Type a word, and each letter comes back green where it is right, yellow where it is in the wrong place and grey where it is not there at all. Six attempts. The difference from the version everyone played in 2022 is that there is no waiting until tomorrow: finish one and start another.
There is a difficulty setting and a high score table, both of which change the feel of it. Playing without a daily limit strips out the ritual and leaves the mechanic, and the mechanic holds up: the second guess is still the interesting one, and knowing you can immediately have another go makes people take the risky opener they would never spend a daily on.