Charades! is a fun smartphone game that will brighten up any situation and is perfect for families and friends to play together. Most modern games involve a single person using a single phone, staring down at their screen and blocking out everyone around them, but not this one.
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You can now play it with your friends on your windows phone. From naming celebrities, to countries, to silly accents - guess the word on the card that’s on your head from your friends' clues before the timer runs out! This game will surely crack you up with laughter. The game can be played by tilting the phone or taping the screen, up to you! How to play Heads Up: Pick a card deck category - check! One player holds the phone to their glorious forehead like a headband, and 3, 2, 1!
Charades! is a truly social smartphone game. You simply select a category, hold it up to your forehead so that your friends can see the word or phrase but you can’t, and then they try to get you to guess what the word or phrase is.
We’re going to tell you everything you need to know about Charades!, including where to get it and how to play it.
What Is Charades?
Charades is a party game which originated in the 19th century. Rules of the game vary, but generally players silently act out a word or phrase and everyone else has to guess what it is.
Charades! is a digital version of the game available for Android and iOS. It’s fun, easy to understand, and is a great game to play with a group of people when you want to kill some time.
You might be familiar with an app called Heads Up!, which is one of the fun iPhone party games we recommend, and was popularized on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show. It’s very similar to the Charades! app. In fact, both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store are flooded with clones. For our money, Charades! is the best.
Download: Charades! for Android iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)
What Modes Are Available for Charades!?
Launch Charades! and you will see a brightly colored app with simple navigation. From the home screen, you have a couple of options: Quick Play or Versus.
Quick Play just pits a single person against a group—one person guessing, and the group shouting hints.
The Versus mode allows you to keep score between two teams who will try to get their respective partners to guess correctly, more like in traditional charades. With this mode you can choose the number of teams (two, three, or four) and number of rounds (three, five, or seven).
After choosing your mode, you can scroll through the list of available categories like Movies or Music. Select a category to begin the game or tap the heart icon on the category to add it your Favorites (accessible on the left-hand menu) for easier accessibility.
Many categories are free, though there are some that you need to pay to unlock which we’ll cover later.
How to Make Your Own Cards in Charades!
Tap the Custom section on the left-hand menu and you can create your own cards for a more personalized experience.
Tap Add New Deck and you can give your custom deck a name. There is a tab here called Others, where theoretically you enter a category ID to download decks that other people have made, but the network functionality of the app appears to be broken.
With your deck created, tap it from the list and then choose Add cards. Add as many cards as you want. The more the better if you want to keep the games harder.
When you want to play your own deck, return to the Custom menu, tap the deck you want, then choose Play.
How To Play Heads Up On Phone Calls
How to Play Charades!
The guesser is supposed to hold the game to their forehead, but it isn’t completely necessary; you can hold it out in front of your chest as long as you can’t see the screen and the others can.
After you press Play, the screen will say “Place On Forehead”. You then can hold onto the phone for a moment, but the second you flip it around and hold it up to your forehead, a five second countdown will begin before it starts.
Your friends then need to shout or act out hints so that you can figure out what is displayed on the screen.
If you guess correctly, tilt the phone downwards to mark it as correct, the screen will flash green, and the game will move onto the next word.
If you can’t figure out the answer, tilt the phone upwards, the screen will flash red, and it will pass and mark the answer as incorrect.
Charades! can sometimes be a bit over sensitive registering movement, so be careful not to move your hands too much when holding the phone else you might accidentally mark something as correct or pass.
When your time is up, Charades! will tally up your score and you can review all the ones you missed. If you’re playing Versus, you then hand it to the next team for their turn.
How Much Does Charades! Cost?
While Charades! is a free game, it is powered by ads and in-app purchases. There will often be an advert displayed at the bottom edge of the screen and it will sometimes interrupt you on the home screen and after games for a full-screen advert.
You can permanently remove adverts for a one-time payment of $0.99. To do this, navigate to the Store from the left-hand menu.
Within the Store, you will see that you can buy coins. This is an in-game currency used to unlock new categories, which are priced at 100 coins. It costs $3.99 to get 500 coins and remove adverts, which makes it $0.80 per category. There is also the option to just get 500 coins, without the advert removal, but since this also costs $3.99 you should avoid it.
To get some free coins, you can watch a 30-second advert. This will reward you with 25 coins when you have finished watching the advert. You can do this repeatedly to stack up the coins and save paying any money.
How to Customize Charades!?
Navigate to Settings on the left-hand menu to see the customization options.
Only a few customizations exist here: changing the round time to 60, 90, or 120 seconds, toggling bonus time, and toggling sound effects. The sound effects actually can come in handy for the person holding the phone, since they can’t see the screen to know if their twist of the hand worked properly, but the “pass” and “correct” noises can get annoying if you play a lot.
On the other hand, bonus time is a neat feature that adds two seconds to your playing time when you get a question right. It’s a small change that probably won’t affect gameplay much, but it’s nice that they include the option instead of forcing you one way or the other.
Find More Mobile Games Worth Playing
Whether you play on Android or iOS, Charades! is a blast to play. It’s an exciting way to waste some time while hanging out with friends, and is fun for all ages.
Looking for more mobile games to play? Here’s how to find new mobile games worth playing.
Read the full article: Heads Up! How to Play Charades on Your Phone
Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, apps, and services that let you work from home or connect you to loved ones, have seen a massive increase in usage. Houseparty is one such fun video calling app that has soared in popularity and is getting over two million downloads per week. If you are looking to know more and use Houseparty on iPhone and iPad, let me walk you through it.
What is the Houseparty App?
Houseparty is a free and straightforward face-to-face social platform that lets you host group video chats effortlessly with up to seven friends (including you eight). It alerts you when your friends are ‘in the house’ so that you can jump straight into the conversation. Anytime you can sneak in and out of a public ‘house’ where ‘party’ is being held.
The other main highlight of Houseparty is that it lets you play games as a group with your friends. It is owned by Epic Games, the company that developed Fortnite.
How to Use Houseparty App on iPhone and iPad
It is available for Android, macOS, Chrome, web, and iOS. So, without further ado, let us dig in and see how to set up and start using Houseparty on iPhone and iPad running iOS 13.
Set up Your Houseparty Account on iPhone and iPad
- Download
- Tap Sign Up and follow the easy self-explanatory process. You may choose to skip and not add a phone number.
- Also, don’t forget to give the app necessary permissions like the camera and microphone access
During the signup process itself, you will be prompted to add friends. You can connect Facebook or Snapchat or even find friends from your mobile contact list. After that, it shows you the list of people who have Houseparty app set up.
How to Add Friends in Houseparty on iPhone and iPad
It is effortless to invite and add friends in Houseparty even after you complete the signup and are inside the app. For this,
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Now tap on Add Friends. Or, from top of the screen, tap the plus (+) icon, or small dot, or the smiley face. Next, tap Add Friends/Add New Friends.
- Choose an option.
- Add by Name: Type a name and then choose your friend from the suggestions. You also see other random users with this name
- Add from Contacts: You need to verify your phone number for this. After that, the app will scan your contact list and show available friends who have this app
- Add from Facebook: Lets you find existing Facebook friends who use Houseparty
- Copy Profile Link: Tap on it to copy your profile link. Now send it to your friend using any messaging app like iMessage, WhatsApp, etc. They will click on this link and get the option to ADD ON HOUSEPARTY
To connect Snapchat account to Houseparty, tap on the smiley face icon in the upper left → Tap the pink settings icon → Edit Profile → Connect Snapchat.
Start a Party in Houseparty on iPhone and iPad
You have set up the account, and friends have been added. Now let me show you how to start a party; that is, in simpler terms, a video call!
- Open Houseparty and tap on small camera dot icon from the top middle
- Tap the waving hand icon to let your friend know that you are ready to chat.
- When your friend is online, tap on JOIN to make a video call.
To terminate a call, tap the cross button from the bottom right.
How to Play Games in Houseparty on iPhone and iPad
You can play games with your friends or alone. Let me show you how.
- From inside the Houseparty app, tap on the two dice icon from the upper right
- Select a category. My favorite is Trivia.
Some games like Heads Up can only be played with a friend. Chips and Guac require at least three people. For these, invite a friend to play. Some Trivia quiz games can be played with friends or as a single player - Tap Play next to a game. I like Stuff to Know.
- Tap Play Alone or play with a friend.
One tip when playing games alone is to tap on three dots icon from the lower left and choose Disable Camera.
To stop playing a game, tap the small cross in the game card. Some games show the word ‘quit’ below the dice icon. You can also stop certain games in Houseparty by tapping the cross icon from the bottom right.
Note: I also encountered multiple camera freezing and game freezing. If this happens, force quitting the app is the only option.
How to Stop Strangers from Joining your Houseparty on iPhone and iPad
The app’s default settings allow a random person to join your Houseparty and invade your video calls and your privacy. This is okay if you are getting bored and looking to make new friends or meet a random stranger online. But if you want to stop strangers from joining your Houseparty, let me show you how to do that.
- Tap the smiley face icon in the upper left
- Tap the pink settings icon from the top left of the card.
- Turn on the toggle for Private Mode to prevent strangers from joining your Houseparty.
That’ all, folks!
This was how to set up and use Houseparty on your iPhone and iPad. They had some strange privacy concerns and were in the news, but as of now, things seem to be stable.
How Do You Play Heads Up On Your Phone
But still here is a quick look at Houseparty settings. For this tap on smiley face from upper left → settings icon from the upper left of the card. From here:
- If you want to know more about the app and its existing and new features, tap What’s New and House Rules.
- To logout, tap on Log Out from the bottom.
- To delete your Houseparty account, tap Privacy → Delete Account.
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How Do You Play Heads Up App
I have been an Apple user for over seven years now. At iGeeksBlog, I love creating how-tos and troubleshooting guides that help people do more with their iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, and Apple Watch. In my free time, I like to watch stand up comedy videos, tech documentaries, news debates, and political speeches.
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