Heardle shut down.
Here's where to play now.
Spotify bought Heardle in July 2022 and closed it in May 2023. Millions of players lost the morning ritual, and three years later nothing official has replaced it. These are the games that fill the gap in 2026, including the one we make.
The alternatives, honestly compared
Songless
The closest match to the original formula. Your clip grows from a tenth of a second to the full song across six guesses, with separate daily boards for rock and hip-hop. Browser only. The "Songless" app on the App Store is an unrelated paid clone with poor reviews.
Bandle
A different puzzle rather than a Heardle copy: each song rebuilds instrument by instrument, drums first, vocals last. Excellent daily habit with a big archive. Genre and decade packs cost $1.99 to $2.99.
iSpotly
A newer take on the layered-instrument idea with a survival mode and global leaderboards. Young app, small catalog so far, moving fast.
SongPop 3
The biggest catalog in the genre, with over 100,000 real clips and live head-to-head matches. Expect ads between rounds and steady prompts to buy the $9.99 monthly subscription.
The growing-clip game, built for iPhone
One Second Song keeps the idea Heardle players actually miss: hear a sliver of the real recording, and earn more only when you need it. You start at one second. Miss, and the clip grows: 1 → 2 → 4 → 8 → 13 → 20s.
- A daily song shared by every player, with streaks, a global leaderboard, and an encore round if you solve the one-second clip.
- Real recordings, played from official Apple Music preview clips. No Apple Music subscription needed.
- Fresh packs every week across decades and genres, or load any Apple Music playlist.
- A pass-the-phone party mode with hints, teams, and a scorecard worth arguing over.
- Free. No ads, no accounts, no tracking.
Questions people still ask
What happened to Heardle?
Spotify acquired the game in July 2022, folded it into its app ecosystem, then shut it down in May 2023. The official game no longer exists. Sites using the name today, such as heardle.info, are unaffiliated remakes that adopted it after the shutdown.
Is there an official Heardle app for iPhone?
No. Heardle only ever ran in the browser, and Spotify closed it before releasing an app. The apps using the name on the App Store today are unrelated clones.
Which game is closest to the original?
In a browser, Songless. On iPhone, One Second Song keeps the growing-clip mechanic with real recordings and adds a daily leaderboard, streaks, and a party mode.
Do these games use real songs?
Songless and One Second Song play real recordings. Bandle and iSpotly use re-recorded instrument stems, which changes the guessing feel: you identify an arrangement, a bass line first, rather than the record you know.