Games to play over text: fun texting games for a friend or partner

The best games to play over text need nothing but messages, so they work in any chat with a friend or partner, with no app to add. Some are fast word games you finish in ten minutes. Others are slow question games that move along all day between replies. Each game below comes with short rules and a rough time for one round.

An example: Ines was in the blue armchair by the window, one foot tucked under her, when her phone buzzed. Her friend Dara, three time zones away, had sent five little pictures in a row: a sun, a wave, a sandwich, a crab and a face with its mouth wide open. Ines typed her first guess, "your beach trip." Wrong. Her second was "lunch by the sea," and Dara wrote back "closer." When she finally got it, that a crab had walked off with Dara's sandwich, she laughed out loud in an empty room.

If the replies between you have gone flat lately, a game can wake the chat up, and dry texting covers the rest.

Word games to play over text

These are quick, with a clear winner, and good for a slow afternoon at work or a long wait.

• Emoji riddles. Tell something using only emoji, like a place, a job or a small thing that happened today, and the other person guesses in words. After three wrong guesses, you explain. About 5 minutes a riddle.
• Twenty questions by text. One person thinks of an object, an animal or a place, and the other has up to twenty yes-or-no questions to work it out. Number every question, so nobody loses count halfway. About 15 minutes, or a whole day if you only ask between other messages.
• Hangman, minus the drawing. Send a word as a row of short blank lines, one for each letter, and the other person guesses one letter per message. Each wrong letter takes a life, and six wrong letters lose the round. About 10 minutes.
• Questions only. Every message has to be a question that answers the last one in some way. The first person to send a plain statement, or to repeat a question, loses. About 10 minutes, and it gets silly fast.

Question games to play over text

These are slower and tell you more about the other person. They work well for late evenings and long chats.

• The number game. You need a note with twenty questions, written before you start. Your friend picks a number from 1 to 20 and answers the question with that number from your list, then sends you a number for theirs. Mix light questions with a few deeper ones, so nobody knows what's coming. About 20 minutes.
• Only three. One person sets a limit, like "only three foods for a year" or "only three things in your bag on a desert island," and both of you send your three. Then each of you has to defend one pick the other doubts. About 10 minutes a round.
• Unpopular opinions. Take turns sending one mild opinion you really hold that few people share, like "cold pizza beats hot pizza." The other answers agree or disagree, with one reason. About 15 minutes for five each.

Would you rather questions work well by text too, one question per message, with a short reason for every answer. Two truths and a lie is easy to play the same way: all three lines go in one message, and the other person gets one guess.

Story and photo games by text

A phone camera makes a few more games possible. Nobody needs to be good at photos.

• Six-word stories. One of you sends a topic, like "a bad haircut" or "Monday," and both of you write a whole story in exactly six words. Send them at the same moment and vote for the better one. About 5 minutes a round.
• Close-up guess. You need a phone camera. Take a photo of something at home so close that only a corner or a texture shows, like the zip of a jacket or the skin of a lemon. The other person gets three guesses, and a right answer wins the next photo. About 10 minutes for five photos.
• The life of this thing. You need a phone camera. Send a photo of an everyday object near you, like a door, a shoe or a kettle, and the other person writes its life story in three lines. Then swap. About 10 minutes.

Texting games to play with a friend

With a friend, the best texting games bring back old jokes or plan things you'll never really do.

• Remember when. You need any chat and some shared history. One of you sends the start of a shared memory, like "remember the night the bus broke down," and the other adds one detail. Keep adding until one of you gets something wrong and the other corrects it. About 15 minutes.
• Dream trip, one stop each. Take turns adding one stop to a trip the two of you will probably never take, with a reason for each stop. After ten stops, each of you picks the one place you'd really go. About 20 minutes.

To find out how much a friend really knows about you, how well do you know me questions work over text, one at a time.

Texting games for couples: with your boyfriend or girlfriend

Games to play with your girlfriend or boyfriend over text work best when they're about your days and your plans together.

• My day as a weather report. Describe your day as a forecast, like "cloudy all morning, a sudden storm at two, clear skies after lunch with Sam." Your partner guesses what really happened, and then you tell the story. About 10 minutes.
• Build our Sunday. Take turns adding one thing to a perfect Sunday together, from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep. Each of you can swap out one of the other's picks, once. About 15 minutes, and you might end up doing it.

If you live in different cities, long distance date ideas has more games for two screens.

Texting games that run all day

Some games don't need fast replies. They sit in the chat and move forward a message at a time, between work and dinner.

• A riddle a day. In the morning, one person sends a riddle. The other gets three guesses before evening, and the answer comes at nine. Swap who sends the riddle the next day.
• Same word, two photos. You need a phone camera each. In the morning, one of you sends a single word, like "round," "blue" or "old." During the day you each take one photo that fits it, and you send them at the same time in the evening. The two photos side by side often say a lot about each of you.

Twenty questions and hangman also stretch nicely over a day, with one guess per reply.

Fast word games or slow question games

Some people want a quick word game with a winner. Others want one slow question and a long answer. Here is how seven types play, top to bottom on the types page:

• Ideator wants speed and a twist, and adds a new rule to questions only by the third round.
• Mentor prefers the number game with deeper questions and writes long, warm answers.
• Inspector likes hangman for its clear rules and keeps count of the lives without being asked.
• Diplomat loves close-up guess, where a sharp eye for real things wins.
• Entrepreneur wants a score and a winner, so numbered twenty questions is their game.
• Guardian enjoys the slow photo game and saves the best pairs of pictures.
• Counselor takes time over unpopular opinions and asks the follow-up question.

This is how type theory describes typical habits, and the person in your chat may text in their own way. Treat it as a light guess and never as advice.

See how the two of you get along

With Typeza you can see how the two of you get along and why, like why one of you sends five quick riddles while the other writes one long answer at night. Take the free compatibility test, then send the invite to the friend or partner you text the most.

Questions people ask

What games can you play over text?

Emoji riddles, twenty questions, hangman by text, the number game and six-word stories all work over plain messages. You don't need an app, only a chat.

What are good texting games for couples?

My day as a weather report, build our Sunday and the number game work well for couples. They're about your days and plans, so you'll likely learn something new about each other.

How do you play the number game over text?

Each of you writes twenty questions in a note. One person picks a number, the other answers the question with that number, and then sends a number back.

What are fun games to play over the phone?

Twenty questions, questions only and remember when work just as well on a voice call. The photo games need texting, because the other person has to see the picture.

Written by Virko Kask, founder of Typeza
Written with the help of AI tools.