Best phone party games for groups

CrowdSurf

CrowdSurf is the fastest growing family game night game, and it works at parties just as well. One person creates a game at playcrowdsurf.com, everyone else joins from a link, and you're playing within a minute. No account, no download.

Each round, everyone answers the same question and tries to predict what the group will say. Whoever's in the biggest answer group gets a point. Give a unique answer nobody else matched and you're stuck with the Outcast flag, which means you can't win until you pass it on. First to 8 points wins.

It handles up to 20 players, which most phone games don't bother with. Works on any phone browser. Free. Good drink rule if you want one: get the Outcast flag, you drink.

Gartic Phone

Gartic Phone is telephone crossed with Pictionary. Players take turns writing prompts and drawing them. The results are chaotic, especially when people genuinely cannot draw.

It's free, browser-based, and handles groups of up to 30. Someone needs to share their screen for the reveal at the end, which is where most of the laughs happen. In person that's easy. On a video call it works fine too.

Skribbl.io

Online Pictionary. One person draws, everyone else types their guess in a chat. First to guess correctly gets the most points.

Share a private room link and go. Works best with 4 to 8 people. Beyond that, the chat fills up too fast and guesses get buried before anyone can read them.

Kahoot

Kahoot is good if the group wants trivia. The host loads a quiz, everyone buzzes in on their phone. You need to find or build a quiz ahead of time, which takes a few minutes.

Worth knowing: Kahoot rewards knowing things, which creates obvious winners and obvious losers. Some groups love that. Others spend the whole time feeling bad about it.

Jackbox Party Pack

Jackbox games are genuinely good. Quiplash, Drawful, Fibbage — they're well-made and hold up over many sessions. But you need a PC or console to host and a TV or shared screen to show the game. Everyone's phone is just a controller.

It's on this list because hosts often share their screen over video calls, and that works well. But it costs $25 to $30 per pack and it's not phone-only — you need the right setup.