Puzzling Snapshots is a puzzle app full of great photography. That’s not surprising once you know who made it: developer Mark Courtney is a professional photographer. All 250 photos in the app are his — flowers, scenery, travel, wildlife — and it’s clear he knows his way around a camera. (He knows his F-stops, full stop.)
Pick a photo, pick a puzzle type, and start solving. There are four puzzle options: Classic (scattered pieces you connect however you like), Drop (pieces fall into place from above), Slide (the classic sliding-tile puzzle with one open gap), and Swap (trade two adjacent pieces at a time). No timers, no scores, no streaks.
The puzzles can be hard. I love slider puzzles, and I’ll confess that I like to simplify them in the app down to nine squares, because that’s what suits my brain best. Happily, Puzzling Snapshots lets you set the piece count globally, per puzzle type, or even for the specific puzzle you’re in the middle of — and you can turn on a full-sized guide image behind the pieces when you want a little help. Or a lot of help. No judgment.
Your progress saves automatically and syncs between iPhone and iPad. The app costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases and no subscription. If you’ve got a few minutes of downtime and would rather not wade into your inbox or into the world of (ugh) social media, Puzzling Snapshots offers a fun few moments of iOS zen.