How Long Distance Games works

Three steps, no account

1. Pick a game from the arcade and start a room.
2. Send the link in whatever you already use to talk: a text, a group chat, a video call.
3. They open it, type a name, and you're playing. Nobody has to sign up or download anything.

Built for the gap

Most multiplayer games expect you both to sit down at the same time for an hour. That doesn't work well for a long-distance friendship, a relationship across time zones, or a family spread across three countries. These games take between thirty seconds and a few minutes, so they fit inside a phone call instead of replacing it.

Not sure where to start? There are short guides to the best long distance games for couples, games to play on your phone and games for friends and family.

Everything is live. When the other person moves, your board updates straight away, so you never have to refresh or wonder whose turn it is. A small presence dot tells you they still have the tab open, and you can throw an emoji reaction across at any point.

Moves are checked on the server, not in your browser, so you both always see the same board. It's also how Word Duel shows you how close your opponent is without ever sending you their letters.

What you can play

• 💞 How Well Do You Know MeAnswer for yourself, guess for them, then find out who was paying attention.
• 🫶 In SyncThis or that, picked at the same time. See how often you land on the same side.
• ❌ Tic-Tac-ToeThree in a row. Thirty seconds a game, and somehow still tense.
• 🔴 Connect 4Drop, stack, and pretend you didn't miss the diagonal.
• 🔤 Word DuelSame secret word, two boards, six guesses. No waiting for turns.
• 🔲 Dots & BoxesDraw a line, close a square, go again. Ruthless in the endgame.
• ⚫ ReversiTrap a line, flip it all. The lead changes hands every turn.
• 🚢 BattleshipFive ships, one hundred squares, and no idea where they are.
• 🟤 CheckersForced captures, jump chains, and the long walk to a crown.
• 🎲 Dice DuelFive dice, three rolls, thirteen boxes. Luck you can play badly.

Almost nothing is watching

There are no ads on this site and nobody is selling the fact that you played. The one thing counting is Vercel's Web Analytics, served from this site's own address: it tallies page views, the page that sent you, your country and your kind of device. It sets no cookies, does not follow you to other sites, and never sees your name, your moves or your room code. Room pages are counted as one page, not one per room.

What gets stored is the minimum a game needs: a room code, whose turn it is, the board, and the name you typed. Your browser keeps one cookie, an anonymous id with no name attached, so a room knows which seat is yours when you come back. Presence and emoji reactions never touch the database at all. They only exist while the two of you have the tab open. Rooms are private and short lived, and they are kept out of search engines on purpose.