Gartic Phone Alternatives: 9 Games Like Gartic Phone, Plus 120 Prompts That Make Great Chains

By The Rondovo team · Published September 7, 2026 · Updated October 11, 2026 · 13 min read

The best Gartic Phone alternatives depend on what you liked about it. For the same draw, guess, pass chain on paper, Telestrations is the boxed version (sold in 6, 8 and 12 player boxes). For one person drawing while everyone guesses, skribbl.io is free with up to 20 players. For a bluffing twist around one TV, Drawful 2 costs $9.99 for the host only. And our own Chain Sketch is free in a browser and replays every chain at the end, on a TV if you have one.

Gartic Phone itself is free and still one of the best games like it. So this guide also covers what to play when Gartic Phone does not fit: two players, a mixed age group, or a living room with a TV. Then there are 120 original prompts to write into your next chain.

In short

• Same idea, no screens: Telestrations, or the free paper version below.
• Same idea, free, in a room or on a call: Chain Sketch (4 to 12 players, TV optional).
• Draw and guess instead of chains: skribbl.io (2 to 20), Scrawl, Spindoodle.
• Bluffing: Drawful 2 ($9.99 as of October 2026, 3 to 8 players).
• Just two of you: telephone games need numbers, so play Doodle Recall, skribbl.io in a private room, or the two-player paper variant below.
• Better prompts: 120 below, sorted by theme, all family friendly.

What is Gartic Phone?

Gartic Phone is a free browser game made by Onrizon, the studio behind Gartic. It is the old telephone pictionary idea online: everyone writes a quirky sentence, passes it on, the next player draws it, the next describes the drawing, and so on. At the end you watch each chain unfold and laugh at where "a cat doing taxes" ended up.

It is designed to be played with everyone on a voice call, and there is an app as well as the website. The host can choose from many modes beyond the normal one, such as Animation, Secret and Knock-Off, where everyone draws from the same opening sentence.

What people love: no scores, no losing, pure chaos, and big rooms. Why people look for alternatives: it needs a decent number of players, it is built for a call rather than a TV in a living room, and some groups want a game with a word list and a winner.

The best Gartic Phone alternatives, compared

Prices and player counts are from each official site or store listing in October 2026. Prices change, so treat these as a snapshot.

Telestrations

Telestrations from The Op is the boxed version of the same idea. Each player gets a wipe-clean sketchbook, a marker and a secret word, and the books pass round the table. As of October 2026, The Op's own shop sells it in 6, 8 and 12 player boxes ($19.95, $31.95 and $44.95), plus an adults-only edition called After Dark. What it does better than any app: you can hold up the sketchbooks and flip the pages while everyone crowds round. What it lacks: you need everyone in the same room and enough pens that work.

Paper telephone (free, no box)

You can play the same game with paper. Each player takes a stack of small strips or a folded sheet, writes a sentence on the top strip, and passes it left. The next player reads it, draws it on the next strip, folds the sentence away so only the drawing shows, and passes it on. Keep alternating. When the paper comes back to the owner, unfold and read it aloud. With 6 players, give everyone 6 strips.

skribbl.io

If what your group really wants is drawing and guessing rather than chains, skribbl.io is free, holds 2 to 20 players in a private room, and lets the host paste in custom words. Our skribbl.io word lists guide has hundreds ready to paste.

Drawful 2

Jackbox Games' Drawful 2 gives each player a strange prompt to draw. Everyone else writes a fake title for the drawing, and players try to spot the real one. Only the host buys it ($9.99 as of October 2026); 3 to 8 players join from phones, and more can watch as the audience. It is the best pick when one person has a laptop or console plugged into a TV.

Chain Sketch: our own telephone drawing game

Chain Sketch is a free game on Rondovo for 4 to 12 players, about 10 minutes a round and three rounds to a game. One person makes a room, everyone else joins at rondovo.com on their own screen with a four letter code, and a TV is optional. On a video call, everyone picks "Just this screen" and draws and watches the replay on their own device, so nobody needs to share a screen.

How it differs from Gartic Phone:

• You start from a word, not a sentence. Each player picks one of three secret words for their book. With an even number of players you draw your own word first; with an odd number your neighbour does. Then the book goes all the way round, guess and drawing in turn, and comes home to you. The host picks easy, medium, hard or mixed words.
• The replay is the show. When the books are finished, each chain replays page by page on the TV, or on everyone's own screen when there is no TV, so the whole group watches together.
• There is a little scoring. When your book is read, you pick your favourite drawing and favourite guess in it, a point to each, and you score a point if the last guess matches your word. A competitive mode scores every guess that matches instead. Points add up over three rounds.
• You can save your book from your results screen afterwards.

The host can set 30 to 120 seconds per step (60 is the default), one to three rounds, and friendly or competitive scoring. Every book always ends on a guess.

What Gartic Phone does better: big rooms (Chain Sketch stops at 12), many more modes, and writing your own opening sentence, which is where the prompts below come in. Chain Sketch starts from its own word list (you cannot add your own words), so it is easier for kids and quiet players but less wild.

Gartic Phone for 2 players

Telephone games need a chain. With two people, a drawing just goes back and forth, and you both remember what you wrote, so the surprise disappears. Whatever the room allows, the game is at its best with five or more.

Better ideas for two:

1. Doodle Recall. In Doodle Recall, for 2 to 16 players, everyone draws the same 9 or 12 words against a short clock (20 seconds each by default). Then you get your own drawings back, without the words, and have to name them from memory. With two players it becomes a quick head to head, and it is free.
2. skribbl.io in a private room. Two players can take turns drawing and guessing. It is gentler than a big room but it works.
3. Two player match-up on paper. Each of you writes five prompts from the list below on separate slips. Swap, and draw all five in 20 seconds each. Then shuffle the drawings, hand them back, and see how many your partner can match to their own prompts. It is silly, and it works on a long train ride.

Gartic Phone for 3 players

Three is playable: each chain gets two passes, so you see a sentence, a drawing and one guess. To get more out of a small group, use a mode where each player draws more than once, or play our Scrawl and Spindoodle instead, which are draw and guess games that work from three players.

120 Gartic Phone prompts

A good Gartic Phone prompt has a character, an action and one odd detail. That gives the first artist something to draw and the next guesser something to get wrong. Sentences with no action ("a dog") end too fast. Sentences with five details are impossible to draw in time.

All prompts below are our own and kind enough for a mixed group. Paste a handful into your group chat before the game for anyone who freezes at the writing step. For single words rather than sentences, our Pictionary words list has hundreds.

Animals with jobs

1. A penguin working as a lifeguard
2. A giraffe stuck in a phone box
3. A cat filing its taxes
4. A goldfish driving a bus
5. A snail winning a race
6. An octopus playing four instruments at once
7. A bear running a bakery
8. A sheep cutting its own hair
9. A crocodile at the dentist
10. A dog teaching a yoga class
11. A horse in a ballet tutu
12. A hedgehog trying to hug a balloon
13. An owl working the night shift
14. A frog delivering pizzas
15. A shark scared of a rubber duck

Everyday chaos

16. Burning toast while on a video call
17. Running for a bus that is already leaving
18. Stepping on a single toy brick
19. A shopping trolley with one bad wheel
20. Forgetting why you walked into the kitchen
21. A sock that went missing in the washing machine
22. A selfie that went very wrong
23. Getting locked out in your pyjamas
24. Opening the fridge and finding nothing to eat
25. An umbrella turning inside out
26. Trying to fold a fitted sheet
27. Waiting for a kettle that never boils
28. A queue that goes round the block
29. A parking space that is slightly too small
30. Untangling headphones in a hurry

Fantasy and space

31. A wizard who lost his wand in the sofa
32. A dragon roasting marshmallows
33. An astronaut planting a garden on the moon
34. A mermaid at a car wash
35. A robot learning to dance
36. A unicorn stuck in traffic
37. An alien ordering a burger
38. A ghost that is afraid of the dark
39. A knight fighting a very small dragon
40. A fairy with a jetpack
41. A haunted vending machine
42. A time traveller arriving at the wrong party
43. A giant using a lake as a bath
44. A spaceship with a flat tyre
45. A vampire at the beach with sun cream

Food gone wrong

46. A sandwich taller than the chef
47. A pizza with every topping in the world
48. A banana slipping on a person
49. A cake escaping from the oven
50. Spaghetti attacking a fork
51. A carrot in sunglasses
52. An egg trying to stay balanced on a spoon
53. Soup that is far too hot
54. A broccoli forest with a tiny house in it
55. A doughnut used as a life ring
56. A watermelon bowling ball
57. Popcorn exploding in a cinema
58. A taco that is too full to close
59. A lemon with a sour face
60. Ice cream melting in a race

Sport and hobbies

61. A goalkeeper who fell asleep
62. Knitting a scarf for a snake
63. A skateboard with a dog on it
64. A chess game between two cats
65. Fishing and catching a boot
66. A marathon runner stopping for tea
67. A painter painting a painter
68. A tennis match on a tightrope
69. Camping in the rain
70. A trampoline that launched someone into space
71. A tiny horse in a big race
72. Bowling with a pumpkin
73. A drum solo that woke the neighbours
74. Gardening with a giant watering can
75. A surfer riding a wave of milk

School and work

76. A teacher who is a hamster
77. A fire drill during a nap
78. A printer eating a report
79. The office plant taking over the office
80. A student hiding a sandwich in a textbook
81. A video meeting where everyone is a potato
82. A science experiment that grew legs
83. A boss who is a very small child
84. A lunch box with a dinosaur inside
85. A lost homework assignment being chased by a dog
86. A coffee machine that only makes soup
87. A spelling test for parrots
88. A job interview at the bottom of the sea
89. The world's slowest elevator
90. A meeting that could have been an email

Holidays and seasons

91. A snowman on a summer holiday
92. Santa stuck in a revolving door
93. A pumpkin that refuses to be carved
94. A birthday cake with too many candles
95. An Easter egg hunt in the snow
96. A reindeer learning to ski
97. Fireworks shaped like a cat
98. A beach day with a single cloud following you
99. Leaves falling on a sleeping dog
100. A turkey in a disguise
101. Building a sandcastle at high tide
102. A scarecrow that is actually scared
103. A Diwali lamp lighting up a whole street
104. A Christmas tree that fell on the cat
105. A New Year's resolution already broken

Harder prompts for confident groups

106. The feeling of a Monday morning
107. A memory you almost forgot
108. A secret nobody can keep
109. Being the last one to get the joke
110. Silence after a bad joke
111. A plan that went perfectly wrong
112. The calm before a storm
113. A hug from a cactus
114. Time running out
115. A promise made with fingers crossed
116. Winning an argument with yourself
117. Luck running out
118. An idea arriving in the shower
119. Small talk in a lift
120. The moment you realise you are on mute

Prompts for kids

For children under 9, single objects with one action work best: a cat on a bike, a rainbow in a cup, a bird with a hat, a fish eating spaghetti, a car on a cloud. Use prompts 1 to 15 and 46 to 60 from the list above. With kids, private rooms or a game where the words come from a list (like Chain Sketch) keep things predictable.

How to get funnier Gartic Phone chains

• Write for the next person. Your sentence is the first artist's whole brief. Specific is funnier than random.
• Draw the action, not the details. If a giraffe is in a phone box, the box matters more than the spots.
• Guess what you see, not what you think it was. Correcting the chain kills the joke.
• Keep timers short. Rushed drawings drift further, which is the point.
• Do the reveal together. Put the end screen on a TV or share your screen on the call so everyone sees each page at once.

If you are planning a whole online evening, our virtual game night ideas guide has a running order, and our round-up of online drawing games compares every drawing game we know. For party games of every kind, start at our party games guide.

Questions people ask

What is a good alternative to Gartic Phone?

Telestrations for the same game at a table, skribbl.io for free draw and guess online, Drawful 2 for bluffing around a TV, and Chain Sketch for telephone pictionary in one room with a TV.

Is Gartic Phone free?

Yes. As of October 2026 Gartic Phone is free in a browser, and the mobile app is free with ads.

Can you play Gartic Phone with 2 people?

You can, but there is no chain to break, so it is not much fun. With two, play Doodle Recall, skribbl.io in a private room, or a paper drawing game instead.

How many people do you need for Gartic Phone?

In our experience Gartic Phone is at its best with 5 to 15 players. Fewer means short chains; many more means long waits before the reveal.

What should I write in Gartic Phone?

A short sentence with a character, an action and one strange detail, such as "a penguin working as a lifeguard". The 120 prompts above are a good starting set.

Is there a Gartic Phone board game?

Not under that name, but Telestrations is the same idea in a box, with sketchbooks and markers, sold in 6, 8 and 12 player versions.

Can you play Gartic Phone on a TV?

As far as we know, only by casting or sharing the screen of one device. Chain Sketch shows the replay on a TV if one is connected, with everyone drawing on their own screen.

Start a chain

Any game here makes a good night. If your group is in one room and wants the replay on the big screen, open Chain Sketch, share the four letter code and pick your first word.

Gartic Phone, Gartic, Onrizon, Telestrations, Telestrations After Dark, The Op, skribbl.io, Drawful, Jackbox Games and Pictionary are trademarks of their owners. Rondovo is not affiliated with them.