Couple games you can play together or apart

What it is

Phorb has three games for couples: Guess Me, Two Halves and Photo Booth. All three work in turns, so you don't need to be online at the same time. One of you starts, the other finishes, and the result is revealed to both of you at once. They're quick, a little silly, and they work as well across an ocean as across a sofa.

How it works in Phorb

Guess Me

1. Open Guess Me and pick a deck of 10 questions, such as Little Things, Food & Cravings, Date Nights or Would You Rather.
2. Answer each question about yourself, then guess how your partner answered the same ten.
3. Your partner gets a notification and plays the same deck: their own answers first, then their guesses.
4. Nobody sees anything until you've both finished. Then you both get a notification: "Your results are ready".
5. Results open on two tabs, one for each of you. Each shows the score, how many answers the other guessed right, and every answer next to the guess with ✓ or ✗. Every round stays in your history.

Two Halves

1. Open the Together tab and tap Two Halves, then Start a drawing.
2. Draw your half. Bring a few lines to the fold so your partner has something to connect to. You can rotate the canvas to pick your side.
3. Add a Hint for your partner if you like, such as "a cat in a hat", and tap Send.
4. Your partner gets a notification: "Your turn to draw". They finish the other half while seeing only the edge of yours at the fold, then tap Finish.
5. The drawing unfolds for both of you, and you both get a notification that it's revealed. React with an emoji or share the picture.

Photo Booth

1. Open the Together tab and tap Photo Booth, then Start a strip.
2. Choose a format for your strip: 1 × 4, 2 × 2, 1 × 2 or Instant, a single polaroid-style shot.
3. Shoot. Each frame is split in two. You take the left side, with a 3-second countdown before each shot. Lean toward the center so your partner can meet you there.
4. Review your shots, retake any you don't like and tap Send.
5. Your partner gets a notification: "Your turn in the photo booth". They shoot the right side, seeing only a blurred outline of your pose to match.
6. The strip is revealed for both of you. Share it from the app or keep it in your Photo Booth gallery.

Why it helps

Couples settle into routines, and routines can get dull. Arthur Aron and Jennifer Tomlinson review research on what they call self-expanding activities: doing new and challenging things together. In one experiment they describe, couples who did a new, physically demanding task together showed significantly greater relationship satisfaction than couples who did a mundane task (Aron & Tomlinson, 2026).

Phorb's games are small versions of that idea. You can't plan the result. Neither of you knows your Guess Me score, the finished drawing or the strip until it opens, and that surprise is the fun part.

Ideas to try

• Long distance. Start a Photo Booth strip in your morning. Your partner finishes it in theirs, and you end up in the same frame even though you're in different countries.
• Busy weeknights. A Two Halves round takes a couple of minutes. Start one on the bus and let your partner finish it after dinner.
• After a disagreement. Start a drawing with the hint "how I felt today". It's a light way to break the silence.
• Date night at home. Sit in separate rooms and play a few rounds of Two Halves back to back. Then compare the results on the sofa.
• Anniversaries. Take a 1 × 4 strip on the same date every year and watch how you change.