Ads Without Interrupting a Puzzle: How Puzzle Picnic Paces Them
Puzzle Picnic shows free players ads between puzzles only, never during one. How breaks are paced, which videos are optional, and what Premium removes.
Puzzle Picnic is free with ads, but it never interrupts a puzzle with one. For free players in the iPhone and Android apps, an occasional short break appears between two puzzles, after a result screen, and never on the play screen. Optional reward videos, such as one for an extra hint, play only when you choose them. The ads are not personalised. Premium, a single optional one-time purchase with no subscription, removes all of them, and the web version shows no ads.
This page sets out exactly when an ad can appear and when it cannot, what the trade-offs are, and where else to find puzzles without ads.
The rule: nothing interrupts a puzzle
In Puzzle Picnic, the screen you solve on is never interrupted by an ad you did not ask for. Break ads only appear when you leave a result screen: when you tap to go to the next puzzle, back home, or on to the daily puzzle. That is the natural pause between two puzzles, after you have seen your time and before you start the next one.
There are also no banner ads. The puzzle boards need the whole screen, and a strip of moving adverts beside a sudoku grid is exactly the kind of distraction a calm puzzle should not have.
This follows Google's own advice for the ad format. Its AdMob guidance says full-screen ads "are designed to be placed between content" and are best placed "at natural app transition points", and warns that surprising users or "obstructing their use of the app" makes for a poor experience (Google AdMob Help: Interstitial ad guidance). The gap between two puzzles is about as natural a transition point as an app can have.
How breaks between puzzles are paced
A break ad is a short full-screen ad shown between two puzzles. Even between puzzles, Puzzle Picnic holds breaks back with several limits, so a free player sees far fewer than one per puzzle.
| Limit | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| An ad-free start | Your first few puzzles have no breaks at all |
| Spaced out by solves | At most one break every few puzzles |
| Spaced out by time | A few minutes between two breaks, however fast you solve |
| A daily cap | Only a handful of breaks in a whole day |
| Skipped after the daily puzzle | Finishing the daily never leads to a break |
| Skipped after a friend's challenge | A challenge result is left alone |
| Only if already loaded | If no ad is ready, there is no break: you never wait for one |
The last rule means you never sit watching a loading spinner while an ad is fetched: if the ad is not ready the moment you leave the result screen, the app skips it and you go straight on. Every ad that does appear is limited to content rated suitable for a general audience.
These breaks exist only in the iPhone and Android apps. The web version at puzzlepicnic.app shows no ads at all.
Reward videos you choose
A reward video is an ad you choose to watch in return for something useful. In Puzzle Picnic every reward video is opt-in: it is offered as a button, and nothing plays until you tap it. The reward only counts if you watch the video to the end.
| Video | Where it is offered | What it gives |
|---|---|---|
| Hint video | Once your three free hints for the day are used | One more hint |
| Power-up video | When you tap a power-up you have run out of | One more of that power-up |
| Daily chest video | The daily chest on the home screen | A second box of prizes from the chest |
| Double video | The result screen after a daily puzzle that paid power-ups | Doubles that reward |
| Pack video | My picnic, when you have no sticker pack left to open | A boost to the sticker pack meter |
The first four share one modest daily limit, and the chest and double videos are offered at most once a day each. The pack video has its own limit of one a day.
Videos you can start mid-puzzle
To be precise about "never during a puzzle": two of these offers can appear while a puzzle is open, because you asked for help. If you tap for a hint after your free ones are gone, or tap a power-up you have run out of, the app offers a video. For a power-up, the board is paused while the offer is on screen, so your time is not running. Close the offer and you are straight back in the puzzle. You never see a video you did not choose.
If no video is available, because you are offline or have used today's videos, the power-up offer simply tells you when the free refill lands. Nobody waits on a spinner. Free hints come back every day (three a day), and power-ups refill a little every day from a stock shared by all six games.
Not personalised, and no tracking prompt
The ads in Puzzle Picnic are not personalised. Google defines non-personalised ads as ads that "are not based on a user's past behavior"; they use context instead, such as rough, city-level location and the app they appear in (Google AdMob Help: Personalized and non-personalized ads). That means the adverts you see are not chosen from a profile of what you have browsed elsewhere.
Because of that choice:
- No "allow tracking?" prompt on iPhone. Apple requires apps to ask permission before tracking your activity across other companies' apps and websites (Apple Support: If an app asks to track your activity). Puzzle Picnic never shows that prompt: it does not ask for tracking permission, and it requests non-personalised ads.
- A consent message where the law requires one. In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, Google requires apps to ask for consent before using personal data for ads (Google: EU user consent policy). Puzzle Picnic shows that message once, before your first ad, never on first launch. You can change your choice later in Settings, under Your data, with Ad privacy choices.
- Ad pacing stays on your device. The counters that space out breaks live on your phone, not on Puzzle Picnic's servers.
- The ad network still receives some data. To serve its ads, Google's ad software receives data from your device, such as an approximate location from your internet address and a device identifier. Because the ads are non-personalised, that data is not used to pick ads from a profile of you.
The trade-off: non-personalised ads earn less per ad than personalised ones. Puzzle Picnic accepts that in return for a simpler privacy story and no tracking dialog.
Premium: one purchase, no ads
Premium is the way to play Puzzle Picnic with no ads at all. It is one optional purchase, made once: no subscription, nothing renews. Premium players see no ad of any kind, including no reward videos, because they do not need them.
What Premium includes:
- No ads. No breaks between puzzles and no videos.
- Unlimited hints and power-ups. No daily limit to run into.
- Bigger sticker packs of four stickers instead of three.
- The daily archive, to replay past daily puzzles.
- Two extra sticker collections, Picnic Gear and Picnic Pals.
- Extra colour themes: Moss, Plum and Ember.
Premium is sold in the iPhone and Android apps. It is not sold on the web version, which has no ads to remove.
Now and then, right after a break, the app may ask whether you would rather play without ads and show the Premium sheet. It does this only occasionally, at most once every few days, and the close button is there from the first moment. You never have to buy anything to keep playing: every game, every level and today's daily puzzle are free.
Why the app has ads at all
Puzzle Picnic is made by a one-person studio in the Netherlands, Maestro Software Development B.V., and the ads are what let the six games stay free for everyone. The alternative models all have costs of their own:
| Model | What you pay | What you get | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free with ads | Nothing | The full app | Some ads, however carefully paced |
| One-time purchase | Once | No ads, usually for good | You pay before you know you like it, unless there is a free version |
| Subscription | Every month or year | No ads while you subscribe | The cost never stops |
| Free and open source | Nothing | The full app, with the code open to all | Often maintained by volunteers in their spare time |
Puzzle Picnic combines the first two: free with gently paced ads, and a one-time purchase if you would rather have none. You can play as long as you like before deciding, and you never have to decide at all.
Other ways to play puzzles without ads
If you want logic puzzles with no ads at all and no purchase, there are good options, and it is fair to name them.
- Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection. A free collection of dozens of small one-player logic puzzles, including a Bridges game, that you can play in a web browser or install on a desktop computer. It is open source under the MIT licence (Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection).
- Subscription services. Apple Arcade, for example, promises "No ads. No in-app purchases." across its catalogue, which includes puzzle games, for a monthly or yearly fee (Apple: Apple Arcade).
- Paper. Puzzle books and newspaper puzzle pages have never had pop-up adverts.
Before installing any puzzle app, you can check what to expect. On Google Play, apps that contain ads must say so, and the store shows a "Contains ads" label on the listing (Play Console Help: Prepare your app for review). Reading a few recent reviews for words like "ads" and "interrupt" tells you the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Does Puzzle Picnic show ads during a puzzle?
No break ad ever appears while you are solving. Breaks only appear between two puzzles, after a result screen. The only videos you can see with a puzzle open are ones you ask for, such as an extra hint once your free hints are used, and for a power-up the board is paused while the offer is open.
Can I play Puzzle Picnic without ads?
Yes. In the iPhone and Android apps, Premium, a single optional one-time purchase, removes every ad; there is no subscription and nothing renews. The web version at puzzlepicnic.app shows no ads at all.
How often do ads appear for free players?
Not often. Your first few puzzles have none, then there is at most one break every few puzzles, a few minutes apart, with a daily cap. Breaks are skipped after the daily puzzle and after a friend's challenge.
Are the ads personalised?
No. Puzzle Picnic asks for non-personalised ads, which are not based on your past behaviour, and the iPhone app never asks for permission to track you. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland you see a consent message once, before your first ad.
Do I have to watch videos to get hints?
No. Everyone gets three free hints a day, and a hint explains the next logical step. A video for an extra hint is an option once those are used, never a requirement.
Where to go next
If you are new to the app, what Puzzle Picnic is gives the full tour: the six games, the daily puzzle, challenges and the optional account. The sticker side of the app, including the optional pack video, is covered in how My picnic works. If hints are what you use most, what "logic-only" really means explains why a hint can always show you a next step. And if you would like to keep an eye on your own screen time while you play, swap ten minutes of scrolling for a puzzle has practical ideas.