The emoji quiz for teams, on one phone Guess the Emoji

Guess the Emoji at a glance

Players

1 to 20 (best with 2 to 12)

Game length

About 15 minutes a game

Phones

One phone

Where it works

In the same room, on a video call, in the car

Who it’s for

Families and kids, easy for young players

Price

Free. No app, no sign-up

Languages

English and Spanish

How to play Guess the Emoji

Guess the Emoji is an emoji game for groups, built on picture puzzles. Each card shows two to five emoji, and together they stand for something: a food, an animal, a job, a place, an everyday thing, a saying or a holiday. Sometimes the emoji show the thing itself. Sometimes they sound it out, and a stick of butter next to an airplane turns into Butterfly. Puzzles like this are also called rebus puzzles.

Everything runs on one phone, tablet or laptop. One person holds it where the team can see the screen, and the game keeps the score.

1. 1Pick a category: Food, Animals, Jobs, Places, Everyday things, Phrases & sayings or Holidays & seasons. Mixed pulls from all seven.
2. 2Set the timer to 15, 30 or 60 seconds, or switch it off for a relaxed game.
3. 3Choose Solo to play as one group, or split into 2, 3 or 4 teams.
4. 4Choose a game length of 10 or 20 cards.
5. 5Show the card to the team whose turn it is. They study the emoji and call out guesses.
6. 6Tap Reveal when someone has it, or when the team gives up. If the timer runs out first, the answer shows on its own.
7. 7Tap Got it if the team guessed right, or Missed if they didn't. Then the next card comes up.

Teams take turns one card at a time, so nobody waits long for their next go. After the last card, the scoreboard shows every team's total and the winner.

Here is a sample turn. The card shows a smiling sun, an arrow pointing up and an egg in a frying pan. Someone says “breakfast,” someone else says “sunrise egg,” and then it clicks: Sunny side up. Tap Reveal to confirm, tap Got it, and pass the phone along.

Emoji puzzles with answers

Every puzzle in the game, sorted by category, with its answer right next to it. Use the list to warm up, to run an emoji quiz of your own or to settle an argument about a card. If you're about to play, maybe don't read it first.

Tips for decoding emoji puzzles

Most clues work in one of a few ways. Once your team spots the trick, even the hard cards start to give way.

• Say what you see, out loud. Name every emoji in order. “Sun, glasses” is already most of the way to Sunglasses.
• Try other names for the same picture. A broken heart can mean break, a pin on a map can mean place, and a tulip can mean spring.
• Listen for sounds, not just meanings. Clues love puns: a rain cloud stands in for the “rein” in Reindeer, and the number two next to a can becomes Toucan.
• Read left to right. Most clues put the parts in the order you say them, so start with the first emoji and build from there.
• Use the category. In Phrases & sayings, the answer is a whole expression, not one word. In Jobs, think about who would use the things on the card.
• Guess anything. A wrong guess still helps, because a teammate might hear the right word hiding inside yours.
• Watch the clock. With the timer on, the person holding the phone can call out the last ten seconds so the team throws in its best guesses.

Variations and house rules

The game handles the cards, the clock and the score. These extras are up to your group, and each one changes the feel of a round.

• Speed round. Set the timer to 15 seconds. Quick teams love it, and everyone else loves watching them scramble.
• No-timer night. Switch the timer off and play Phrases & sayings. Every card becomes a small group puzzle, which suits a dinner table.
• Captain's call. The team can talk it over, but only the captain's answer counts. Rotate the captain every card so everyone gets a turn.
• One guess each. Teammates take turns guessing, one guess per person per card. It cuts down the shouting and gives quieter players a fair shot.
• Steal for glory. If a team misses, the next team gets one guess before you tap Missed. The game only scores the team whose turn it is, so a steal earns bragging rights.
• Close counts. Decide before you start how close a guess has to be. Is “camping” good enough for Campsite? Settle it early and you will argue less later.
• Theme night. Stick to one category for a whole game, like Holidays & seasons in December or Jobs for a career day.

Ways to play

Same puzzles, different rooms. Here is how the game fits four very different groups.

How to make your own emoji puzzles

Once your group gets good, someone will want to write their own. Here's how to make a puzzle that is tricky but fair.

• Start with the answer, then break it into parts. Compound words are the easiest: rain plus a coat, light plus a house, star plus a fish.
• Use sound-alikes for the hard parts. If a word has no emoji, find one that sounds close. A sandy beach and a witch make Sandwich.
• Keep it to two to five emoji. One is too easy, and six turns into a riddle nobody can finish.
• Choose emoji everyone knows. Faces, food, animals and weather look much the same on every phone. Newer or unusual emoji can look different, or show up as an empty box.
• Add a helper when a clue is too open. A cat and a dog could just mean pets. Put a rain cloud in front and it becomes a saying.
• Test it on one person first. If they solve it within a minute or so, it is ready. If nobody gets it even after hearing the answer, start over.

Write your puzzles on slips of paper or send them to the group chat, then slip them in between rounds of the game. Homemade cards about your own friends, pets and inside jokes are often the ones people remember.

When to play Guess the Emoji

It works anywhere a few people can crowd around a screen for ten minutes.

• Game nights: a quick opener while people arrive, or a closer when everyone is too tired for a board game.
• Family gatherings: Animals and Food are friendly for younger players, and Phrases & sayings gives grandparents a home-field advantage.
• Office breaks and team meetings: clean, quick and easy to explain. Ten cards fit inside a coffee break.
• Holidays: Holidays & seasons has cards for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve and more.
• Birthday parties and sleepovers: teams, a scoreboard and a winner, with nothing to set up.
• English lessons: compound words and idioms are built into the cards, so students practice vocabulary while they play.

When your group wants something louder, try Guess the Gibberish, where you read nonsense out loud until it turns into a real phrase. Swap emoji for drawings in Draw & Guess, or for acting in Charades. Forehead Guess is another fast team game that runs on one phone.

Questions