18 Fun Party Game Apps Your Party Needs

Pictionary Air requires one purchase, but it’s worth it. Pictionary Air is basically regular Pictionary, but through the camera of your smartphone. Instead of drawing on paper, you use this Pictionary Air Pen to draw “in the air,” in front of the person holding the phone up and recording their actions. The other players will see the drawings come alive on the phone screen. It’s appropriate for users 4 and older.

UNO, the classic card game you probably played as a kid, has an online version that groups can play by starting a group game on the app. Instead of everyone having their own physical stack of cards, everyone will have cards on their phone. You can start a “quick round” of the game once everyone has the app and created profiles on it. UNO is, of course, appropriate for users 4 and up and it ranks #2 for the App Store’s family games.

Picolo is an app with different party games meant for groups or pairs. The games you’ll find on here are ones you already know, like Truth or Dare and Never Have I Ever, but with a twist. One reviewer said it’s a great icebreaker, so if some guests at your next party don’t know each other, they could familiarize themselves using these games. It’s meant for users 17 and up.

Suited for kids ages 4 and up, and groups from three to 16 people, Gogogo! is appropriate for any party. It’s a tournament-style party game where players face a new challenge every round — sometimes they’re memory-related, sometimes they’re physical, and they’re always fun. As one reviewer writes, “I've got two girls (8 & 12) who absolutely love it, and playing as a family has filled up some long home schooling hours in an instant, easy and super fun way.”

Dirty Potato calls itself “a fast-paced party game for adults.” It’s loosely based on the age-old game, Hot Potato: a player will get a random, potentially very NSFW question or challenge, and have to quickly answer. Some examples include: name three famous robots, explain the Harry Potter series as fast as you can, and others that you should really read for yourself.

Keeping with the theme of adults-only, produce-related party game apps, here’s the gist of Evil Apples: it’s like Cards Against Humanity but in an app. A question or prompt is shown to the group, and everyone submits an answer they think is funniest so the judge can choose a winner from the pool. You can even play with friends from anywhere, so if your get-together is happening over Zoom, no worries there. (Remember, this one’s only for the 17 and older crowd.)

Heads Up is the king of all party game apps, and for good reason: It’s an updated twist on classic guessing party games. You put your iPhone or other mobile device screen-forward on your forehead (so your friends can see but you’re clueless about what’s written there), and they clue you in either by giving you hints or acting it out. You only need one phone to play, it’s intuitive and easy to learn, encourages social interaction, and gives everyone an excuse to get silly.

What Would You Choose? is an update on the classic “would you rather” game (one of the best ways of passing the time on road trips). If you tend to run out of ideas for questions quickly, this app solves the problem with tons of randomly selected, pre-written prompts of an almost unending variety. It's also family-friendly, so there won't be any awkwardness with the kids or grandparents around.

If you run out of truth or dare ideas even faster than “would you rather” questions, the Truth or Dare app has you covered by choosing prompts for you. It makes the game a lot more fun and judgement-free, and the app gives you the option of either going for more risqué topics, or something a bit less naughty. It's got a 4.5-star rating, and a cute, simple interface.

Bravo! has a simple premise: You have to name a list of things that fall within a category, in just five seconds. The short time frame almost ensures you'll say something weird or embarrassing, and therein lies all the fun. The game gets a good rating on the App Store, but there's a caveat: while they offer a free version, they'll try to get you to buy an ad-free version for a $5 weekly subscription (or $15 monthly subscription). And while it may seem like signing up for the "3-day free trial" is the only way to proceed with the app, you can actually play the game with ads without signing up.

The concept of this game is a sort of fast-paced, automated Family Feud: players are given a question and try to shout out what responses they think are on the answers list, while a scorekeeper marks off their correct answers on the phone. It even has an audio playback feature to settle any arguments with the referee.

This is a deviously fun game that forces you to practice the art of deception (and it may not be for those with a serious case of FOMO). The phone is passed around, and each player is given the same simple prompt (like “hamburgers”), except one unlucky soul who is out of the loop, but must keep up the guise of being “in the loop.” Then the game prompts players to ask each other questions to try and find out who’s faking.

Like its name suggests, this is a game of reverse charades: the entire team acts out the word, while only one person tries to guess it. It’s highly customizable, allowing you to choose the number of rounds, teams, and seconds per turn. The game is free, but offers in-app purchases for more card-packs.

This game puts five seconds on the clock and asks each player to name three things that fit a category (think countries in Africa). After the time is up, the rest of the group decides if the player is right or wrong, and whoever has the most points at the end, wins. It’s suited for all ages, so this can be played with kids, although you can create custom questions if you want to add some funny ones for your friends.

This game follows a similar premise as “mafia,” but with spy-thriller twists and turns. You're either working as an agent or a double-agent, or, well, it gets more complicated. It's a great way to get into (fun) arguments with your friends as you try to defend yourself and implicate others.

Want a family-friendly party game app? In 7 Second Challenge, each player gets, well, seven seconds to complete a task (like, touch the head of every person in the room). The game is updated with new prompts constantly so you’ll never have the same experience twice, and you’re sure to end the night with some new inside jokes.

From the creators of Heads Up, Psych! is a guessing game developed with Ellen DeGeneres that’s like a hybrid of trivia and Cards Against Humanity. You and your fellow players will answer hilarious questions about one another, like “What’s the last thing David googled?” Or, you can play trivia-style games where players add fake answers to the pool, and you all earn points by choosing the right answer.

Suitable for ages 9 and up, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a teamwork-based party game where one person with the phone or tablet has a simulated bomb, and everyone else has the instructions for defusing it, but can’t see it. It has a 4.6-star rating on the Apple app store, so it seems like a crowd-pleaser and one you’ll return to again and again.