Strands is released at midnight in your time zone. To accommodate players around the world, we publish two Strands Sidekicks each day, based on Eastern Standard Time. If you find yourself on the wrong Sidekick, check your puzzle’s number, and go to this page to find its corresponding Sidekick post.

Strands is a tricky take on the classic word search from NYT Games. If you're stuck and cannot solve today's puzzle, we've got help and hints for you here.

There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list,

Key Takeaways The NYT Strands puzzle for July 16 is a quiet homage to everyday tech companionsThe spangram TABLET anchors a list of accessories that support mod