You don’t need to download apps to play with your friends. Text games can offer hours of fun on their own, via SMS or chat. There are many fantastic text games out there, and in this article, we’ll help you discover the very best.
Most of these messaging games are simple in nature. And they can offer free entertainment for family and friends, no matter your age or interests. You can even play with someone you know who still has a stupid phone. Here are some of the best phone games to play with text.
The rise of mobile games
The rise of smartphones has turned mobile gaming into an unstoppable force of nature. Everyone knows such big names as Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga and Pokemon GO. And there are also free mobile games without ads or in-app purchases that are worth playing.
What if you don’t want to download and install yet another new app on your phone? What if you just want to play a simple game via SMS or your favorite chat app? Luckily, there are plenty of fun text games you can play, and here are the best ones…
- Narrator
As a writer, I tell stories for fun. But even non-writers who find it difficult to create worlds, characters, and storylines on their own can enjoy this simple texting game.
With Story Builder, one of you starts a story by sending a message to the other. The other person then sends the second sentence of the story to the first person. Slowly but surely, the two of you are building a story over multiple texts or a chain of messages.
Variations include sentences containing a certain number of words or characters, or even sentences containing exactly 160 characters. Although anyone who used Twitter before the number of characters increased knows how difficult it can be.
- 20 questions
These are the classic 20 questions that originated in the United States and spawned both radio and television programs. The concept of this game is elegantly simple but requires a certain degree of intelligence to do so.
One of you is thinking about an object or person, while the other is asking questions via text message. Your yes/no answers help the fortune teller narrow down the possibilities until they can make an educated guess as to exactly what you were thinking.
Variations include subject restriction to a particular genre. Also, you can increase/decrease the number of questions the fortuneteller can ask.
- Spy
This is a classic I Spy game, a game that has been a favorite among families for generations. Of course, as children, we played a long journey in a car. And the version played via SMS or chat is just as fun.
Start by telling your opponent where you need to give at least one combat chance. So look around until your mind is focused on something specific. Your opponent then had to guess what you were following, and only the first letter of the object had to guess.
Variations include providing hints after each negative answer to an incorrect guess, or limiting the number of guesses allowed.
- Lyrics songs
Assuming you’re not exclusively interested in instrumental music, you will know a few bars of certain songs. Whether it’s because of an emotional attachment or simply because they sound good together, most people have been influenced by the lyrics in some way.
The Song Lyrics game plays on this by having the person quote lines from one song to another through the text. The other person then has to guess the song from which the words are taken. It helps if it’s played with someone you’re close to or with whom you share musical tastes.
Variations include classic movie lines or game plots. Not guessing correctly can mean having to call and sing a song to the opponent.
- Abbreviations
Abbreviations are everywhere, as you can see from the Internet trendy acronyms you need to know . You can also shorten your entire life by describing what you are doing using only the first few letters of each word in that description.
To play cuts, one of you cuts what you’re doing. For example: “In a cafe in the city” it becomes “IACSIT”, and the other one starts trying to undo the contraction of the short phrase in its original form. Be prepared for some rude answers.
Variations include giving more than just the letter of each word and shortening something different from your current business. Like what you really think about the person you are playing against.
- List of builders
We all make lists. They describe everything in detail, from day-to-day responsibilities to our shared life goals; what products we need for the gadgets we want to buy in the future. When you turn into a game, making lists can be a lot of fun, especially with text.
List Builder is a competitive game in which each player takes turns choosing a name related to a specific genre. It could be capitals, actors from a certain series, or anything else your mind can come up with. The winner is the last person successfully added to the list.
Variations include reading the alphabet one letter at a time, or having the next answer start with the same letter that the last answer ended with.
- Where am I?
The reason we all carry smartphones is because we are not always at home. What makes this game perfect for playing on mobile devices.
In Where Am I? Each player takes turns describing the characteristics of his surroundings, while the other tries to guess where he is. You can make this as easy or difficult as you wish by changing the level of detail you give your opponent.
Variations include limiting the house, with the room you are in the correct answer, or asking which store in the city you are in. Could you also change it to Who am I? instead, describe the person or people who are there with you.
- Kiss, marry, kill
You may know Kiss, Marry, Kill like anything else. A kiss, for example, can be a little more intense than a simple kiss on the cheek. However, the basic concept is the same and it’s fun if he’s not offended by the answers provided.
One person names three people, whether they’re celebrities or people you both know, and asks the question, “Kiss, marry, kill?” The other must then determine which of the three will kiss, marry, and kill. It’s all for fun, you understand.
Variations include releasing certain names in the mix, which you know will piss off your friend. Or completely changing the question. As long as there are three options and three names in the mix, the sky is the limit.
- What if…?
If you tend to daydream, you must be familiar with the concept of “What if?” Once one of these scenarios comes to mind, you can take a few minutes to figure out which option you would choose in that scenario. What a perfect fodder for sms games.
One of you sends a message to the other in “What if?” scenario and asks what they will do in this situation. There are no right or wrong answers. Not only is it fun to see the answers, but it also gives you a glimpse into the life perspectives of your friends or family.
Variations include leaving the question open with any possible answer, or providing multiple choice answers and forcing the other person to choose one of them.
- Easy quiz
Tests of any kind can be fun, even if they seem to test your IQ. And it doesn’t have to be long and complicated when the quiz master asks hard questions.
In the form of a messaging game that you can play on the chat app, Simple Quiz requires one of you to send messages to a common question. The other person should then try to come up with the correct answer or, if it’s a bit silly, the funniest answer imaginable.
Options include moving on to testing your web browsing skills in an attempt to find the answer on the Internet in the shortest amount of time.
What phone games do you like on your phone?
These SMS games range from the simplest to the most difficult. But they are all extremely playable between two (or more) people with a phone in hand. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a smartphone or a phone ( reasons to buy a phone ).
With 160 characters at a time (or more if you’re using a chat app like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger), you can have fun with each other between you and a friend or family member. Even your old nanny with her original Nokia 3310 can join in the fun.
And when you’re tired of those simple chat games, check out these multi-platform mobile multiplayer games to play with your friends .