Spot the Difference: Find Every Change

What is Spot the Difference?

Spot the Difference is a free picture puzzle you play in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Two illustrated pictures of the same scene look identical, but they aren’t: between five and ten things have changed. Tap a difference in either picture and a gold ring circles it on both.

Every scene is painted in a warm picture-book style, from a sunny kitchen and a cottage garden to a coral reef, a winter village, a city street at night and a space station. Fifty levels in ten picture packs start with big, bold changes and build to small, subtle ones. A new Daily Spot the Difference arrives every day, the same for everyone, and Endless mode arranges the objects and the changes afresh every time, so no two pictures are alike.

Every difference is placed on purpose and known exactly, so a fair tap always counts. There are no lives and no forced timer: play the relaxed style, where the clock never counts, or switch on the timed style and race the clock for three stars. Pinch to zoom both pictures at once on a phone, and use a hint when a sneaky one hides.

How to play Spot the Difference

1. 

   1Compare the two pictures

   Both pictures show the same scene, but a few things have changed. The dots at the top count the differences, from five on the first levels to ten on the hardest.

2. 

   2Tap a difference

   Tap or click anything that is different, in either picture. A gold ring marks it on both pictures and a dot lights up.

3. 

   3Zoom in for a closer look

   Pinch on a phone, or use the Zoom buttons. Both pictures zoom and move together, so the same spot is always in view.

4. 

   4Stuck? Use a hint

   A hint dims the pictures and lights a circle with a difference inside it. Hints recharge as you play, and you can hold up to three.

5. 

   5Find them all

   Find every difference to finish the picture. One miss or fewer, with no hint, earns three stars, and the next picture is a tap away.

6. 

   6Play the daily

   A new Daily Spot the Difference arrives every day, the same for everyone. Solve it to keep your streak going.

The rules in full

1. Look at the two pictures. They show the same scene, but some things are different. The dots at the top show how many differences there are and how many you have found.
2. Tap or click a difference in either picture. A correct find draws a gold ring around it on both pictures and plays a chime.
3. A difference can be an object that is missing or added, a new colour, flipped the other way, bigger or smaller, moved, tilted, or swapped for something else.
4. A tap where nothing has changed gives a gentle shake and counts as a miss. In the timed style it also adds five seconds to your time.
5. Zoom in to look closer: pinch on a phone or tablet, or use the Zoom buttons. Both pictures zoom together, and you can drag to look around.
6. Stuck? Hint lights a circle with a difference inside it. You can hold up to three hints, and a new one charges every 45 seconds.
7. Find them all to finish the picture. You earn three stars for one miss or fewer (and inside the target time in the timed style); a hint keeps a picture to two stars.
8. With a keyboard, the arrow keys move a finder over the pictures and Space checks the spot. Plus and minus zoom, and H gives a hint.

Spot the Difference tips and strategy

• Scan in a pattern. Compare one corner of both pictures, then work across in strips, instead of darting about.
• Look at colours first. A recoloured object often jumps out once you stop looking at shapes.
• Count things that come in groups, like fish, hens or birds. A missing one is easier to catch by number than by eye.
• Check which way things face. A kettle spout pointing the other way or a fish swimming backwards is a favourite trick on later levels.
• On a phone, zoom into one half of the pictures at a time. The small changes on the hardest levels are much easier to see up close.
• Compare an object’s size against what is next to it, like a shelf, a window or a neighbour.
• A moved object leaves a gap where it used to be. Look for empty spaces that are filled in the other picture.
• Save a hint for the last difference. The lit circle shrinks the search to one small patch.

Spot the difference: a classic picture puzzle

Finding the changes between two nearly identical pictures has been a favourite puzzle for generations, in newspapers, comics, puzzle books and on the backs of cereal boxes. It needs no words and no rules beyond one idea, so it works for every age.

What makes a good spot the difference picture is fairness. Every change should be something you can point to and say “that’s different”, with no tiny smudges or guesswork. That is the standard this game is built on.

Why is it so hard? Psychologists call it change blindness: we hold far less of a scene in mind than it feels like we do, so a change can sit in plain sight until we look right at it. Comparing one small patch at a time is the cure.

Fifty spot the difference puzzles in ten scenes

The Picture Packs take you through ten illustrated places: Sunny Kitchen, Cottage Garden, Seaside Sands, Toy Shop, Coral Reef, Meadow Farm, Winter Village, Woodland Glade, City Lights and Star Station. Each pack has five pictures to solve, with three stars on each.

The first pictures have five big, bold differences, like a missing cake or a teapot that turned blue. Later pictures have up to ten, and the changes get smaller and sneakier: a bird flipped the other way, a plant one size bigger, a fish swimming at a tilt. Solve three pictures in a pack to open the next.

Fair differences you can always find

Every picture is built from layers: a painted background and the objects placed in it. The differences are made by changing those objects, so the game knows exactly where each one is and how big it is. A tap on a real difference always counts, even if you hit the edge of it.

Differences are spread across the picture, never overlap each other, are never hidden behind another object, and are always big enough to see on a phone screen. They get smaller as the levels get harder, but never smaller than that.

Daily Spot the Difference and endless new pictures

A new Daily Spot the Difference arrives every day, the same pictures for everyone. Monday’s is gentle and the week builds to Sunday’s ten-difference challenge. Solve it to grow your streak, catch up on past days from the calendar, and see how you did against other players on the day’s board.

Endless mode makes a fresh pair of pictures every time, mixing the scenes, the objects and the kinds of change, so the pictures never repeat. Pick a depth from Easy to Expert, and a favourite scene or any scene.

Playing spot the difference on a phone

On a phone held upright the two pictures sit one above the other, as large as the screen allows; turn it sideways or tap Full screen for even more room. Pinch to zoom and both pictures zoom together, so the same spot is always in view in each. Once you are zoomed in, drag with one finger to look around.

Finds give a soft tap of vibration on phones that support it, and the calm motion setting replaces pops and shakes with simple, steady rings.

Relaxed or timed: play spot the difference your way

The relaxed style keeps the clock out of it: take your time and enjoy the pictures. Stars come from accuracy alone, with three for one miss or fewer and two for up to four.

Switch on the timed style for a challenge. The clock counts towards your stars, each picture has a target time, and every wrong tap adds five seconds. Your best times and stars are saved for every level either way.

Spot the Difference FAQ