Guide
How to Play Games on a Video Call: FaceTime, WhatsApp, Meet and Zoom
How to keep a FaceTime, WhatsApp or Meet call running in a corner while you play a two-player game in your browser, on iPhone, Android and laptop. No screen sharing needed.
Long distance games to play on your phone
Most "games for couples on phone" lists send you off to install an app, make an account and then persuade the other person to do the same. These don't. Every game below runs in your phone's browser. Start one, send the link in whatever app you already talk in, and the other person taps it and starts playing. iPhone, Android, tablet or laptop, in any mix.
Phone-friendly games to play long distance
1. How Well Do You Know Me
Big buttons, one question at a time, and easy to play while you talk. Answer for yourself, guess for them, and read the reveal out loud.
About 5 min a game · How to play How Well Do You Know Me
2. Tic-Tac-Toe
The fastest game in the arcade: thirty seconds a round, fine with one thumb. Try the Infinite variant, where your oldest mark disappears, if the classic always ends in a draw.
About 1 min a game · How to play Tic-Tac-Toe
3. Word Duel
Wordle for two, on a keyboard you already know. You both guess at the same time, so a round fits into a coffee break.
About 3 min a game · How to play Word Duel
4. Connect 4
Tap a column and the checker drops. The board fits a phone screen without any pinching or zooming.
About 5 min a game · How to play Connect 4
5. Dice Duel
Tap to roll, tap to keep, tap a box. Plays well one-handed on a bus, and you can leave it and pick it up where you left off.
About 10 min a game · How to play Dice Duel
6. Battleship
Shuffle your fleet with one tap instead of dragging ships around a small screen, then take turns calling shots.
About 10 min a game · How to play Battleship
How to play a game while you're on FaceTime or a video call
Start the call first. Then open longdistancegames.com in your browser. On an iPhone, swipe up to go home and FaceTime keeps running as a small picture-in-picture window. Most Android video apps do the same. Pick a game, start a room, and paste the link into your chat.
Your partner taps the link, types a name, and the board appears on both phones. You can hear each other react to every move, which is about as close as you'll get to sitting across a table.
Why there's no app to install
An app is one more thing the other person has to agree to download, and one more account to forget the password for. A link works on every phone, and it works the first time. It also means the other person can be on iPhone while you're on Android, and nobody has to check which app store it's in.
If you close the tab by accident, reopen the same link and you're back in your seat with the game exactly where it was.
Questions
- Do these work on iPhone and Android?
- Yes. They run in the browser, so Safari, Chrome and any other modern mobile browser all work, and the two of you don't need to be on the same kind of phone.
- Can I play while on FaceTime?
- Yes. Keep the call open, go to the home screen, and open the game in Safari. FaceTime keeps running in a small window while you play.
- Does it use a lot of data?
- Very little. A move is a few bytes, and the pages are small. A video call next to it will use far more.
- Is there anything to sign up for?
- No. You type a name so the other person knows who they are playing, and that's it. No email or password.