Nine Things I Learned Building a Scrabble App for My Friends

harlan.harris@gmail.com (Harlan Harris) — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I grew up playing Scrabble -- my grandma was cuthroat. I've played occasionally through the years, and more recently I've been playing Scrabble Go, the official, licensed Scrabble app, with friends. It's fine, but it's full of ads (unless you pay them), it has annoying side games (gems? why am I earning gems?), and I wished it had features like word definitions and better game history. So, starting last year, I built my own web app. I've had half a dozen friends and family members playing with me, each other, and a robot for the last few months, and it's been a lot of fun. I thought I'd share a few things I've learned along the way.

Vibe-Coding on Harlan D. Harris

Nine Things I Learned Building a Scrabble App for My Friends