Challenge Your Friends To A Virtual Game Night With The Houseparty App

Technology makes it so much easier to stay connected with your friends from the comfort of your couch — and the Houseparty app has quickly become one of the most popular options out there to do just that. Here's how to play games on the Houseparty app with your friends, because it's not always easy to get you crew together for a game night. Thankfully, it's super easy to have your pals join you for a virtual game night.

While the Houseparty app launched back in 2016, but if you get together your friends and fam IRL pretty often, you might not have had much of a reason to use it. Unlike a number of other video-chatting apps that are available, Houseparty takes the fun one step further by allowing you to virtually play popular games like Head's Up, the Pictionary-inspired Quick Draw, and Trivia with up to eight different people. The fun part is that you can see and hear your friends (and their reactions) while playing the game, in addition to the option to send them private messages.

To get started, you'll first want to head to the App Store, Google Play Store, or Google Chrome to download Houseparty depending on what kind of device you have. You can then put in your personal information and create a username and password. Next, you'll be asked to connect to your contacts using Snapchat, Facebook, or your phone's contacts. Once you're all set up, you'll head to the main screen where you'll see yourself in the selfie camera. To the right, you'll see a plus sign icon (+) where you can easily find contacts or choose to add multiple people into a group call. Below that, clicking the dice icon will allow you to play four different games that are currently available on the app. Once you click the game you want to play, you can select which friends you want to join you and send them a notification. Once they connect, you can start playing.

Once all the players have been added and you're ready to dive in, remember to hit the open-lock button at the bottom of your home screen to close the chat and prevent other people from joining. You can choose to tap it again to open it at any time if you need to.

The Houseparty app is currently available to download on all of your smart devices, so don't sleep on getting started and challenging your BFFs to a virtual game night in the coming days.