games to play together when you're apart.
Seventeen two-player games with a video call built in, for whoever you're missing - a long distance partner, a friend who moved away, family a few time zones out. One invite link, nothing to download: two phones, any distance.
the games
Quoridor Strategy Maze
strategy race · 10-15 minutesRace your pawn across the board while walling off your rival's way.
Kitchen Chaosnew
cooking race & sabotage · 5 minutesTwo kitchens, one order - cook it first, and sabotage theirs.
Poison Cupcakenew
bluff & sabotage · 10 minutesPoison a cupcake, then take turns eating. Don't bite the wrong one.
Checkbox Race & Cloud
classic speed · 5-10 minutesCall a number, hunt it in a cloud of digits - fill your grid first.
Leapfrog Hearts
whiteboard classic · 5 minutesSlide three caps across a drawn grid before your rival does.
The Bridge Word Race
word duel · 10 minutesBuild a bridge of words, one letter at a time, from COLD to WARM.
Jinx
word hunt duel · 5 minutesSame nine letters, one minute - and the words you both find don't count.
Don't Press Purple
reaction challenge · 2 minutesHit every teal light, and keep your hands off the purple.
Snake Arena Battle
multiplayer arcade · 5 minutesTwo snakes, one arena - grow, boost and cut each other off.
Uno Slap! Speed Cards
reflex cards · 5 minutesCount to ten out loud, and slap the pile when the card matches.
Vibe Check
celebrity guess who · 10 minutesGuess Who with celebrities - and no questions about their face.
for the two of you
Pair up with your partner once and these open: a race to play together, and a weekly film quiz to play against each other.
Flag Rushco-op platformer
A full-screen platformer race on the week's course - a flag only counts when the second of you reaches it. On a laptop or desktop.
play Flag Rush →Freeze Frameyou vs your partner
One frame from a film, revealed tile by tile - name it before your partner does. Global, Bollywood and Korean reels, a new one every Monday.
play Freeze Frame →not just games
roll a date night
Dinner, activity, treat, entertainment: four lists of ideas, one roll of the die, and tonight's plan is decided. Solo, or together on a call.
roll a date →photo booth
Both phones count down together on the call, so one strip has both of you in it - sharp, from two cities. Story-sized for Instagram.
open the booth →jigsaw, together
One big jigsaw on a table you can both reach: whatever one of you drags slides across the other's screen live. Our pictures or your own.
start a puzzle →made for the distance
Distance is distance, whether it's a partner three time zones out, a best friend who moved for work, or a sibling away at university. It runs on small shared things — a song, a show you both pause at the same second, a game you keep a running score on. This is one of those.
one code, two cities
Whoever starts the room gets a 5-character code. Send it however you already talk — text, WhatsApp, Discord — and they're in. Every move syncs live, so you're both looking at the same board from wherever you are.
video call built in
Every room comes with a live video and voice call built directly into the game. See each other, hear each other, and play at the same time — no need to juggle a separate call app or wait for the camera to freeze on your turn.
different time zones? still fine
When they're asleep and you're not, every game has a bot to play against. Practise the ones you keep losing, then bring your unfair advantage to the next time you're both online.
questions people ask
What games can you play with your girlfriend or boyfriend long distance?
Anything that works on two screens at once. crisskross has seventeen: Quoridor, Kitchen Chaos, Poison Cupcake, Checkbox Race, Leapfrog Hearts, The Bridge, Jinx, Steady Hands, Meet Me Halfway, Crack the Code, Speed Spot-the-Emoji, Don’t Press Purple, Snake Arena, Uno Slap, Classic Chess, Scribble & Guess and Vibe Check. Fifteen are head-to-head and two, Steady Hands and Meet Me Halfway, are co-op — you share one board instead of playing against each other. They run from about two minutes to a whole evening of chess, so they fit a coffee break or a night in.
Are these long distance couple games free?
Yes — every game is free to play, with no paywall, no ads and no premium tier. If it made your evening better there is a tip jar, but nothing is locked behind it.
Do we need to download an app or make an account?
There is nothing to download — crisskross runs in the browser on any phone, tablet or laptop. Whoever starts the room signs in with Google, which is free and takes one tap; whoever joins only needs the invite link (or the 5-character code) and a nickname. The two co-op games, Steady Hands and Meet Me Halfway, are the ones that ask both of you to be signed in, because you share a single board.
How do we actually start a game together?
One of you picks a game and presses host on crisskross, which opens a room with a 5-character code and an invite link. Send the link however you already talk — text, WhatsApp, Discord — and the other person opens it, sees who invited them and to which game, picks a name and a character, and presses join. The video and voice call starts inside the room, so there is no separate call to set up.
Does crisskross have a built-in video call?
Yes. Every room comes with built-in video and voice calling so you can see and hear each other while you play. No need to open a separate FaceTime, Zoom, or Discord call — just start a room and your partner gets a call notification.
Can we play while on FaceTime or a video call?
You can, but the built-in video call is designed to do that better. It runs directly inside the game, so both of you are in the same place — no alt-tabbing or window juggling.
What if we are in different time zones and one of us is asleep?
Every head-to-head game also plays against a bot, and the co-op games have a solo mode, so you are never stuck waiting for the other person to wake up. When they are back online, share a room code and pick up together.
Is this only for couples, or can friends and family play too?
Anyone can play. Long distance couples are who we hear from most, but nothing about a room code is romantic — it works exactly the same for a friend in another city, a sibling away at university, family in another country, or two people on the same sofa passing one phone back and forth.
What are good online games to play with a friend who moved away?
The quick reflex ones travel best when you are catching up rather than concentrating — Uno Slap, Speed Spot-the-Emoji and Don’t Press Purple all run in a couple of minutes. Scribble & Guess is the one that gets people talking, because a bad drawing is funnier than a good one. If you would rather play something slower while you talk, Quoridor, Crack the Code and a full game of chess all reward actually thinking.