Play Battleship online
with a friend

How to play Battleship online

1. Start a room and send the link to the other player.
2. Set your fleet: five ships across a ten-by-ten grid. Shuffle until you like the layout, then lock it in. You both do this at the same time, so nobody waits.
3. Once both fleets are in, take turns calling one square each.
4. A hit shows as a solid mark, a miss as a small one. Your own waters sit underneath so you can see what they have found.
5. Sink all five of their ships to win. A ship is only revealed once every square of it has been hit.

Why Battleship works over a distance

Battleship is the game I most wanted to get right here. In most games both screens show the whole board. In this one, your ships stay on the server and so do theirs. You find their fleet one square at a time, the same way they find yours.

You place ships by shuffling, not dragging. Placing five ships by hand is the slowest bit on paper and a pain on a phone, so you just shuffle until you like the layout and lock it in. Every layout is legal, so nobody argues about whether ships can touch.

The turn passes whether or not you hit. Getting another go on a hit sounds nice, but in practice one lucky guess can take out a whole fleet. So it's one shot each, and you get to sweat while they close in on a ship you can't move.

Also known as sink the fleet, battleships online, two player battleship, naval game.

Questions

Can my opponent see where my ships are?

No, and neither can their browser. Fleets stay on the server. The only part of yours that ever gets sent to them is a ship they've already sunk.

How do I place my ships?

Press Shuffle until you like an arrangement, then Lock it in. Both players place at the same time, so setup takes seconds.

Do I get another turn when I hit?

No. Turns alternate whether you hit or miss. It keeps a single lucky opening from running away with the game.

Can I play Battleship against the computer?

Yes. Play solo puts the server in the other seat. It places at random and then hunts properly: it sweeps on a parity until it finds something, then works outwards from the hit until the ship goes down. It only ever sees what a player in that seat would see.

Guides with Battleship in them

• Long distance games for couples
• Long distance games to play on your phone
• Long distance games to play online with friends
• Games to play over FaceTime and video calls
• Texting games for couples in different time zones
• Long distance date night ideas
• Two player games to play online with a friend

From the blog

• GuideSeptember 20, 2026

  How to Play Games on a Video Call: FaceTime, WhatsApp, Meet and Zoom

  How to keep a FaceTime, WhatsApp or Meet call running in a corner while you play a two-player game in your browser, on iPhone, Android and laptop. No screen sharing needed.

The rest of the arcade

• 💞 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.
• 🟤 CheckersForced captures, jump chains, and the long walk to a crown.
• 🎲 Dice DuelFive dice, three rolls, thirteen boxes. Luck you can play badly.

All games · How Long Distance Games works · Back to the arcade