Support

Hangmates is hangman with friends: two to six players take turns guessing one word, and every guess shows in its player's color. You can also play on your own.

Getting help

Email help@hangmates.com. In the app, Settings → Send feedback opens that email for you. Tell us your phone and, if it happened in a room, the room code.

Playing with friends

Start a game opens a room and shows its four-letter code. Tap the code to share an invite link; anyone with the app who opens it lands in your room. Friends can also type the code on the home screen and tap Join.

A new room is Private: only people with the code can join. Set Room to Open to all and it also appears under Open rooms on everyone's home screen until the game starts.

The host picks the theme, rounds, category, difficulty and turn timer under Edit, can remove a player from the lobby, and starts the game once someone else has joined. Your usual settings can be saved in Settings, so every room you start opens with them.

Custom categories

As host, tap Edit, then Category, then Make your own, and describe the category in a sentence or two — who it is for helps: "90s movies a ten-year-old would have seen, nothing R-rated". We name it and write the answers in about half a minute. You never see the answers, so you can play too.

Categories are saved and shared. If someone has already made the one you describe, it is ready in a couple of seconds. If we can't tell what you mean, we'll say so rather than guess.

Beta limits. While Hangmates is in beta, each player can make up to 10 new categories and 20 category requests a day, and there is a daily limit across all players. If you reach one, the app says which; it resets the next day, and the built-in categories always work.

Common questions

"This room has closed." Everyone left or the game finished. Ask for a new invite, or start a game of your own.

Can I play without a connection? Yes — Play on your own works offline. The app keeps a set of answers on your phone ahead of time.

Do I need an account? No. You can play without signing in, and there are no passwords. Your player name is set in Settings, and the app remembers it on this phone.

I got a new phone, or I play on an iPad too. On your first phone, go to Settings and tap Save your progress, then sign in with Apple or Google. On the new phone or the iPad, do the same with the same account: you play as the same player there, with your name, streaks and stats. If you never saved your progress, a new phone starts fresh.

Can I see a hint? In solo, yes: turn on Hints in Settings and each word shows a clue.

How do I pick the category in solo? Tap the category name in the top-left corner of the game (the one with the ▾) and choose one, or pick Surprise Me for a random mix. It starts with the next word. The Daily Hang shows its category there too, but it's the same for everyone, so it can't be changed.

An answer is wrong, misspelled or unfair. Email it to us with the category. We retire bad answers so they never come back.

Free and Pro

During the beta, everything is unlocked. Every player has every Pro feature, free.

After launch, Hangmates stays free to play — rooms with friends, solo, and every built-in category — with occasional ads between games.

Hangmates Pro is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. It removes ads, unlocks every theme, and includes custom category credits every month. Extra credits can be bought any time.

Every new player gets 3 credits to try custom categories, and everyone who played during the beta gets 10 credits as a thank-you.

Prices will be announced before launch.

Your data

What the app keeps and why is on the privacy page. To have your player's data removed, email us with the name you play under.