Games to Play on the Phone
Two truths and a lie This game is usually played with a small group of people, but you can play it with just 2 people, too. Have one person give 3 statements about themselves—two of them are true, while one is a complete lie. Everyone else has to guess which statement was fake. Once everyone makes their guess, reveal which one you made up! When you’re done, pick someone else in the group to go next. Try to use 1 truth that’s super outrageous or sounds fake to throw the other people off.
Going on a picnic In this memory game, the first person says “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing” followed by an item that starts with the letter “A.” The next person says the same phrase, followed by the item named by the previous person plus an item that starts with the letter “B.” The pattern continues until someone messes up! For example, the first person might say “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing an airplane.” The next person says “I’m bringing an airplane and a banana,” and so on.
Trivia If you’re playing with 2 people, take turns asking trivia questions and giving answers. For groups of 3 or more, have 1 person ask the questions and the others answer them for points. Have the trivia master rotate each round. For a spicier version to play with your partner, have anyone who gets the answer wrong remove a piece of clothing. Question: What is the sign directly opposite Scorpio in the zodiac? Answer: Taurus Question: What is the capital of India? Answer: New Delhi Question: Where is the world’s tallest roller coaster? Answer: New Jersey Question: What was the first toy advertised on television? Answer: Mr. Potato Head Question: What state in the U.S. only has 2 escalators? Answer: Wyoming Question: What bone are babies born without? Answer: Kneecaps Question: What are the first names of all 5 members of the Backstreet Boys? Answer: Kevin, Bryan, Nick, AJ, and Howie
Triple threat This game is best for 3 or more people. Have one person be the “Judge” who says 3 random words. Each person has to tell a story using those 3 words, and the player who the Judge believes created the best story wins! The winner then becomes the Judge for the next round.
Guess the song One person sings or says the words to a song, and the other player (or players) has to name its title exactly. To make the game harder, have each person say the lyrics in a monotone voice, with no pauses between the lines. For example, one person might say “I don’t want to call it off but you don’t wanna call it love.” The other person has to say the title, “Good Luck, Babe!” to get it right.
Explain a movie plot badly One player thinks of a movie and tries to explain the plot in a way that’s both accurate and super unhelpful. The other person or group of people has to guess what the movie is. If they guess right, it’s their turn to explain the plot of a different movie terribly. If the movie is Finding Nemo, you might say “Man loses wife and has to find his son.” Or you might describe Titanic as a movie where “two people fall in love on a boat that sinks at the end.”
The name game To play this creative game, everyone decides on a category like “food” or “places.” The first player says a word that fits into the category, then the next player has to say another word that starts with the same letter as the first word. The game continues until you run out of words. For the “places” category, one person might say “Turkmenistan” and the next person says “Netherlands.” The player after that has to say any place that begins with “S.”
Six degrees of Kevin Bacon This one is great for movie buffs. Name 2 celebrities that are not in a movie together, then try to connect them by naming the movies they’re in and the actors they’re in them with. Whoever can find the shortest path to the other actor wins! You might name Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson. Someone else might say that Hathaway was in Ocean’s 8 with Helena Bonham Carter, who was in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with Daniel Radcliffe, who was in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with Pattinson. You can also play a version of this game online. The original version of this game was created by 3 college students who tried to link actor Kevin Bacon to different celebrities in as few steps as possible.
Fortunately, unfortunately One player makes a fictional statement that starts with “fortunately,” like “Fortunately, we got to the pool as soon as it opened.” The next person then has to say something that starts with “unfortunately,” like “Unfortunately, they were still cleaning the pool when we arrived.” The game continues, switching from “unfortunately” to “fortunately” and back again with each player’s turn. Watch how crazy your story gets! The game only ends when you run out of statements.
Games to Play on FaceTime, Zoom, or Skype
What’s in the box? In this funny game inspired by Jimmy Fallon’s game on The Tonight Show, all you need is a random object. Set up your camera so the object is off-screen, then describe what the object is in front of you. You can lie about what the object is, or you can tell the truth—the other person has to guess if you’re making it up or not! Switch roles after each turn, and choose a new item every time it’s your turn to describe. Try to pick objects that are kind of wacky or strange. For example, you could put a can of baked beans inside of a lampshade, or put a bunch of board game pieces inside a sock.
Hangman All you need to play this game is 2 or more people and a whiteboard (or any writing surface). One player thinks of a word and draws dashes on the board for every letter in the word. The other players take turns guessing letters in the word from A to Z. If they guess a letter that doesn’t appear in the word, the first player adds a body part to the hangman. Whoever guesses the entire word correctly first wins. If the drawing of the person is done before the word is guessed, then everyone loses. You can only guess each letter once. It might help to write all the letters on the board and cross out which ones that people guess to keep track of which ones are available. Some video platforms like Zoom give you a virtual whiteboard to play on.
The alphabet game Create a story by adding sentences that start with the last letter of the previous sentence. For example, you might say “Once upon a time, there was a cat.” The next person has to begin their sentence with “C,” so they might say something like “The cat was huge and had glowing green fur.” Keep building the story with more exciting and interesting sentences until you all decide it’s done.
Never have I ever Every player holds their hands in front of the camera with all 10 fingers up. Take turns reading a “never have I ever” question—if you’ve done the thing mentioned, put your finger down. The person who still has a finger (or fingers) up after everyone else has put them down wins! “Never have I ever pretended to be on the phone.” “Never have I ever gone on a blind date.” “Never have I ever had a friend with benefits.” “Never have I ever worn something I took out of my dirty laundry.” “Never have I ever Googled myself.” “Never have I ever used someone else's toothbrush.” “Never have I ever broken a bone.”
Charades If you’re playing with a group, split into 2 teams. The first player from 1 team writes down a word or phrase and the team sets a 3-minute timer for the player to act it out. If the team gets the answer right in 3 minutes, they win a point. The team with the most points after a certain number of rounds (you decide) wins the game. If you’re playing with 1 other person, write down a word or phrase and act it out for them. If they guess it right within the time limit, they win! You can act out a book title, a movie title, a song title, a TV show, or a popular quote or phrase. You can also act out a random word like “cow” or “bicycle.”
Read my lips Have everyone write down a phrase for the other people to guess. When it’s your turn, put yourself on mute and say the phrase out loud. Then, set a 1-minute timer. The others have to read your lips and guess what you said correctly before the time runs out! Whoever guesses what you said correctly gets to be the reader next.
I’m hosting a party Imagine you’re hosting a party. Everyone has to bring the right item with them or they can’t come. As the host, you get to pick the rule that determines what kind of item they can bring. Have each person say what they’re bringing and respond with “Yes, you’re invited” or “No, you can’t bring that.” Whoever guesses the rule wins! You could decide that everyone has to bring something that begins with the same letter as their name, or everyone has to bring something that has 4 legs. Whoever wins gets to be the host in the next round.
Truth or dare Have one player ask another if they’d like a truth or a dare. If the person answers “truth,” they have to answer a question you give them. If they pick “dare,” give them a challenge to complete. Then, go to the next person in the group. Pick an appropriate (and safe) “punishment” for the players to do if they want to pass on their turn. A truth question might be something like “How many selfies do you take a day?” or “What’s the last song that made you cry?” Some dares might be “Let another person post a photo on your Instagram” or “Bark like a dog until your next turn.”
Simon says… In a group of your friends, pick one person to be Simon. Whoever is Simon can either begin a command by saying “Simon says” or just say the command alone. If a player follows a command that doesn’t begin with “Simon says,” they’re out of the game. Everyone keeps playing until there’s only one player remaining—they’re the winner! You might say “Simon says raise both your hands” or, “Simon says send an emoji in the chat.”
Pictionary This game also works well for a larger group. To play, pick a player to be the artist. The artist generates a random word to draw on a whiteboard. They then set a 60-second timer and draw the word. To win, the other players have to guess what the picture is correctly before the time runs out. If you’re on a platform like Zoom, you can use the in-app whiteboard to draw on.
Games to Play over Text
20 questions This is a timeless game where other players have to guess a person, place, or thing by asking only 20 “yes” or “no” questions. Have one person decide what the person, place, or thing is, then have everyone else take turns asking questions or guessing what it is. When someone guesses correctly, they win! For example, you might ask “Does it live in water?” or “Is it bigger than a phone?” Decide the player order in advance so no one gets confused.
Would you rather…? Take turns asking each other questions that begin with “would you rather” and end with two different scenarios. The questions can be whatever you want—you can make them funny, silly, or super weird. If you have a group chat, have every person answer the question before you move on to the next one. “Would you rather be itchy all the time or sticky all the time?” “Would you rather have smelly feet or bad breath?” “Would you rather never stand or never sit down?” “Would you rather always be late or always be early?” “Would you rather explore the ocean or outer space?” “Would you rather have 6 months of summer or 6 months of winter?” “Would you rather live in a 4-star hotel or a cabin in the woods?”
Emoji translation Send your friend or group chat a series of emojis and have them guess what they translate to. You can set a category for the emoji combos to fall into, like “movies” or “celebrities,” or you can just send emojis that decode into words or phrases. For example, “????????❤️” is the movie title Eat Pray Love. “????????????️” might be the singer Beyoncé.
Kiss, marry, kill Send your friends or partner a list of 3 celebrities and ask which ones they’d “Kiss, marry, or kill.” The other person has to decide which of the three they would kiss, which one they’d marry, and which one they would kill. Then, have the other person send you 3 people and continue the game. You might drop 3 people that you know your friend dislikes, or you can choose 3 people who are in the same profession, like musicians or actors.
What would you do? This one is great if you want to learn more about your friends and use your imagination skills. Create a fake situation (preferably one with high stakes) and send it to your friends. Ask them how they would deal with it or how they would escape it. You might ask: “What would you do if you found out you could stop time?” “If time travel existed, what is the first thing you would do?” “What would you do in a zombie apocalypse?” “What would you do if you rubbed a magic lamp and a genie popped out?” “What would you do if you had all the money in the world?” “How would you escape a prison?” “What would you do if you got trapped inside of a restaurant freezer?”
Riddles If your friends, family members, or partner are into puzzles, try giving them an entertaining riddle to solve. These easy brainteasers and clever questions can have everyone scratching their heads. Riddle: What kind of tree can you carry in your hand? Answer: A palm tree Riddle: What travels all around the world but stays in one corner? Answer: A stamp Riddle: What word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly? Answer: Incorrectly Riddle: What has a neck but no head? Answer: A bottle Riddle: What has lots of keys but can’t open a single lock? Answer: A piano Riddle: What fills a room but takes up no space? Answer: Light Riddle: What thrives when you feed it but dies when you water it? Answer: A fire
Abbreviations This game can be super complicated or easy depending on how you want to play. Type out a sentence as an abbreviation and send it to your friends—they have to guess what the sentence the letters correspond to is. To make the game easier, put a limit on how many words you can use in a sentence. For example, you might send “ICBTTSIAO,” which translates to “I can’t believe the summer is almost over.” If your friends don’t get it the first time, give them a hint. For the example above, you might say something like “it’s a phrase you hear every year around this time.”
What’s that sound? You might have seen this game blow up on TikTok a while back—to play, send your friend or partner a GIF. In a voice message, they respond with what sound they think that GIF makes. As you can imagine, the answers can be super hilarious! Your friend might send a GIF of a giraffe eating grass, and you might make a funny chewing sound into the microphone.
The rhyming game Put your rhyming skills to the test in this fun game. To start, send a word in the chat. The next person has to send a word back that rhymes with the first word. Keep sending rhyming words until you run out of words to use. The player who sent a rhyme before the person who ran out of words gets to choose the next starting word. This game is great for younger players.
Who is most likely to…? Text a group of your friends a question that starts with “Who is more likely to” and ends with a scenario. Everyone else in the group has to say who they think is most likely to be in that scenario. After you’ve all answered, ask another question for everyone to answer. The fun continues until you’re all questioned out. “Who is most likely to marry someone rich and famous?” “Who is most likely to die first in a horror movie?” “Who is most likely to cry at the end of a rom-com?” “Who is most likely to get lost in their own city?” “Who is most likely to join a cult?” “Who is most likely to become a stunt double?” “Who is most likely to go off the grid?”
Questions only Make a rule that every text has to be a question—no statements allowed! The only way to respond to a question is to ask a question of your own. If you’re playing with a group, eliminate the players who take longer than 1 minute from the time you sent your text to answer. For example, you might text “What is your favorite color?” The other person might reply, “Do you think I’m not going to pick yellow?”
Mobile Games to Play
Download a free mobile game to play with your partner or friends. Looking for something that feels more like a game night? Try one of these fun games you can use to connect with the people you love even when you’re miles apart. You can play them while you’re on a video or phone call, or during your free time as you go about your days. Scrabble Go: A virtual take on the classic board game Scrabble. Uno: Play the classic Uno card game plus tons of fun variations. Psych! Outwit Your Friends: Each player takes turns creating fake answers to trivia questions, and whoever picks the correct answer wins points. You also win points for fooling your friends. 8 Ball Pool: Connect your Facebook account to play pool with your partner or friends. Chess: Play chess co-op online and try out tons of interesting game modes. Gartic Phone: Each player writes a bizarre sentence, and then you’ll get one of them to draw. Each person receives a funny drawing and has to describe it. Once you’re all done, see what hilarious answers everyone gave! Mario Kart Tour: Race against your friends in this mobile version of Mario Kart.
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