You don’t have to physically be with friends to play games. In fact, there are plenty of fun texting games you can play from the comfort of your own bed. I know what you may be thinking. How fun could texting games really be? The answer is loads of fun! In this post, I have listed out more than 30 entertaining and creative games to play over text. So, if you are feeling too lazy to actually hang out with people in person, these games are your solution!
1. 20 QUESTIONS
20 Questions is a classic road trip game. Remember those spherical 20Q handheld games by Mattel? This texting game essentially follows the same formula, but you don’t need a device to play it! The rules for 20 Questions are simple: One player thinks of a person, place, or thing, and the other player then asks 20 questions to try and guess the topic.
Remember, each question must be a yes or no question. So, instead of asking, “How big is it?” or “Where can I find it?” you should ask questions like “Is it smaller than a car?” and “Can you find it in the United States?”. If the guessing player runs out of guesses, you can reveal the answer and switch roles.
2. NEVER HAVE I EVER
An iconic and simple drinking game, Never Have I Ever is seemingly designed for playing over text. You’ll really get to know someone when playing this game, so it is ideal for playing with new friends or significant others.
In Never Have I Ever, players will take turns texting something they have never done. For example, you’ll text something like, “Never have I ever gone skydiving”. Then, the other player will say whether or not they have “gone skydiving”. Each player has five “lives,” and each each time you have done something the other player has not, you lose a life. The first player to run out of “lives” loses the game!
3. WORD UNSCRAMBLE
This texting game is a bit of a brain teaser that really inspires creativity. If you are a fan of Wordle or Scrabble, this is the perfect texting game for you! To play Word Unscramble, simply choose a starting word, and scramble up the letters to make it unrecognizable. Then the person on the other end of the text thread has to guess what the intended word is.
For example, if the word you want the other player to try and guess is “Automobile”, you could send through a text with the word “boomtaulie”. Then the player would need to try and decipher what the original word was.
4. WOULD YOU RATHER
An incredibly simple and hilarious game that can be played in person or virtually is Would You Rather. In this game, you and the other player take turns asking each other wild and ridiculous questions. Each question is formatted as so: “Would you rather ___ or ___?”
The opportunities are endless for this texting game, so you can really get as creative as you want. But here are some fun examples:
Would you rather…
- … have $1,000,000 or superpowers?
- … have a house cleaner or a personal chef?
- … be blind or deaf?
- … spend 5 years in a coma or 1 year in prison?
5. EMOJI GUESSING GAME
One of the most fun parts of texting, in general, is using emojis! So, why not turn these cute little graphics into a fun texting game? In the Emoji Guessing Game, there are endless opportunities and tons of variations. The first step of the game is to come up with a category. This can be anything from celebrities to movies, countries, restaurants, and more. The world is your oyster! Then, one player creates a string of emojis that translates into something that fits that category. The next player then has to guess what the first player is trying to say using the emojis.
6. SONG LYRICS
In this game, you’ll really test your music knowledge. Song Lyrics is a fun texting game that you will likely be able to play for hours without getting bored! First, think of a song and then text the other player a random lyric from that song. Then the other player must try and guess what song you are referencing the lyrics of. You can make the game as difficult or as easy as you want, depending on your music expertise.
Start by choosing more difficult and niche sections of the song to trip up the other player. If the player doesn’t guess correctly, give them an easier or more popular lyric. When the game ends, the player who guessed the most songs correctly win
7. KISS, MARRY, KILL
This is a classic party game that can get pretty risque, even when playing over text! The rules for Kiss, Marry, Kill are simple, but that doesn’t mean the game is any less fun.
In this game, one player comes up with three celebrities or famous people and says, “Kiss, Marry, Kill”. The other player then must decide which of the three they would want to kiss, which they would marry, and which they would kill. Like most of the games on this list, your imagination is the limit with Kiss, Marry, Kill, but here are a few hilarious examples:
- Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Seacrest
- Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong
- Danny Devito, Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg
- The Joker, Tyson Fury, Axel Rose
8. MOST LIKELY
There are many drinking games that easily translate into great texting games, and Most Likely is just one perfect example. This texting game is best played in group chats with several people, as it is the most fun with larger groups.
To start off, one person will text a sentence starting with “Most likely to”. For example, “Most likely to booty call an ex” or “Most likely to total a new car”. Then, each person in the group chat votes on who they think is the most likely to do this thing. The player with the most votes loses, and if you are playing it as a drinking game, they must drink!
9. HANGMAN
Everyone has played Hangman at some point in their life. I even played this childhood classic at school as a kid, as it was a great way to work on spelling and vocabulary!
While Hangman is generally played on a sheet of paper, you can also easily play it over text. First, think of a word and then send the other player a text with one underscore for each letter in the word. So if the word has 5 letters, send “_ _ _ _ _”.
Then the player will start guessing letters. If they guess a letter correctly, resend the underscores with the correct letters filled in. If they guess incorrectly, send them an “X” and then a body part to show that the letter is not in the word. The player gets 5 tries to guess the word. If they guess wrong 5 times, reveal the word and then switch roles.
10. I SPY
I Spy is a simple and innocent game that is great to play when trying to pass the time. To play I Spy over text, simply describe something that you “spy”. This could be really be anything, such as your cat, a flower, a picture on your wall, etc.
When describing the thing you “spy,” you should text “I spy something __”, filling in the blank with an adjective (color, size, etc.)
The other player then guesses what it is you are spying. Once the other player guesses successfully, they can “spy” something while you guess.
11. TRUTH OR DARE
If you didn’t play Truth or Dare as a teenager, did you really live? Truth or Dare is super popular at parties, but it is also easy to play over Facetime or even text. This is a super simple game and a great way to learn new things about your friend on the other end.
To start, ask the other player, “Truth or Dare?” They will then choose whether to answer a question (truth) or perform an action (dare). If they choose “truth”, ask them something personal that you don’t already know, such as, “What’s your biggest regret?” or “How many people have you kissed?”. If they choose “dare,” give them a hilarious action to do, such as shotgun a beer or text your ex, “You up?”.
Once they answer the question or complete the action, it is your turn to answer, “Truth or dare?”.
12. CATEGORIES
Categories is another straightforward game that can be played by everyone from drunk college kids to kindergarten students. So, if you and a friend are looking for a fun game to play over text, this is a solid option.
First things first, come up with a category. There are countless category options out there, but here are a few of my favorite ones:
- Country Capitals
- US Presidents
- Soda Brands
- Types of Alcohol
- Chain Restaurants
Once you have agreed on a category, you and the other player will alternate texting something in that category until one player either takes too long to respond or cannot think of anything.
13. RIDDLES
Riddles are easy, fun, and healthy puzzles that stimulate your brain. Some riddles may be pretty simple, and you may be able to solve them in a matter of minutes, while others will take hours or even days of thinking to work out. You can easily test out some new riddles over text with a friend; just send through the riddle in a text message and then wait for them to either try and guess the answer or ask questions. It is as simple as that!
14. IN CHARACTER
This is a fun role-playing game that you can play with a friend over text. Each player decides which character they want to pretend to be. You can pretend to be a real person, a fictional person, or even a cartoon character! Then, take turns sending each other messages that would make subtle hints to who your character is. Don’t go overboard with these hints though; you want to keep the other player guessing.
You can also ask the other players yes or no questions about themselves to try to guess who they are pretending to be.
For an alternate way to play: You can also play this as a texting version of Who Am I. In this game, each player chooses their opponent’s character, and then you take turns asking yes or no questions about who “yourself”.
15. FILL IN THE BLANKS
If you love trivia, Fill in the Blanks is the game for you. In this game, you and the other player will take turns texting each other fill-in-the-blank trivia questions to test each other’s knowledge of various subjects. There are tons of different ways to play this game, but I recommend starting off by choosing a category and then alternating between giving questions and answering them. Here are a few examples of good fill-in-the-blank questions.
- ___ was Emperor Napolean’s Last Name.
- Addis ___ is the Capital of Ethiopia.
- World War II Ended in ___.
- The ___ is the largest baseball championship in the world.
16. GUN TO YOUR HEAD
Similar to Would You Rather and Kiss, Marry, Kill, Gun to Your Head is another game where you will have to make difficult decisions. This is another great icebreaker game that allows you to learn a bit more about the person you are texting with each question. The basic idea of Gun to Your Head is that you are in a scenario where someone has put a gun to your head and is asking you to answer a difficult question or make a tough decision. Let’s go over a few examples of questions for this game.
- “What is your favorite band of all time?”
- “Recite the lyrics to a song with no mistakes. What song are you choosing?”
- “What movie can you quote the most?”
- “You can only eat one food for the rest of your life. Which food are you eating?”
17. FANTASY TEAM
Another unique way to get to know someone over text is by seeing which people or characters they would recruit for their fantasy team. In this game, you and the other player will come up with various scenarios in which you need to recruit a team. Some examples of good scenarios are:
- Choose your team to dust off a case of beer and then beat a middle school soccer team.
- Who is your team for a zombie apocalypse?
- You crash land on a deserted island. Who else was on the airplane?
- You are planning an Ocean’s 11-style heist. Who are your accomplices?
Once you have come up with a situation for the game, you and the other player will take turns enlisting people to be on your fantasy team. Come up with a set number of people to recruit, and then debate over which team is the best!
18. SIX DEGREES OF KEVIN BACON
If you and a friend are both movie buffs and are looking for an interesting game to really test your cinema knowledge, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a great option. The goal of this game is to make connections between the actor Kevin Bacon and another actor in as few degrees of separation as possible. The concept is that there are only 6 degrees of separation between Kevin Bacon and any other Hollywood actor.
To start off with, choose an actor for the other player to connect to Kevin Bacon. For example, Christopher Walken. Then, the other player must try to find actors that have acted in the same movie as both Christopher Walken and Kevin Bacon. In this example, Christopher Walken was in Balls of Fury with Robert Patrick, who was in Jayne Mansfields Car with Kevin Bacon, so there is only one degree of separation.
19. THE PREDICTIVE TEXT GAME
The next texting game on our list is sure to have you laughing out loud in no time. You can think of the Predictive Text Game as a Mad Lib that you play over text. In the Predictive Text Game, first, make sure that you and the other player have turned on the “predictive text” setting on your phone. Then, you should see 3 text predictions above your keyboard.
To start the game, one player writes out half of a sentence and sends it to the other player. Using predictive text, the other player then completes the sentence. Depending on the starting words, this text prediction can be pretty hilarious and may give you some completely unexpected responses!
20. WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
A simple conversation-starting game. What Would You Do? is a great texting game to play with one other person.
Similar to Fantasy Team, in What Would You Do? players will take turns coming up with specific scenarios while the other player decides what they would do in that situation. Get as creative as you want in this game, and feel free to dig deep! After all, the point is to learn more about the other player.
For example, you could ask, “What would you do if your country was invaded by a foreign power?” or “If all of your money was stolen, what would you do?”.
21. UNPOPULAR OPINIONS
Unpopular Opinions is an extremely fun card game that is similar to Cards Against Humanity. If you are playing in person with friends, I highly recommend purchasing the original game, but over text, you can get creative and DIY your digital version of Unpopular Opinions.
Unpopular Opinions is incredibly easy to play, but it will teach you a lot about the other person you are playing with. To start the game, come up with a topic and then provide 2 options for the other player to choose from. For example, “Pineapples on pizza: delicious or disgusting?”. Then the other player must choose between one of the two “opinions”.
Here are some other Unpopular Opinions questions that are destined to be controversial:
- “Socks and sandals: stylish or cringy?”
- “Running for fun: horrible or enjoyable?”
- “Cold plunges: relaxing or traumatic?”
22. GUESS THE MOVIE
Another fun game for the movie nerds out there, Guess the Movie can easily be played over text with one other person or even in person with a large group of friends! To play Guess the Movie, describe a movie in an obscure and creative way to try and make it more difficult for the other player to guess. For example, if the movie is Batman Begins, you could give the hint: “The main character is super rich and has a fear of rodents. His parents died in a mugging, and his destiny is to help fix his crime-infested city”.
Then, the other player must try and guess the movie in 3 guesses or less.
23. MAKE IT RHYME
Make it Rhyme is about as simple as you would imagine. Start off by coming up with a word (any word!). Then, the other player must come up with another word that rhymes with the first word. Continue like this, taking turns coming up with rhyming words until one player cannot think of any more words that rhyme.
24. QUESTIONS ONLY
This game to play over text may remind you of an annoying sibling or elementary school friend from your childhood. The only rule to Questions Only is that each player can only reply to each other over text with questions. So, you can only answer a question with another question. This game gets more fun the more clever you get with your responses. For example, if a player asks you, “What is your biggest fear?” You could respond with, “Have you ever gone swimming in the middle of the deep ocean?” This response is clever because it answers the question while also asking a new question.
25. BACKWARDS TEXTING
If you are just looking for a way to make a normal text conversation a bit more interesting, you can introduce Backwards Texting. This is as simple as it sounds: send through a standard text message with all the words switched around backwards. Then, wait for the other player to decipher the backward message and send you another backward text.
26. ACRONYMS
Texting has given birth to an entirely new category of acronyms; think “LOL”, “OMG”, “ROFL”, “BRB”, “IMO”, “TBH”, and the list goes on. In this acronym texting game, you and your friend will send each other messages in acronym form instead of normal messages. This game may be a bit difficult at first, but the more you know a person, the better you will be at decoding their acronym texts.
Continue texting in acronym form with your friend until one player needs help “translating” an acronym.
27. TEXT STRIP
This is a perfect texting game to play with a significant other. A variation of trivia: in this game, you and your partner will take turns quizzing each other on various questions. If you get a question wrong, you must remove an article of clothing. Remember, your significant other can’t actually see you, so make sure to let them know what article of clothing you are removing.
Keep playing until, well… one player has no more clothing to remove!
28. WHERE AM I?
This fun and easy guessing game is perfect to play over text. In Where Am I?, you will list out some items in their location to give some hints as to where you are. The other player will then start guessing where they are. The guesses should be specific locations. For example, instead of simply guessing “a coffee shop”, you should guess a specific coffee shop.
29. WHAT’S MY LINE?
If you are a movie nerd looking for a film-themed game to play, What’s My Line is another classic. This game is simple: text your friend a section of a movie quote. This can be an excerpt of a monologue or a two-person dialogue. Then say, “What’s My Line?”. The other player must then try and fill in the rest of the movie quote.
Here is an example:
Player one says: “A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship…” What is my line?
Play two says: “But it is not this day!”
30. STORY TIME
Looking for a creative texting game that is sure to get a laugh out of you and your friend? Story Time is a hilarious game that can take many unexpected turns. To play the game, each player will take turns adding to the communal story. One player starts off the story with a single phrase, and then the other player adds to it. Continue taking turns adding to the story until you manage to end it.
I am also a huge fan of travel and music and have started personal blogs about travel and music.
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