Telephone Pictionary online
Write it, draw it, guess it, draw the guess.
- Players
- 4–10 players
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Length
- 20–35 min
- Type
- Drawing
Everyone writes a phrase. The books pass round: you draw the phrase you were handed, the next person writes what they think your drawing is, the person after that draws *that*, and it keeps going until every book has been through every pair of hands.
Then the books are read from the beginning, and that is the whole game. "A cat driving a bus" becomes a drawing, becomes "a dog on holiday", becomes another drawing, becomes "grandmother at the beach" — and everybody gets to see precisely where it went wrong.
On paper this needs a stack of sheets and a lot of folding, and somebody always draws on the wrong side. Here the passing is automatic, everyone works at the same time, and the whole chain is laid out at the end without anyone having to decipher handwriting.
How to play Telephone Pictionary
- 1Create a room and share the 6-letter code. Four or more players.
- 2Everyone writes a phrase to start their own book. Anything you like.
- 3The books pass on. You draw the phrase you have been handed — no words, no letters.
- 4They pass again. You write what you think the drawing in front of you is.
- 5Keep alternating until every book has been through everyone.
- 6Then the books are read out one at a time, from the original phrase to the final guess.
- 7Everyone works at once, so a ten-player game takes ten short steps rather than ten turns.
Telephone Pictionary FAQ
Is this the same as Gartic Phone or Eat Poop You Cat?+
Same game, different names. It is the drawing version of Chinese Whispers, and the reveal at the end is the reason anybody plays it.
Do I need to be able to draw?+
Emphatically not. A game where everyone draws well is a much worse game — the chain only breaks down if the drawings are ambiguous, and that is the point.
Can I see the rest of the chain?+
No. You are only ever shown the single entry immediately before yours. The rest of the book is not sent to your device at all until the reveal.
How many people do you need?+
Four at a minimum. Six to eight is the sweet spot — long enough for a phrase to drift completely, short enough that the reveal does not outstay its welcome.
What happens if I run out of time?+
A blank goes into the book and play moves on, so every book stays the same length. It usually gets a bigger laugh than a finished drawing.
Ready to play Telephone Pictionary?
Create a room, share the code, and start in seconds — free.
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