Charades, straight from the hat
Draw a slip from the hat, act it out, and let the room guess. Pick categories, set a timer, name your teams, or fold in your own slips for a bowl game. Free, no sign up, no ads in the middle of your turn.
What goes in the hat
Your own slips
Turn length
Game
Teams
Space or Enter: got it. Left arrow: pass. Swipe the slip right or left on a phone.
How to play with the hat
- Choose what goes in the hat. Tap the categories you want, from Actions and Animals to Hard phrases. Want inside jokes? Type your own slips, one per line, and press Fold into the hat.
- Set the turn. Pick 30, 60 or 90 seconds, or no timer at all. Name your teams. Two is the classic split, but you can play with up to 6.
- Tap the hat. The first slip comes up and the sand starts running. Act it out with no words. When your team guesses it, press Got it or swipe the slip right. Stuck? Press Pass or swipe left.
- Pass the phone. When time runs out the hat shows how many slips the team got and whose turn is next. Scores add up on the board.
Every slip you play is set aside, so the same word does not come back later in the evening. When every slip in your categories has been drawn once, the hat fills up again and tells you so. Press New game to clear the scores and put every slip back.
Classic charades or the three round bowl game
Classic draws fresh slips from the categories you picked, turn after turn, until you decide to stop. Bowl is the game many groups know as Fishbowl or Celebrity: the same 30 or so slips are played in three rounds. In round 1 you describe the slip in words without saying it. In round 2 you act it out in silence. In round 3 you may say one single word. A round ends when the bowl is empty, then every slip goes back in for the next round, and by round 3 everyone remembers the slips, which is where the laughs come from. Fold in your own slips before you start and they go in first.
Made for the way people really play
Charades happens in a living room, in a classroom, in a queue or around a campfire, with one phone passed from hand to hand. So the hat is big enough to read from across a sofa, the buttons are big enough to hit while laughing, and the screen stays awake during a turn. Space or Enter marks a slip as guessed and the left arrow passes it, if you play from a laptop on the TV.
The words are written for this site and checked to be fine for a family room. If you play with grown ups only, add your own slips. To send your hat to someone else, press Share this hat: the link carries your own slips and settings, and nothing is stored on any server.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. There is nothing to buy, no paid decks and no account.
Do I need to install an app?
No. It is a web page that works on any phone, tablet or laptop with a modern browser.
Will the same word come up twice?
Not in the same game. Every slip you play is set aside on your device. When all the slips in your categories have been played, the hat fills up again and tells you. New game puts every slip back.
Can I add my own words?
Yes. Type them into Your own slips, one per line or with commas, and press Fold into the hat. You can add up to 200. They stay on your device.
How do I share my own words with friends?
Press Share this hat. The link carries your own slips and settings inside the address, so anyone who opens it gets the same hat. Nothing is stored on a server.