36 games to play with your girlfriend, on your phones or in person

Fun games to play with your girlfriend on the sofa

Same room, two phones. It sounds antisocial until you try it: the phones are there to keep answers private and to hand each of you half the puzzle, so the actual game happens in the space between you.

• Newlywed game. Six questions a round, three about you and three guessing what she will say, answered privately and revealed together. The person being asked about judges the guesses, points go on the room scoreboard, and questions do not repeat for a month.
• Escape room. Five puzzles, and each phone shows only half the clues, so the two of you have to talk to get anywhere. Answers are tapped in on keypads, letter pads and visual grids, there is a hint if you are stuck, the clock is running, and every room is procedurally generated so there is always a fresh one.
• Word search. One 9x9 grid with six hidden words, both of you hunting live on the same grid and dragging an arrow over a word to claim it. Only the number of words is shown, not the words themselves, and a hint makes a first letter glow.
• Memory lane. Each of you writes a few questions about your shared history, with the answers, and the round opens once both of you have finished writing. You answer hers from memory, near-miss spellings are accepted automatically, and you judge the answers to your own questions, which is where the negotiating starts.
• Emoji charades. Four prompts each, drawn from films, dishes, places and memories, and you have to describe each one in up to eight emoji and nothing else. She guesses, you judge, and a hint reveals the first letter when the volcano-and-teacup combination is going nowhere.
• Charades, the acted kind. No phones, one minute on the kitchen timer, and you act out a film or a moment from your own relationship. The shared-memory round is the one that ends in laughing rather than guessing.
• Speed, with a deck of cards. Split the pack, race to play cards one higher or lower onto two central piles, and the first to empty their stack wins. A game takes about three minutes, so best of seven is the natural format.
• Blind portraits. Each of you draws the other in thirty seconds without looking down at the page, then you swap. Stick the results on the fridge and see who visits before you take them down.

Games to play with your girlfriend online, on a video call

Long distance turns the call into the whole date, and a call with a game inside it beats a call that is a recap of the day. These all work with the camera on and a phone in your hand.

• Codenames for two. One of you is spymaster and sees the key, the other is operative and sees eighteen face-down words: seven agents, six belonging to a dummy team, four bystanders and one assassin. Clues are one word and a number, each turn has a clock you choose at setup, and the dummy team uncovers one of its own words every turn, so you are racing it.
• Wordle race. The same five-letter word for both of you, six guesses each, and the boards stay hidden until you have both finished, then fewer guesses wins. A hint reveals one letter position, and the noises you make on the call give away more than you would like.
• Jumble. Five scrambled words, the same five for both of you, and you tap the letters back into order. Hints place the next letter but each one is counted against you, and the times are compared at the end.
• Pictionary through the camera. Hold a sheet of paper up to the lens, draw with a marker, and give her a minute to guess. Bad drawing is a feature, not a problem.
• Never have I ever, the gentle edition. Ten fingers up each, take turns saying something you have never done, and if the other person has done it a finger goes down. Keep it to travel, food and embarrassing moments and you learn something new every round.
• Truth or dare, camera edition. Dares have to be doable on screen within a minute: a bad impression, a verse of an advert jingle, ten star jumps. Truths are best kept small and specific, like the last thing you pretended to enjoy.
• Film bingo. Pick a genre film, each write down five clichés before pressing play together, and tick them off out loud as they arrive. First to five wins, and the loser chooses the next film, which is a real punishment.

Over text, one turn whenever there is a spare minute

Different time zones or just different shifts: these run one turn at a time and survive a six-hour gap between moves without anyone losing the thread.

• Story ping-pong. A ridiculous opening line to start, then one sentence each, alternating until the story is ten lines long. It is turn-based, so a line over breakfast and another over lunch is normal, and the finished stories stay in the room to be read back later.
• Connect 4. The classic, playable live or one move at a time across a day, which turns a three-minute game into a low-level background rivalry. Results go on the leaderboard, so the rivalry has receipts.
• Question of the day. One question, two private answers, revealed once both are in, about two minutes out of your day. Answer it daily and it builds a streak, the kind of thing you will be strangely unwilling to break.
• Photo scavenger hunt. Text each other three things to photograph before the end of the day: something yellow, the ugliest mug in your building, a dog looking serious. Proof by evening, judged generously.
• Six-word day. Describe your day in exactly six words and let her guess the real event behind it. Then it is her turn, and the guessing is usually better than the story.
• Word ladder. Start with a four-letter word and a target, and take turns changing one letter at a time, every rung a real word, until you reach it. Cold to warm is the classic; try it before you look it up.
• Hangman. Underscores, guessed letters and a gallows drawn over a sequence of texts. Film titles and in-jokes make far better puzzles than dictionary words.
• Guess where I am. Send a tightly cropped photo of your surroundings and let her guess, zooming out a little with each wrong answer. Works best on the days your work takes you somewhere new.

On a long drive, no screens needed

One of you is driving, so everything here is spoken, and the passenger keeps score.

• Twenty questions. One of you thinks of a thing, the other has twenty yes-or-no questions to name it. Open with whether it is bigger than the car and you have a system.
• The alphabet game. Find the letters A to Z, in order, on road signs, number plates and the sides of lorries, either racing each other or working through it together. Q and Z are where it gets tense.
• Fortunately, unfortunately. Build a story out loud, alternating sentences that begin with fortunately and unfortunately. It is the spoken cousin of Story ping-pong and it gets dark surprisingly fast, in the best way.
• Number plate phrases. Take the letters on the plate ahead and turn them into a phrase about the person next to you: KRB becomes keeps recycling biscuits. The other person accepts or rejects it on grounds of accuracy.
• Radio roulette. Flick to a random station and the first to name the artist gets a point, with a bonus for naming the decade. Change station after every song so nobody gets comfortable.
• Desert island. Five albums, five books or five meals to take with you for a year, one pick at a time, and every pick has to be defended. Then try to agree a joint list of five, which is the actual game.
• Guess the arrival time. Before setting off, each of you names the exact minute you will arrive, and the closest guess wins. The loser buys the coffee at the next stop and the winner chooses the podcast.

Waiting for food at a restaurant

Twenty minutes between ordering and the plates arriving, two phones face down on the table. These are short enough to finish before the starters and quiet enough not to bother the next table.

• Would you rather. Eight dilemmas a round, both of you picking privately before the picks are revealed side by side, and matches feed a compatibility percentage that builds over weeks. Out loud it works just as well, with one rule: you have to defend your pick.
• Two truths and a lie. Three statements about yourself, one of them false, and she has to pick the lie. Across a table it is a contest of poker faces; on your phones the statements are written privately and points go to whoever catches the lie.
• The menu game. Once the menus are down, each of you writes on a napkin what the other is about to order, and you reveal the guesses when the waiter arrives. A point for the main, a bonus for the side.
• Word association. One word each, straight back, no pauses and no repeats, and the first to hesitate loses the round. Somehow it always ends up at cheese.
• Dots and boxes. Draw a grid of dots on a napkin, take turns joining two of them, and whoever completes a box claims it and goes again. It takes one grid to learn and about three to become ruthless.
• High and low, guessed first. Before either of you shares the best and worst moment of your week, the other has to guess what they were. The guesses tell you how much attention you have been paying, which is the real result.

How the two-phone games work

Most of the thirteen phone games on this page share one habit: you each answer on your own phone, privately, and nothing is revealed until both answers are in. A Newlywed guess cannot be nudged by seeing hers first, a Would you rather pick cannot be adjusted at the last second, and a Wordle board stays hidden until you have both finished. Then everything appears together, side by side, and the arguing can begin on equal terms.

Getting into a game takes one link. One of you opens the game and starts a room, sends the link however you normally message each other, and the other taps it. There is no account, no signup and nothing to download. Every game also works turn-based, so a room started on the sofa can carry on across time zones, one answer or one move whenever there is a spare minute, and rooms remember scores, streaks and finished stories.