How to turn your Zoom call into an epic game of Guess Who?

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(Pocket-lint) – There are plenty of Zoom games you can play to alleviate annoying video calls. Many use video platforms to keep in touch, host youth groups or for school, turning your call into a game of guess who? can provide you with many entertainments. You can also play it on Microsoft Teams or Google Meet, although some of the options described below are slightly different.

A great way to start this game if you’re playing with kids is to organize a scavenger hunt. This is where you ask people to run around and pick things up – a great distraction for them to gather what they will need for a game of Guess Who? – hats, glasses, fake beards, big necklaces – whatever you really want, as long as it can be used to dress up your “character”.

How to play Guess Who? on Zoom

Gather your players and set up the call

This game will need a number of participants and one person to set up and run the game – the controller. Somewhere around 20 people is about right, but you can go bigger or smaller if you want. Keep in mind that it works best when everyone can fit in on the screen.

Everyone will need to select the gallery view during the call. This is slightly different depending on how you access Zoom, but the best version is on the PC or Mac desktop app, with a large screen. Those using mobile apps may need to swipe to access different views.

The default number of people Zoom can fit on a screen is 25 – which you can expand up to 49 – although you may find the images are far too small to play the game if you have that many. The host should also select “hide non-video participants” from Zoom’s video settings menu.

Prepare your attendees

Everyone on the call should be dressed and accessorized slightly differently to make it more fun. Someone needs glasses, some people need hats, think about colors and variety because that’s what you’ll use to frame questions to weed people out. As we said above, a scavenger hunt is a great way to make sure people have these props on hand.

Choose your topic

The controller is the person who will decide who the participants are trying to guess – the subject – and then answer any “yes” or “no” questions that are asked. It’s best if it’s an adult (to start) but it’s also great fun for kids, even when things go wrong. You can swap this person at the end of each round – maybe the winner or the previous subject. It’s best if the controller disables its own video (you’ll see why below), but some might find that too confusing.

Ask your questions to find the Subject

There are several ways to ask the questions. Either all participants – except the controller – take turns asking Guess Who? questions. For example “Does this person have long hair?” or “Does this person wear glasses?”. The controller answers these questions, which means that some participants are eliminated from the game. The controller may ask who has a question or choose someone to involve. This works best for larger groups or younger players.

Alternatively, you could have one person asking questions, but then that leaves the rest of the people watching – this might work better in smaller groups or with older players.

When a participant is eliminated from the game, they turn off their video by pressing the Stop Video button in Zoom, leaving the remaining players who are still in the game visible on screen. It’s a bit like folding the cards on the Guess Who? Game. Cleverly, Zoom will then only show those whose video is still playing (as long as you’ve selected “hide non-video participants”), which means the remaining participants grow larger as the game progresses. (This is where it’s good for the controller to turn off its video.)

Through a process of elimination, you’ll eventually come to two final people (probably) where you really have to ask the right questions to narrow it down. The game is over when the subject is revealed. Remember that it could be the person asking the questions who is actually the subject, it could also be that the controller is the subject everyone is trying to guess (in which case the controller will have to turn on their video).

Those who are “excluded” can always take turns asking questions to narrow things down. Depending on the number of players, this might only take a few questions, so be prepared to play a few rounds. Of course, the controller has to keep an eye on things to make sure people who should be away have their video turned off to keep the game running smoothly.

Of course, if this is too much trouble for you and you’re only two on a call, you can always play the normal version of the game!

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Thanks to Christine and Steve for the inspiration!

Written by Chris Hall.