How to play Gist — free online co-op clue game
All help the guesser with one word — but matching clues get struck.
- Players
- 3–4
- Length
- ~7 min
- Type
- Clues
- Price
- Free
Gist is the co-operative version of the one-word clue game. The whole room is helping one guesser name a hidden word, and you all win or fall short together.
The catch is that any clue two people happened to write gets silently struck before the guesser sees it. The obvious word — the one everybody reaches for — is therefore the enemy, and the game becomes about being helpful in a way nobody else thought of.
One team, one score: the whole room wins together, and the finale celebrates what you pulled off as a group — no podium, no loser.
The clue-givers hold the secret word. Keep it off the guesser's screen, and never say it out loud.
Free, no app and no sign-up to join — players hop in with a 4-letter code on their own phone.
How to play Gist
The host picks the round count
Eight rounds is the default. Five is quick; twelve is a long session.
One player becomes the guesser
The role rotates each round. They never see the secret word — it's delivered privately to everyone else.
Everyone else writes one clue
A single word each, aimed at getting the guesser there.
Duplicates are struck silently
Any clue that two people wrote disappears before the guesser sees anything — and they're never told it happened.
The guesser guesses
They work from the surviving clues alone. A hit banks for the whole team.
What Gist looks like
How scoring works
Gist is co-operative — the room shares one score and the finale is a team verdict rather than a podium.
A successful guess pays the whole team, so your clue's value is entirely in whether it helped, not in whether it was yours.
Cancelled clues contribute nothing, which is the tension: the most helpful-sounding word is usually the one that gets struck.
Tips for winning Gist
- Deliberately avoid your first instinct. If it came to you instantly it came to everyone else instantly too.
- Aim sideways rather than obscure. A clue that survives but means nothing is just as useless as one that was struck.
- Think about the other clue-givers specifically, not about the word in the abstract.
- As guesser, look for the theme across the clues rather than following the single strongest one.
Frequently asked questions
How many players do you need for Gist?
Three to four — a guesser plus at least two clue-givers.
How is Gist different from Crosstalk?
Same duplicate-cancelling mechanic, opposite scoring. Gist is co-operative — the whole room banks together — while Crosstalk keeps an individual scoreboard.
Do we need voice chat?
No. Clues are typed. The only rule is that the clue-givers keep the secret word away from the guesser.
Is it free?
Yes, free to play and free to host, and joining needs only the room code.
Free, no app and no sign-up to join — players hop in with a 4-letter code on their own phone.