Play Mini-Games While You Chat

How to start a game

Once you're matched, tap the Play button in the chat header and pick a game. Your stranger gets an invite and can accept or decline with one tap. No pressure either way: declining just closes the invite and the conversation continues.

The board appears right above the message composer, so the chat keeps flowing while you play. Either side can end the game at any time, and starting a rematch takes one tap on Play again.

The lineup

• Tic-Tac-Toe: the classic. You play X and always move first when you send the invite.
• Connect Four: drop red and amber discs, four in a row wins, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
• Word Duel: you set a secret word and your stranger guesses it letter by letter, hangman-style, with six misses allowed.
• Dots and Boxes: claim lines on a 3x3 grid. Finish a box to score it plus earn a bonus move. Most boxes wins.
• Rock-Paper-Scissors: the timeless dispute settler. Best of one throw.

Why games belong in stranger chat

The hardest part of random chat is the first ninety seconds: two people with zero shared context trying to manufacture a conversation from nothing. A game hands you instant shared context. Suddenly there's a score, a rivalry, something to react to together.

Games also rescue dying chats. When the messages slow to one word every two minutes, a game invite is a graceful reset that doesn't require admitting the conversation stalled. Win or lose, you'll have something to talk about after.

A little games etiquette

• Declining is fine. A declined invite isn't a rejection of you, just of the game.
• Finish what you start when you can. Vanishing mid-game mid-loss is noticed.
• Let the loser pick the rematch. It's tradition, probably.
• Keep chatting during the game. Silent opponents are suspicious opponents.