Games to Play Over Text Long Distance: 14 That Last All Day

Long distance on a weekday looks like this: you text at eight in the morning, they answer at four in the afternoon, and by the time you reply they’re asleep. A game that needs you both online at once is dead by Tuesday. So this list has one rule. Every game on it still works when the reply comes tomorrow.

That rules out most of what gets recommended as games to play over text long distance, because most lists of texting games for couples are party games with the word “text” stuck on the front. Everything below lives inside the chat thread, or inside the messaging app, or takes a turn and then waits. Each product is named with the phones it needs, checked in October 2026. If you can actually get on a call tonight, our phone games for couples long distance are the list for that.

Games that live in the chat itself

No app, no link, no account. Just the thread you already have. These are the best text games for long distance relationships because they ask nothing of your phones and everything of the two of you.

20 questions, the slow way: one question per message, and the answer has to be a real sentence. The gap between turns is the feature here. A question sent at breakfast gets thought about all day, and the answer that comes back at midnight is better than anything said across a table. Our 20 questions game for couples has a hundred to start from, sorted from easy to the ones you actually want answered.

Would you rather, with the why: the question takes thirty seconds; the why is the game. Send one, and when the answer comes back, ask what made them pick it. Our would you rather questions for couples are sorted by mood, and the flirty ones are fine over text as long as you both know where the line is that day.

Two truths and a lie: a reader on r/LongDistance describes it as going back and forth “telling two true statements or anecdotes and one false one” and guessing the lie. It survives any gap because the guess can come whenever. Play it about your week and it quietly becomes the way you tell each other what happened.

The story chain: one sentence each, no planning, no fixing the other person’s sentence. The r/LongDistance list of texting games opens with “you could write a story together”, and it is the one game here that gets better the longer the gap, because each of you forgets where it was going. Keep the thread. By the end of the month you have something neither of you would have written alone.

Five emoji for the day: at the end of the day, describe it in five emoji and no words. They have to decode it before you explain. Fast, and it says more than “fine”.

The Spotify word game: from an r/AskWomen thread on the best texting games anyone had played: “we each texted each other a random word, then we would search for that word in Spotify” and listen to the first five songs that came up. Report back on the worst one. Works with any music app that has a search box.

This or that, in bursts: coffee or tea, beach or mountains, window or aisle. Ten at a time, fired off while waiting for a train, answered in a batch on the bus home. Low effort by design, which is exactly what to text your partner when you are bored and “how was your day” has already been used.

Photo scavenger hunt: “send me something yellow before lunch.” Whoever completes it sets the next one. It pulls each of you out into the day you are actually having, which is the part the distance hides.

Games built into the messaging app

Some chat apps carry games inside them, so nothing leaves the thread. Which ones you can use depends on your phones, and that is the question people ask most about games to play over text iphone and android: the answer is different for each of these three.

GamePigeon: an iMessage app, so it needs two iPhones, full stop. Free with in-app purchases, and the list includes 20 Questions, Sea Battle, Anagrams, Word Hunt, Chess and Four in a Row, all turn-based inside the thread. Couples on r/LongDistance report running “tournaments” in it and playing “battleship by text”. Worth knowing before you build a habit on it: the last update shipped in September 2024, so expect it to stay exactly as it is.

Telegram games: Telegram has had games inside chats since 2016. Type @gamebot or @gamee in the chat, pick a game, and the high scores are saved for that chat. Any phone, free, and your game thread and your chat are the same thread.

Plato: a messenger built around games. “50+ games” played “without leaving the conversation”, on iOS and Android (iOS 15 or Android 6 at minimum), free to download with a coin shop inside. Ocho, which is their Crazy Eights, pool, bowling, and the Battleship and Uno-style games one r/LongDistance reader recommends it for. The catch is that you both move your chat into Plato, which some couples love and some never do.

WhatsApp has nothing like this built in. On WhatsApp the game lives at a link, which brings us to the last group.

Games that take a turn, then wait

These are built for the gap. Each is a link or an app that holds your move until the other person shows up, however long that takes.

Words With Friends: Zynga’s word game, free with in-app purchases, where a match sits open until the next move. If you want more of this kind, our mobile games for long distance couples covers Draw Something, Trivia Crack, Chess.com and the rest.

The Wordle grid swap: you both play the day’s Wordle, then send the share grid, the coloured squares with no letters in them. One message, every morning, in the same thread. It looks like nothing, and after a month it is the one ritual neither of you skips. Connections works the same way.

melt: ours, so weigh that. One of you answers twelve questions privately on your phone, pastes the link into the chat, and the other answers whenever they get to it, hours or days later. Only the answers you both gave are revealed; the rest never shows for either of you. Free, no download, works between any two phones. It is the one game here where the wait is the point.

If you want something to arrive without either of you starting it, Candle and Paired both send a daily prompt to the two of you. Candle is free to start, with daily mini games and questions; Paired gives one free question a day that you both answer to unlock, and the rest sits behind a paid plan. Our apps for long distance couples list covers both properly.

Making any of them survive a time zone

Three habits, from the couples who keep playing past the first week.

• One move per message.Send the question, without the follow-up and the “lol” after it. A single move can be answered from a lift.
• Never text “your turn”. The game is supposed to be the thing that needs no chasing. If it needs chasing, pick a slower one.
• Keep a running score in the pinned message, even for games that have no score. A number to argue about is a reason to keep going.

When the texts thin out, which they will, swap the format rather than the effort: a photo hunt after a week of questions, a story chain after a week of Wordle. Our long distance relationship questions are there for the nights you want an answer more than a game, and the intimacy questions for long distance couples for the nights after that. Pick one from the first group, send it before you leave for work, and do not check for the reply until lunch.