35 Exciting Texting Games to Play with Friends and Family

In today’s digitally connected world, text messaging has become our primary means of staying in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. But why settle for ordinary conversations when you can transform your text chains into playgrounds of creativity and fun? Whether you’re looking to break the ice with new friends, strengthen bonds with old ones, or simply add some excitement to your daily communications, these texting games are the perfect solution.

From quick brain teasers to elaborate storytelling adventures, these 35 texting games require nothing more than your phone and your imagination. They’re perfect for long-distance relationships, group chats, or those moments when you’re just a little bored and looking for some digital entertainment.

Word Association Games

Word games are classic conversation starters that challenge your vocabulary and quick thinking skills while keeping text exchanges lively and engaging.

1. Lightning Round

This fast-paced game tests your reflexes and instinctive associations. Send a word to your friend and ask them to respond with the very first word that comes to mind—no overthinking allowed! The spontaneity often leads to hilarious and unexpected responses. Continue the chain by responding to their word with your own immediate association.

2. Make It Rhyme

Challenge your creative language skills with this rhythmic texting game. One person starts by texting a word or phrase, and the other must respond with something that rhymes with it. Continue back and forth until someone can no longer come up with a rhyming response. For example: “Want to play?” – “Not today!” – “That’s okay” – “What do you say?”

3. Alphabet Game

Choose a category such as animals, foods, or countries. The first player names something from that category starting with the letter A, the next player continues with B, and so on through the alphabet. For an extra challenge, set a time limit for each response!

4. Word Chain

In this linguistic challenge, each player must text a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word. For example: “Apple” – “Elephant” – “Tiger” – “Rainbow.” Establish rules about whether repeated words are allowed and how long you’ll play before declaring a winner.

Guessing Games

These games test how well you know your texting partners while providing opportunities for surprising revelations and good-natured competition.

5. Two Truths & a Lie

How well can you detect deception? Send your friend two completely true statements about yourself and one convincing falsehood. Challenge them to identify which statement is the lie. This game not only tests how well your friends know you but also reveals interesting facts they might not have known before.

6. 20 Questions

The classic guessing game works perfectly over text. Think of a person, place, or thing, then have your friend ask yes-or-no questions to determine what you’re thinking of. The goal is to guess correctly within 20 questions or fewer. Keep track of the questions asked to maintain the challenge.

7. Guess Who?

Choose a mutual friend or celebrity without revealing their identity. Your texting partner can ask up to 10 yes-or-no questions before making their guess. This game is particularly fun in group chats where multiple people can participate in the questioning and guessing.

8. Hangman

This classic word game adapts surprisingly well to texting. Choose a word and text your friend a series of underscores representing each letter. As they guess letters, fill in the correct ones or reduce their remaining guesses (typically six) for incorrect ones. For example: “_ _ _ _ _” for “HAPPY” would become “_ A _ _ _” after a correct guess of “A”.

Storytelling Games

Collaborative storytelling games unleash creativity while building on each participant’s contributions for unpredictable and entertaining results.

9. Memory of the Moment

Create a text chain with people who share a common history—former coworkers, college friends, or family members. Choose a memorable shared event (like “Remember our disastrous camping trip?” or “What about that time our boss brought her newly paroled boyfriend to the office party?”). Then, take turns adding details you recall, building a collective memory that often results in hilarious revelations and forgotten moments.

10. Finish My Sentence

This game works especially well with close friends or romantic partners who can anticipate each other’s thoughts. Start a sentence and let the other person complete it. The results can range from heartwarming to hilarious, depending on how well you know each other and the direction you take the prompts.

11. One Word Story

Create a collaborative story where each person contributes just one word at a time. The story develops in unexpected directions as each participant builds upon what came before. This game works particularly well in group chats, where the narrative can take wild and unpredictable turns.

12. Consequences

This structured storytelling game creates amusing narratives through a fill-in-the-blank approach. Create a template with prompts like: “[Male name] met [Female name] at [location]. He said [dialogue]. She said [dialogue]. The consequence was [outcome].” Each person fills in one section without seeing the others, resulting in a hilariously disjointed story when read together.

Challenge Games

These games introduce elements of competition, daring, and personal revelation that can strengthen bonds while providing entertainment.

13. Texting Roulette

For the bold and adventurous, this game involves an element of risk. When physically together, everyone places their phones face down on a surface. Each person picks up someone else’s phone, searches their contacts, and drafts a text message to send. Set clear boundaries beforehand to prevent messages that might be too provocative or problematic. The results can strengthen friendships through shared laughter—or test them to their limits!

14. Would You Rather

Present your friend with two hypothetical scenarios and ask which they would choose. Questions can range from lighthearted (“Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?”) to thought-provoking (“Would you rather live in a country with low cost of living but terrible weather, or high cost of living with perfect weather?”). The explanations behind the choices often lead to fascinating conversations.

15. Kiss, Marry, Kill

Name three celebrities, fictional characters, or even mutual acquaintances (tread carefully here!), and ask your friend which one they would kiss, which they would marry, and which they would eliminate. Their choices and reasoning can lead to entertaining debates and revelations about preferences.

16. Tell the Truth

Establish a punishment for anyone who refuses to answer a question (such as sending $5 via Venmo or posting an embarrassing photo on social media). Then take turns asking personal questions that must be answered truthfully or faced with the predetermined consequence. This game works best with trusted friends who won’t push boundaries too far.

Creative and Visual Games

These games leverage the multimedia capabilities of modern messaging to create visual challenges and puzzles.

17. Emoji Translation

Create a phrase, movie title, song lyric, or famous quote using only emojis, then challenge your friend to decode it. For example, 🌹🌹🌹 might represent “Stop and smell the roses.” The more creative your emoji combinations, the more challenging and entertaining the game becomes.

18. Pictionary

Using your phone’s drawing capabilities or even just keyboard characters and emojis, create a simple drawing of an object, action, or phrase. Your friend must guess what you’ve depicted. This digital version of the classic party game tests both artistic ability and interpretive skills.

19. Caption Contest

Send a funny, strange, or interesting photo and challenge your friend to create the most hilarious or creative caption. This game works especially well in group chats where multiple people can contribute captions and vote on their favorites.

20. Emoji Storytelling

Create a short story using only emojis, then have your friend translate it into text. Alternatively, send a text story and have them convert it into an emoji narrative. This game highlights the surprising expressiveness of emoji language while creating plenty of opportunities for misinterpretation and laughs.

Trivia and Knowledge Games

Test your friends’ knowledge and learn interesting facts with these intellectually stimulating texting challenges.

21. Trivia Challenge

Send trivia questions on topics that interest your friends and keep score of correct answers. You can focus on specific categories like movies, sports, or history, or mix up the subjects for a well-rounded challenge. Online trivia resources can provide endless material for this educational game.

22. Riddles and Brain Teasers

Send puzzling riddles or logic problems and see how quickly your friend can solve them. The satisfaction of cracking a challenging brain teaser makes this game both frustrating and rewarding. Set time limits to increase the pressure or allow unlimited time for particularly difficult puzzles.

23. Fact or Fiction

Text an amazing fact that might or might not be true, and challenge your friend to determine its authenticity. This game tests skepticism and knowledge while potentially teaching surprising new information. Keep score of correct guesses to add a competitive element.

24. Geography Chain

Name a country, city, river, or mountain, and your friend must respond with another geographical feature that begins with the last letter of your example. For instance, “Japan” could be followed by “Norway,” then “Yemen.” This educational game expands geographical knowledge while testing quick recall.

Friendship Tag

Deepen your connections with games designed to reveal preferences, opinions, and personal details in a fun, structured format.

25. This or That

Send pairs of options and ask your friend to choose one: “Coffee or tea?” “Beach or mountains?” “Early bird or night owl?” The simplicity of binary choices makes this game easy to play while still revealing interesting preferences and potential conversation starters.

26. Never Have I Ever

The classic party game works perfectly via text. Send statements beginning with “Never have I ever…” and have your friend respond with “I have” or “I haven’t.” This game often reveals surprising experiences and leads to entertaining story exchanges when someone unexpectedly responds with “I have” to an unusual scenario.

27. Friendship Questionnaire

Create a list of personal questions and send them to your friend to answer. Questions might include favorites (color, food, movie), preferences (morning or evening person, city or countryside), and hypotheticals (superpower you’d choose, historical era you’d visit). Compare answers to discover similarities and differences.

28. Rate on a Scale

Ask your friend to rate various things on a scale of 1-10, from serious topics (“How important is honesty in relationships?”) to silly ones (“Rate your ability to survive a zombie apocalypse”). Their ratings and explanations can lead to insightful discussions or humorous debates.

FAQs About Texting Games

Q: What texting games work best for new friends or acquaintances?

A: Lighter games like Word Chain, Would You Rather, or This or That work well for newer relationships as they’re engaging without requiring deep personal revelations or extensive shared history.

Q: Which texting games are good for large group chats?

A: Games like One Word Story, Caption Contest, and Memory of the Moment excel in group settings, allowing multiple people to contribute and creating a collective experience.

Q: How can I make texting games more challenging?

A: Add time limits, scoring systems, or consequences for incorrect answers or missed turns. You can also increase difficulty by narrowing categories or adding restrictions to word games.

Q: Are there texting games that help people get to know each other better?

A: Yes, games like Two Truths & a Lie, Friendship Questionnaire, and Would You Rather are excellent for revealing preferences, experiences, and values in an entertaining context.

The beauty of texting games lies in their simplicity and accessibility. With nothing more than your phone and a willing participant, you can transform ordinary text conversations into engaging, entertaining exchanges that strengthen connections and create memorable moments—even when you’re physically apart. So the next time a text conversation starts to lag or you’re looking for a way to liven up your digital interactions, try one of these games and watch as ordinary messaging becomes extraordinary fun.

Author

Anjali Sayee

 

Anjali is an Associate Editor at StyleCraze with 7 years of experience specializing in hairstyles, hair care, and skin care. She has authored over 300 articles and offers expert advice on hair styling techniques, effective skin care routines, and tips for maintaining healthy hair and skin.

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