Does this work in private rooms only?

Yes. Every room is private by default. The facilitator shares a link with their team, no public lobby, no strangers joining.

Are the prompts work-safe?

Yes. We wrote the prompt list for office meetings. There is no user-generated prompt pool to police.

How long does a round take?

About 10 minutes for a team of 6 to 10. Each player adds one drawing and one description, so the total time scales linearly with the team size.

Can people draw on a phone?

Yes. The drawing canvas works on touch devices. We tested it on iPhones, Android, and iPads.

All alternatives

Gartic Phone alternative

A Gartic-Phone-style drawing telephone, built for work

The drawing-telephone format is one of the best icebreakers ever invented for remote teams. The version your team needs at work is the same shape with different prompts and a private room by default.

What Gartic Phone does well

Gartic Phone is a free, fast, web-based version of the drawing-telephone game and the reveal animation is excellent. For a casual game night with friends, it is hard to beat.

Where workplace teams hit the wall

The two recurring complaints in workplace contexts are prompts and rooms. Public lobbies put a work team into a room with strangers, and the user-generated and "imagine" prompts can drift adult fast. Even private rooms sometimes carry crude prompt packs. For a Friday warm-up with the team, that is one prompt away from an HR conversation, and most facilitators would rather not roll the dice.

What we built differently

Private rooms by default, no public matchmaking. The prompt list is written for work meetings, so the worst case is a slightly silly drawing rather than something the facilitator has to apologize for. Same telephone-chain mechanic, same reveal slideshow at the end, with the workplace-safe bar held high by the people picking the prompts.

Drop-in replacement games

Sketch RelayThe direct drop-in for Gartic Phone. Each person draws what the previous person described, the chain reveals at the end. 10 minutes.15+m4–10 Creative CanvasNot a telephone chain. Everyone adds to a single shared canvas, the team sees the final piece together. Use this when the goal is collaborative rather than competitive.5m1+Franken-drawEach person draws one body part of the same character, we stitch them together at the end. Quick and forgiving for teams who insist they cannot draw.10m3–8 Story BuilderThe non-drawing variant of telephone. One sentence at a time, then read the story aloud. Useful for teams who want the shape of Gartic Phone without the drawing.5m3–10

Common questions

Does this work in private rooms only?: Yes. Every room is private by default. The facilitator shares a link with their team, no public lobby, no strangers joining.
Are the prompts work-safe?: Yes. We wrote the prompt list for office meetings. There is no user-generated prompt pool to police.
How long does a round take?: About 10 minutes for a team of 6 to 10. Each player adds one drawing and one description, so the total time scales linearly with the team size.
Can people draw on a phone?: Yes. The drawing canvas works on touch devices. We tested it on iPhones, Android, and iPads.

Where these tend to fit

Icebreakers for Team OffsitesFor offsite organizers Free Icebreaker Games for Remote TeamsFor distributed teams

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