How to play Fool the Bot

Start a room and invite friends

Everything runs in the browser. No app, no sign-up. Each player uses their own phone or computer, so the secret word stays secret.

The host creates a room and shares it. Friends join with a name and a cartoon avatar, then wait in the lobby until the host starts.

• Share the link in your group chat.
• Show the QR code to people in the same room.
• Or read out the four-letter room code.

Sending: get the word across

Each round, one player is the sender and gets a secret word. Your job is to get it across to the rest of the table before the bot works it out. Senders rotate, so everyone sends the same number of times in a game.

There are two ways to send, and they're equally good. Draw it: a live drawing the others watch appear stroke by stroke. Write clues: short written clues, one at a time.

The sender wins with the table, so make it easy for your friends and hard for the bot. Your friends share your memories, your jokes and your way of thinking. The bot has none of that. A message built on what only your group knows gets through. The most obvious version of the word gets cracked by the bot.

Draw it

Draw on the shared canvas while everyone watches each stroke appear live. You get a few pen colours, two pen sizes, an eraser, undo and clear. Nobody needs to be good at drawing.

Draw the thing, not the word: no letters, numbers or arrows pointing at labels. Start with the detail your friends will recognise, not the textbook picture the bot expects.

Write clues

Send short written clues instead of a drawing. A new clue slot opens every 5 seconds, and each clue can be up to 80 characters. The table and the bot only see a clue once it's sent. Nobody sees you typing.

• Never use the secret word or any form of it: plurals, possessives, gendered forms, compounds or spelling it out.
• No messages to the AI in your clues.
• Synonyms, descriptions and references are fine. In Hebrew, a different word that just shares a root is allowed.
• Clues that clearly break the rules are blocked before anyone sees them.

Cracking it: tap "Got it!"

Everyone who isn't sending is cracking. Watch the message come in, and the moment you know, tap "Got it!". You then get 15 seconds to type your answer on a separate screen. The drawing or clues are hidden while you type, so tap when you're sure.

Your tap time is what counts, not the moment you finish typing. A wrong answer sends you back to watching, with a 2-second wait before you can tap again. A drawing round lasts 30 seconds, a Text Clues round 60.

Small spelling slips, accents, plurals and accepted synonyms count. A related but different word doesn't: if the word is tiger, cat won't do. Every guess, right or wrong, is shown live to the whole table.

The bot, your rival

The bot plays the whole round. It sees what's on screen, the drawing or the clues so far, and keeps guessing, just like you. It is never told the word.

It also sees every wrong guess made so far, its own and the players', so it never repeats one. That cuts both ways: its wrong guesses appear live for everyone, so they're hints for you too, and your wrong guesses are hints for it.

Its guesses are checked by the same judge as yours, with the same leniency. The first correct answer, from a player or from the bot, ends the round.

Scoring: the table vs the bot

There are two scores: the table's and the bot's. If a player cracks the word first, the table wins the round. If the bot does, the bot wins it. The winner takes points by speed: 10 for an instant crack, sliding down to 5 at the buzzer. If nobody cracks it in time, nobody scores.

Players play together as one team, and the sender wins with the table. There's no individual ranking. The final screen also shows who cracked how many, just for fun.

A worked example: you're drawing for Maya, Tom and Dana. A few seconds in, the bot guesses house, wrong, and everyone sees it. Tom taps "Got it!", types tent, wrong, and goes back to watching for 2 seconds, while the bot notes that guess too. Then Maya taps "Got it!" and starts typing within her 15 seconds. While she types, the bot guesses cabin, which is right. Maya also answers cabin, and since she tapped before the bot's guess, the table wins the round, with points set by how early she tapped. Had Maya been wrong, the bot would have won it instead.

After each round there's a short reveal: the word, who won the race and when, the points, and every wrong guess. Then the scoreboard, Table vs Bot, and at the end the option to play again.

Send a Challenge

Alone, or your friends are busy? Send a Challenge. You get a secret word and send it as a drawing or as a few written clues. A drawing gets 30 seconds, and the clock starts at your first line. Then share the private short link.

It's your friend vs the bot. The message replays at its real pace, clues one by one, and the bot guesses on the same clock. The first correct answer wins, with the same speed points. Afterwards your friend can play together with you or challenge you back.

Each person who opens the link gets their own separate attempt. Links expire after a while.

Fair play

The fun is in sending something your friends get and the bot doesn't. That only works if everyone plays it straight.

• No letters, numbers or arrows on the canvas.
• No secret word, no forms of it and no messages to the AI in clues.
• Players: no shouting the answer across the room. Tap "Got it!" and type it.