Games to play on a video call with friends (when everyone is far away)

Updated 2026-09-28 · Mandli

The group call starts with 'haan bol, sab theek?' and ten minutes later everyone is scrolling on another tab. It happens to every friend group that moved to different cities. A game fixes that fast, because it gives the call a reason to exist.

This list is made for games to play on video call with friends who are in different homes, cities or countries. Some need only your voices. Some need a phone each, so that everyone can hold a secret word or a hidden card. For those, we use Mandli, our free desi party-games app, in Door mode. Door mode is built for remote play: everyone joins from a WhatsApp link, and the voice chat is inside every game, so you don't even need a separate call running.

Pick two or three from the list below, keep one quick game for the start and one long one for later, and you have a full evening sorted.

Before you start: how a call game night works

There are two ways to run it.

• Keep your usual video call (Meet, Zoom or a WhatsApp group call) and open the game on your phone next to it.
• Or skip the call and use the voice chat inside Mandli. Every game has mic and speaker buttons, a green ring shows who is speaking, and nothing is recorded.

One person creates a room and drops the link in the group. Nobody needs to sign up. You type a name, pick a colour and you're in. Friends who don't have the app open the same link in their phone browser, and iPhone users play in the browser too. A room holds up to 50 people, and scores carry across games, so you can keep a running leaderboard for the whole night.

If someone's internet drops for a moment, their seat is held, so they can come back into the same game.

1. Kaun Hai Nakli? (the imposter word game)

This is the one to start with. Everyone gets the same secret word on their phone, except one person, the nakli, who gets nothing. Going around, each player says one word as a clue. Say too little and people suspect you. Say too much and the nakli figures out the word.

Then you talk, accuse, defend and vote. If the nakli is caught, they still get one chance to guess the word and steal the win. It works for 3 to 10 players and a round takes about five minutes, which is why it fits so well on calls: short, loud and full of 'tu itna chup kyun hai?'

Want it harder? Undercover gives everyone a word, but one person's word is slightly different (think Chai and Coffee), and they don't know it. With 7 or more players, the host can add Mr White, who gets no word at all.

2. Antakshari over voice

Antakshari on a call usually falls apart because nobody remembers the letter or the score. Let the app keep those. It shows the letter and your turn, you get 30 seconds to sing a song starting with that letter, and then you type its title. Everyone else taps Sahi gaaya or Galat. A song judged right is worth 10 points, with 3 more if you started inside 10 seconds.

Every 5th turn is a special round. In Hero-Heroine you sing any song filmed on the star shown, and in Dhun you only hum while others guess the song. The app never plays music, so the singing is all yours. You can play solo or in two teams, from 3 to 20 people.

3. Dumb Charades on camera

Yes, charades works remotely, it just needs one camera. The room splits into two teams. The actor gets a movie on their phone and has 90 seconds to act it out, no talking, with one skip per turn. In Door mode the actor can switch on their camera, and only the actor's camera is used; it's off by default. Their team guesses on voice or by typing, and a typed guess that matches ends the turn at once.

The other team sees the movie the whole time, which is half the fun. 4 to 20 people can play, and the host can pick easy or hard films, and old or new ones.

4. Quiz rounds for the know-it-alls

Every group has one friend who thinks they know every Bollywood release date. Test them. Sawaal Jawaab gives ten questions, four options each, 15 seconds per question. A right answer is worth 100 points, and answering fast adds up to 50 more.

For variety, mix in these quiz games:

• Emoji Picture: guess the film, song or cricketer from a line of emoji.
• Gaana Pehchano: guess the song from a clue about the film, the year and the scene.
• Pehchaan Kaun: clues about a famous person come one by one, and the earlier you guess, the more you score.

Quizzes are great on a call because everyone answers on their own phone at the same time, so no one waits.

5. One-minute vote games that start fights (the good kind)

When the call is getting lazy, drop one of these:

• Kaun Zyada Likely: 'Kaun sabse pehle shaadi karega?' Everyone secretly votes for someone in the room, then the chart comes out. The host can pick College, Office, Family or Dosti questions.
• Ye ya Woh: two options, pick a side in secret, and guess which way the group will go.
• Kabhi Nahi Kiya: the classic five-fingers game. 'Maine kabhi class bunk nahi ki.' If you have, a finger goes down. Only the count is shown, not names, unless the host turns that on.

Each one takes a minute, needs no explaining, and gives you something to argue about for the next ten.

6. Detective games: Sherlock Ghar and Gaon mein Daaku

For groups that love to accuse each other, these are the long-form games.

In Sherlock Ghar, everyone knows the secret place, except the jasoos. Players take turns asking each other questions. Answer too clearly and the jasoos learns the place. Answer too vaguely and you look like the jasoos. It suits 4 to 8 players.

Gaon mein Daaku is the desi version of Mafia for 6 to 15 players. The app is the Sutradhar, so nobody sits out as moderator. At night the daaku pick a house to loot, the Vaidya saves someone and the Havaldar checks someone. By day the village argues and votes. The app turns mics off at night, so nobody can whisper, and that makes it work well on remote calls.

7. Card and board games for a slower evening

Sometimes you just want to play patte and chat. Dehla Pakad (Mendikot) seats 4 in two teams, with a hidden hukum and a lot of 'partner ne kya kiya yaar'. Teen Do Paanch is the 3-player train game with targets of 5, 3 and 2 hands. Ludo and Carrom also work well over voice, because the whole room sees every move and hears every 'kaat diya!'

These games have fixed seats. Anyone extra in the room watches and gets a turn in the next game. Everything is points only. There is no money, no coins and no betting anywhere in Mandli.

8. Draw and write games

• Naam Jagah Janwar Cheez: one letter, 60 seconds, four boxes. A unique answer gets 10 points, a shared one 5.
• Chitrakaar: one person draws, everyone else types guesses. The drawer picks one of 3 words and has 80 seconds.
• Chain Kahani: each person adds one line to a story but only sees the line before theirs. At the end, the full story is read out, and it never makes sense.

If you don't want an app for this part, Naam Jagah Janwar Cheez works fine on paper too: one person picks the letter, everyone writes, and you read out your answers on the call.

A sample one-hour call plan

• 0-10 min: two rounds of Kaun Hai Nakli to get everyone talking.
• 10-20 min: Kaun Zyada Likely while people get their snacks.
• 20-35 min: Antakshari in two teams.
• 35-50 min: a Sawaal Jawaab quiz round, then Dumb Charades if someone is ready to go on camera.
• 50-60 min: one game of Gaon mein Daaku if the group is 6 or more, or Ludo if you're fewer.

The room keeps the total score, so crown the winner at the end, and let the loser pick the first game next time.

Sawaal jawaab