How to Play

Everything from creating a room to reading the final leaderboard

What the GIF?! is a fill-in-the-blank party game. Each round everyone sees the same GIF, writes or picks the funniest caption for it, and then votes — anonymously — for the best one. Points add up over a handful of rounds and the highest score wins. A game takes ten to fifteen minutes, works on phones and laptops, and needs nothing installed.

1. Get a room

From the home page you have three ways in:

• Create Private Game. You become the host of a fresh room with a four-digit name (for example 6610). Share the link, or just tell your friends the number — they can type it into "join an existing game" on the home page.
• Join Public Game. You're placed in a room that's open to anyone. If nobody is waiting, a new public room is created for you and it fills up as other people arrive.
• Join an existing game. Enter the room number a friend gave you. Room names are case-sensitive and the room has to still be in its lobby — once a game has started, no one else can join until it finishes.

When you join you'll be asked for a name. Signing in with Google uses your Google name and picture and unlocks the premium cards; entering a name by hand works just as well for a casual game. If you skip both, the game hands you a random nickname.

2. The lobby

The lobby shows everyone who has joined, with the host marked. Click your own name to change it. The host can:

• Set Max Players (3 to 8) and the number of Rounds (1 to 10; five is the default and a good length).
• Remove a player with the ✖ next to their name.
• Press Start Game once at least three players are present. If you don't have three, the game offers to open the room to the public so more people can join.

There's a chat box in the lobby and on every screen of the game, so you can trash-talk throughout. Public rooms start automatically after 60 seconds in the lobby.

3. A round, step by step

Every round has three stages and a visible timer. If the timer runs out the game moves on without you, so keep an eye on it.

Caption (35 seconds; 50 on the very first round)

A GIF appears at the top of the screen. You have two options:

• Write your own caption. Tap the "Write your own caption here" card and type. If the timer is about to run out while you're typing, whatever you've written is submitted automatically.
• Play a card from your hand. Below the custom card are five caption cards dealt to you. Tap one to play it. Your hand is topped back up to five at the start of every round, and you won't see the same card twice in a game.

Once you've played you'll see a "sit tight" message while the others finish. When everyone has submitted, the round moves on immediately — you don't have to wait for the clock.

Vote (28 seconds)

All the captions are shown in a shuffled order with no names attached. Tap the one you think is funniest. You can't vote for your own, and you can only vote once. If a player doesn't vote in time, a vote is cast for them at random.

Results (9 seconds)

The captions are revealed with their authors and vote counts, the round winner is highlighted, and the leaderboard updates. Below the GIF you can rate the prompt from one to five stars — ratings help us decide which GIFs stay in the deck. If the winning caption was custom-written, the GIF is re-rendered with the caption burned in and a Download GIF button appears so you can keep it.

4. Scoring

• +1 point for every vote your caption receives.
• +3 points for winning the round — having the most votes. If two captions tie for most votes, both get the bonus.
• +1 point extra if the winning caption was one you wrote yourself rather than a dealt card.
• Final round: everything is doubled. A big last round can flip the leaderboard, so it's never over until it's over.

Worked example: in a four-player game your custom caption gets two votes and wins the round. That's 2 (votes) + 3 (winner) + 1 (custom) = 6 points — or 12 if it was the final round.

5. Game over

After the last round the results screen shows the top three players. "Play again" takes everyone back to the same lobby with scores reset, so a rematch is one tap away. Rooms that sit unused for a few hours are cleaned up automatically.

Leaving and reconnecting

If you close the tab you'll be removed from the room after about 20 seconds of silence, and if you were the host the role passes to the next player. Reopening the room link puts you back in the lobby as a new player once the current game ends. Keep the tab open on a phone if you're playing on the move — the game only knows you're there while the page is loaded.

Ready? Create a room and send the link, or read our tips for writing captions that win rounds.