Guilty Party

Over a video call

Games to play over FaceTime

FaceTime is usually two people and a phone propped against something. That rules out most of what gets recommended for video calls.

Two rules decide the rest. SharePlay games start inside the call, but everybody needs an Apple device for them. Games with a room link work for everyone, including anyone who joined your FaceTime link from Android or Windows, who gets neither SharePlay nor screen sharing. The list starts at two players and ends where the group games begin.

Two of you, nothing to open

A phone propped against something is the whole setup. No app, no link, no account.

  • Twenty Questions

    2+ playersFreeNothing to open

    One person thinks of something. The other has twenty yes-or-no questions to find it.

    • All voice, so it survives a weak signal and a phone lying face down on the table.
    • Two or three rounds and it is done. It fills a gap rather than making an evening.

  • Two Truths and a Lie

    2+ playersFreeNothing to open

    Say three things about yourself. One is invented. The other person picks it out.

    • Best early on with somebody you do not know well yet, because the material is new.
    • With a partner or an old friend it collapses on the first turn. They know all your stories.

  • Would You Rather

    2+ playersFreeNothing to open

    Two bad options. Pick one and defend it. The defending is the game.

    • No end condition, so it fits whatever time is left before somebody has to go.
    • For the same reason it never feels finished, and good pairs run out faster than you expect.

Games that start inside the call

SharePlay launches a game into the FaceTime call itself: open it during the call and tap Start SharePlay. Everyone needs an Apple device and a Game Center profile, and it reaches nobody who joined from a browser.

  • Heads Up!

    2+ players$1.99Apple devices only

    Charades with the phone held against your forehead. You guess the word on the screen from what the others are shouting. Warner Bros. still updates it and it carries Apple’s SharePlay badge.

    • The safest pick in this group. It is the one people already know, and it starts in two taps.
    • One person pays $1.99 before anybody plays, and the extra decks are $1.99 each on top of that.

  • Headbands

    2 to 100+ playersFree with purchasesApple devices only

    The same forehead-charades idea, free to start, with more decks sold inside the app.

    • The developer puts it at anything from two players to a party of a hundred, so it scales down to a call with one other person.
    • The free decks run out quickly, and after that it is a shop.

  • Kahoot!

    10 players on the free planFree with purchasesApple devices only

    Quizzes, launched into the call over SharePlay. Kahoot says a live game played this way needs no host, so nobody sits out reading questions aloud.

    • Millions of ready-made quizzes and nothing to prepare.
    • The free plan stops at 10 participants, and at 3 if the host registered as a business account.

Everyone on their own screen

A room link everyone opens, or one free app everyone installs. This is the only kind that reaches somebody who joined your FaceTime link from Android or Windows, because FaceTime on the web has neither SharePlay nor screen sharing.

  • Codenames Duet

    2+ playersFreeOwn browser

    The two-player Codenames. You each see half the answers and take turns giving one-word clues, playing against the board instead of each other. Free on the publisher’s own site: nickname, share the room URL, play.

    • A real two-player game rather than a group game with people missing, and about fifteen minutes long.
    • It is a puzzle, so the call goes quiet while you both think. The $4.99 mobile app is a different product.

  • Wavelength

    2 to 10 playersFree, optional packsiOS and Android

    A dial hidden behind a screen and a spectrum with hot at one end and cold at the other. You give one clue and the others guess where the dial is sitting. The base game is free; extra spectrum packs are $0.99 to $4.99 and only the host needs to own them.

    • On Android as well as iOS, so it works where SharePlay does not. The makers tell you to start a FaceTime or Zoom call first, because the game is the argument about the clue.
    • No voice chat inside it, so it runs beside the call rather than in it, and everyone installs an app. Phones and tablets only.

  • skribbl

    2 to 20 playersFreeOwn browser

    One person draws a word and everyone else types guesses. Create a private room and send the link.

    • Free, no account, and it works for a guest on Android or Windows who cannot see SharePlay.
    • Thin with two people. It wants five or six, and drawing on a phone screen is a handicap.

  • Guilty Party

    4–6 playersFirst case freeOwn browser

    A written murder mystery for one evening. Everyone gets a character and cards only they can see, one of you did it, and the table has three rounds of conversation and a dossier to work out who. The app deals the roles and counts the votes, so nobody hosts and nobody sits out.

    • The talking is the game, so a grid of faces is the right shape for it rather than something to work around. Guests join by link in a browser, and only the person who opens the room pays.
    • It takes four people and about half an hour. Below four the app will not deal the roles. A case is played once, because after the resolution everybody knows who did it.
    Play a free case

    The Eclipse is free. No install, no sign-up.

How it works over a call

  1. Five people at a candlelit table, each holding a card face down; one of them whispers behind her hand.

    One of you opens the room

    The room gets a six-letter code. Paste the link into the call chat, or read the code out and let people type it. Everyone else plays in a browser tab. Nothing to install, no account, no email address.

  2. The same table, one guest talking with his hands open while the others watch him.

    Your cards stay on your own screen

    Everyone gets a character and cards only they can see. On a call this is easier than at a table: nobody is sitting close enough to read your screen.

  3. Close up: a man laying a sealed card face up on the tablecloth, the woman beside him laughing.

    The dossier lands on every screen at once

    After each round one new fact arrives for the whole table. It never clears anyone, so the work is the conversation, not the screen. The faces in the grid are what you are reading.

  4. The whole table pointing at once in different directions, phones showing the same dossier in front of them.

    Everybody accuses at the same time

    Three rounds, then one blind vote and the resolution. Nobody is eliminated on the way, so no one spends the last twenty minutes with their camera off.

Do not share your own window

Your window has your cards in it. Share your screen in the call and the whole table sees them. It is easy to do by accident while showing somebody where to click.

There is a window you can share. The shared screen at theguiltyparty.app/b/CODE shows the dossiers, the scene and the clock, and nothing else. It is never sent a private card, so it cannot leak one. Open it in a second window and share that one.

Play a free case

The Eclipse is free. No install, no sign-up.

Questions people ask

How many people can be on a FaceTime call?

Up to 32, in Apple’s own wording for Group FaceTime. People without an Apple device can join a FaceTime link from the latest Chrome or Edge with no account: they type a name and wait to be let in. FaceTime links are not available in mainland China.

Can everybody play if one of us is on Android or Windows?

Only if the game is a link they open themselves, or an app they can also install. Apple states that SharePlay and screen sharing are not available in FaceTime on the web, so a guest joining from a browser gets the call and nothing else.

What do we need for a SharePlay game?

An Apple device each and a Game Center profile. During the call you open a supported game and tap Start SharePlay. Apple keeps the list of supported games in the Games app.

Can I share my screen so the other person can play?

You can share your screen from the menu button in the call. Letting them actually tap on it is a separate feature: remote control works in one-to-one calls only, needs iOS 18 or later on both sides, requires you to be in each other’s contacts, and is not available in the European Union.

Is GamePigeon a FaceTime game?

No. It is an iMessage extension for two people on an iPhone or iPad, so the games sit in Messages while the call runs alongside. It is free with ads and in-app purchases, and it has not been updated since September 2024.

Can we play a murder mystery over FaceTime?

With four or more people, yes. Guilty Party runs in a browser, takes about half an hour, and guests join by link, including anyone on Android or Windows. Below four players the app will not deal the roles, so on a call with two it is the wrong game.

Also worth reading

When there are four of you

The Eclipse is free, runs in the browser and takes about half an hour. Below four players the app will not deal the roles.

Play a free case

The Eclipse is free. No install, no sign-up.