Would You Rather questions for friends

On your own or in a group: what you need to start

Would You Rather can be played in two very different ways. On a single phone it is a personal pastime: one person taps their choices and at the end discovers their own leanings. In a room, on the other hand, everyone answers from their own phone and the game becomes a live poll for up to 20 people. No cards, no pens, no preparation: the app supplies the questions.

Before you begin there is only one setting to decide:

• Number of questions: 5, 10 or 20. Five are enough to break the ice; twenty will fill an evening after dinner. On a single phone the app remembers your last choice; in a room the host decides in the lobby.
• No timer: there is no countdown to rush you. The group sets the pace.
• No scores: there are no right answers and no winner, so nobody risks feeling left out.

How a question works, from opening to verdict

In a room every question always follows the same path:

1. Everyone’s screen shows the two options, A and B, on two big coloured cards.
2. Each player taps their choice in secret. The others can see who has already answered, but not which side they are on.
3. Until everyone has chosen, anyone who has already answered can change their mind.
4. As soon as the last connected player chooses, the result appears by itself. If someone gets distracted, the host can tap Show anyway: missing choices are left out of the percentages.
5. The verdict shows percentages, counts and the avatars split between the two sides: you can see at a glance who is with whom.
6. The host opens the next question once the discussion has run its course.

After the last question come the group’s fun facts: the pair who are “On the same wavelength”, meaning the two people who most often answered the same way; the “Voice of the majority”, whoever found themselves on the bigger side most often; and the “Independent spirit”, whoever chose the minority most often. Below that, a summary of how many As and Bs each person picked.

The solo version

On a single phone you tap a card and a reference percentage appears next to the two options, prepared together with the question: it is a point of comparison, not other users’ votes. Then you move on to the next question whenever you like. At the end the “Your choices” summary shows how many times you preferred the first or the second option, or tells you that you are perfectly balanced.

Five questions round the table: Zoe’s evening

Dinner is over and the kettle is on. Zoe opens a room, chooses 5 questions and the others join with the code: Ravi, Megan, Callum and Nana Joan, who is using her grandson’s phone. (The questions below are examples made up for this page.)

1. “Talk to animals” or “Speak every language in the world”? Three to two for the animals. Megan, who has a cat, explains that she would finally find out why it wakes her at five in the morning.
2. “Only ever eat roast dinners” or “Only ever eat fish and chips”? Nana Joan is the only one to choose fish and chips and defends it with a speech about seaside chippies. The loudest twenty per cent of the evening.
3. “Rewind the last ten minutes” or “Pause time for an hour”? Callum is clearing the table and does not answer: Zoe taps Show anyway and the result comes out with four votes.
4. “Explore outer space” or “Explore the ocean floor”? Ravi changes his mind at the last second, before Megan has voted, and ends up on the side of the majority.
5. “Get one enormous present” or “Get ten small presents”? This time the table is almost united: the small presents win four to one, and Callum proudly claims his “one”.

In the recap Ravi and Megan turn out to be on the same wavelength, while Nana Joan earns the Independent spirit title. She is the one who asks for a ten-question rematch.

One phone or a room: what really changes

• On a single phone you record the choices of just one person. It works without a connection too and suits a train journey or a break: a quick way to find out whether you are more of an “A” or a “B”.
• In a room the percentages come from the group’s real votes. You create the room, the others join with a code or a QR code, the host sets the number of questions and starts. You need a connection, but not an account.
• At a distance the room works even if you are not in the same place: on a video call everyone votes from their own phone and the discussion carries on out loud. A few more ideas in the guide to games over video call.

A trick if you are in a group with only one phone: use the solo mode as a deck of questions. One person reads out loud, everyone raises a hand for A or B, and whoever holds the phone taps the majority’s choice. The final recap will then describe the table’s tastes rather than one person’s.

How to turn every choice into a conversation

Would You Rather works best when the result is only the starting point. A few habits that help:

• The minority speaks first. Whoever is left alone on their side has thirty seconds to win the others over: it is often the funniest moment of the question.
• Predict before the verdict. While you wait for the last vote, try to guess the percentage. Discovering how little you know your friends is a talking point in itself.
• The host is in no hurry. Moving on to the next question is manual on purpose: if a discussion takes off, let it run.
• Follow-up questions. When a choice splits the table down the middle, ask “and what if it were only for a day?”: changing one detail often flips the majority.
• Respect for anyone who would rather not explain. Nobody has to justify a choice: the questions are light precisely because they do not put anyone on the spot.

Who it is for and when to bring it out

The questions are funny, impossible or everyday scenarios (think flying very slowly, living in a treehouse, having breakfast at dinner time), suitable for children and grandparents too. No special skills are needed, nor the ability to read fast under pressure, so it works well with mixed groups, as the guide to family games explains.

It is useful as an icebreaker between people who barely know each other, at a dinner where the groups are not mixing, in a classroom or at a meeting that needs to start with a smile. It holds up well with lots of players, because everyone votes at the same time and nobody waits for their turn. If afterwards you fancy something with a bit more bite, Most Likely To uses the same secret vote but points the finger at people.