks first, with a free replay option. RANKED WITH STAKES • Win streaks raise the stakes: three straight pays ×1.25 per win, five straight ×1.5 — and losing streaks cut the same way. • A decided game always moves your rating. No more "+0" after a loss. • Your opponent's clock counts down on your screen while they think. • Ranks show divisions everywhere, and every rating tile says how close the next one is. • Filter your record by game type and time control, across all your past games. ULTIMATE, FIXED • It finally has a clock, like every other mode. • The board dims when it isn't your turn, and "they go first" shows once at the start instead of every turn. • Step back through the moves like anywhere else. • New indigo colour of its own. PUZZLES, REBUILT • Puzzle Journey has no freebie levels: level 1 already makes you read the board, and it climbs to full four-move forced wins. Levels open instantly. • Daily puzzles are a five-puzzle ladder that ramps up and pays XP, with a bonus for clearing all five. • Puzzle opponents always play the engine's best reply. • Wrong moves land on the board with a take-back, instead of a silent no. PROFILES & CONNECT • Wins and losses count every mode, lead with your best game, and include your casual records. • Your lobby rank now matches the standing card under it. • Friend buttons tell the truth: Remove friend, Request sent, or Accept. • Messages, invites and friend requests badge Connect and reach your phone. • Game invites in chat appear as a Join Game button. POLISH • A filled Connect 4 board settled on threats now counts them out on screen before naming the winner. • The result card fits your screen instead of scrolling, and the ad no longer jumps into place. • Puzzle Practice and reviewing your own blunders are Pro; the daily puzzles, Rush and Journey stay free. • One consistent rank colour across the app, plus dozens of layout fixes.

Ranked gets stakes: win streaks pay up to ×1.5 per win — and losing streaks cost more too. Opponent clocks tick live, ranks show divisions, and every tile says how close your next rank is. Puzzle Journey is rebuilt — no freebie levels, real tactics from level 1, climbing to four-move forced wins. Daily puzzles are a ramping 5-puzzle ladder, every solve pays XP, and puzzle opponents always play the best reply. Plus: message and invite notifications, join-game buttons in chat, profiles that count every mode, honest friend buttons, free replays for every finished game, and polish everywhere.

• Game invites now work everywhere — share a link and your friend lands right in the game, app or browser. • Invites in chat show up as a tappable Join game button. • Leaving the app to share your invite no longer disconnects your game — you come back to the same waiting room. • Added Sign out in Settings, centered sign-in screens, and a cleaner end-of-game screen when there's no ad.

• Earn up to 3 stars against each Computer difficulty — win clean for all 3, or take back moves at the cost of a star. • Smarter bots: easy ones block the obvious but fall for sneaky plays, like real beginners. • Rating changes now show after every ranked game, in every mode. • Internet drop? The board says so, your seat is held, and you can rejoin. Leaving before your first move costs nothing. • Invite links open the app, carry the right game and clock, and survive signing up. • Pass & play: quicker finish, name the other player, fast rematch. • Many fixes: reachable close button, marked practice mistakes, offline banner, cleaner wording.

• Rebuilt the end-of-game screen — it fits on one screen now, and shows the three move grades you actually made instead of a fixed set. • Opponents play like their rank. They're sharper some games than others, and they take a moment before moving. • One rating per game. Bullet, blitz and rapid now share a single rating, and you can still see how you do at each speed on a game's stats page. • It's clear at the start of a game when you're not going first. • Streak rewards. Every day you play earns XP, and you bank a rest day each week that covers a day you miss. They never run out. • Redesigned the rewards screen — all 16 titles on one screen, so you can see the whole climb. • Simpler wording across the app. • Visual polish, bug fixes, and more.