🔗 Playing With Friends Online — Room Codes, Share Links, and Fixing "It Won't Connect"
How rooms work on every game here (host, four-letter code, share link, up to eight players), what happens when the host leaves, and the six things to check when someone can't join.
Every multiplayer game on this site uses the same room system, so this is the one page to read before a night with people who are not in the same building. It also covers the handful of things that go wrong, because they are almost always the same handful.
How a room works
- One person hosts. They open the game, tap Host, and the game gives them a four-letter room code.
- They share it. Under the code there is a Share link button. It opens your phone's normal share sheet with a message and a link. Send it in whatever chat the group already uses.
- Everyone else joins. Tapping the link opens the game in a browser with the code already filled in, one tap to confirm. Nobody installs anything or makes an account. If someone would rather type, the code works too, and it is not case-sensitive.
- The host starts the game. Players can join until the host presses start; after that the room is closed to newcomers for that round.
Rooms hold up to eight players. Every player is on their own phone, tablet or laptop, and everyone sees the same result at the same moment — the same spin, the same race, the same bingo call — whether they are on the sofa or on another continent.
Who has to stay
The host's device runs the room. If the host closes the tab or their phone locks for long enough, the room ends for everyone. So the host should be the person who is going to keep their phone in their hand, and if they need to leave, finish the round and hand over: someone else hosts the next game and shares a new code.
Anyone else can drop and come back. Rejoin with the same code while the host is still in, and you are back at the table.
Same room versus online
Some games offer a "same room" mode as well as an online one. Same room connects phones directly to each other over Bluetooth and local Wi-Fi with no internet involved, which is handy on a plane or a campsite. It only works between phones of the same kind — iPhones with iPhones, Android with Android — because the two systems use different radio protocols. If the group is mixed, or anyone is remote, use online.
When someone can't join
Work down this list. It is in order of how often each one is the answer.
1. The first room of the night takes a moment. The server that connects rooms goes to sleep when nobody has used it for a while and takes up to a minute to wake up. If the very first host of the evening sees a spinner, that is what is happening. Wait, then try again. Once one room has opened, every room after it is instant.
2. Somebody has an old copy of the page open. Browsers keep pages around, and a tab that was opened last week may be running last week's game. Everyone should close the tab and open the link fresh. On a phone, that means actually closing the tab, not just switching away from it.
3. Work or school Wi-Fi. Some office and campus networks block the kind of live connection that rooms use. Switching that phone to mobile data fixes it immediately.
4. A VPN or an aggressive ad blocker. Both can interfere with the room connection. Pause them for the game and turn them back on afterwards.
5. The wrong code. Four letters read out loud over a video call are easy to mishear. Use the share link, which carries the code with it.
6. The host left. If everyone was in and then everyone was thrown out at once, the host's phone locked or their tab closed. Host again, share the new code.
If all six check out and it still will not connect, the quickest fix is for a different person to host. It is very rare for two devices in the same group to have the same problem.
What the games send and keep
Because there are no accounts, there is not much to say here, but it is worth saying. When you join a room, the other players see the name you chose and your scores for that game. Nothing is stored on a server between games; the room exists while the host is in it and disappears when they leave. The daily puzzle streaks and the chip balances you see live in your own browser and go nowhere. The full details are in the privacy policy.
One habit that prevents most of this
Open the room five minutes before you mean to start, while people are still getting drinks. The first-room delay happens while nobody is waiting for it, stale tabs get noticed before the round begins, and the one person on the office Wi-Fi finds out in time to switch. Then, when everyone is ready, the game is too. See all twelve games →