Whether your friends live a long way away or you’re just not able to hang out in person right now, it can be tricky to come up with fun things to do together. While “virtual hangouts” are a big theme for friends who can't meet up in person, phone and video calls certainly aren't the only way you can enjoy the online world with your friends. We’ve put together various ideas for online fun with friends, ranging from quick boredom busters to fun twists on calls!
Collaborate on a project.
Creating something together can be a fun experience.
Whether you and your friends have collaborated on your hobbies for a while now, or you’re just now curious about how your styles would mesh, you might have a good time exercising your creativity together. Some things you can do as a group include:
- Brainstorming ideas
- Writing together in a cloud-based application
- Drawing together in an online program, or exchanging incomplete pieces for each other to finish
- Creating songs
- Coding
- Reviewing and offering feedback on each others’ work
Swap quizzes.
The best part about online quizzes is the wide variety.
You can find trivia quizzes on just about anything online, whether it’s a specific subject or random facts. There are also personality quizzes, which can prove insightful—or just entertaining. You can either take quizzes with your friends, have a friendly competition to see who gets the highest score, or exchange personality test results (and judge their accuracy together).
- There are websites devoted entirely to quizzes, but you can often find some on other sites, too (like online fashion magazines).
- You can also search for quizzes on specific subjects, whether that’s to discover your Hogwarts houses or what type of cheeses you would be.
- One popular personality quiz is the Myers-Briggs personality test. You can find free versions by searching online.
Send each other funny messages.
You don’t have to call your friends to have fun together.
There’s a lot of attention on phone and video calls, but sometimes you just aren’t up for talking out loud. Text-based conversations can be just as entertaining as spoken ones, and you can text or DM something funny to your friends to make the both of you smile.
- Share memes, YouTube videos, TikToks, or amusing articles.
- Have a competition of some sort, like a “weird selfie” competition or a dance-off.
- Send a weird picture or stock image with no context, and come up with funny captions for it.
- Browse websites in the Web Archive and share the worst-looking old versions.
- Make odd pictures in Paint or Photoshop. See who can make the most bizarre ones.
- Play lighthearted pranks. (Skip the mean pranks, though.)
Listen to music.
You don’t need to go solo to enjoy a solo.
Music is a great way to bond with friends, whether you all like the same bands or want to share new songs with each other. The simplest way is to send the songs to each other, but if you want to listen together in real-time, there are options for that too.
- If you and your friends all have Spotify Premium, use Group Sessions on your phones to listen together.
- Those who use Discord can invite “music bots” to servers. Use the bot’s commands to queue up songs, join a voice call together, and listen. (Discord also has native Spotify support, but listening together requires Spotify Premium.)
- Virtual concerts can be a great way to connect over music, especially if you and your friends have similar taste.
Sing karaoke.
Voice and video calls are great opportunities for sing-alongs.
They’re easy to do no matter how many people are on the call, too! Allow everyone to pick a song, look up a karaoke version of it online, and play it through your speakers. Then you can have fun and sing as well or as badly as you’d like.
- You can also try group karaoke. Between the mistimed music and the input lag, you’ll probably end up with a hilarious attempt at it!
Play games.
Multiplayer games offer a good bonding experience.
Many browser-based games, like Scribble.io, are free and easy to play together. Lots of classic board and card games (like Uno, Battleship, and Monopoly) have browser-based or app versions now, too. And video games are an obvious option—there’s a huge collection out there, but Minecraft, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, and Overwatch are fairly popular choices.
- You can also set up your own trivia games through apps or websites, such as Kahoot.
- If you prefer something slower-paced, some online crossword puzzles or jigsaw puzzles have a multiplayer mode, so you and your friends can solve them together.
- Many tabletop roleplaying games can be played over a call. Dungeons & Dragons is probably the most well-known, but there are other options too.
- A lot of online games are in real-time, which can be a hassle if your schedules don’t line up. However, some apps allow you to play against each other over a period of several hours or days—like Words With Friends.
Read together.
Book clubs are a classic.
You and your friends can pick a new book for everyone, or make recommendations for each other. Order a copy of the book, find a digital version, or lend each other books (if you live nearby). Whether you read the books on a call together, or on your own time, it’ll give you a new piece of literature to discuss together.
- Don’t panic if you don’t have the money for new books. You may be able to get access to free eBooks through a library’s website or app.
- Reading together isn’t limited to books; articles are a shorter option. Fanfiction and webcomics might also appeal to a younger audience. (And if you’re up for a voice call, dramatically reading a bad fanfic can be quite funny.)
Watch movies or TV.
It’s easy to see movies online together.
If there’s a movie, TV show, or YouTube video that you’re eager to see with your friends, you can easily watch it together from home. Choose what you want to watch, and schedule when to watch it. In some ways, online movie night could even be better than going to the theater, since nobody will judge you if you’re wearing pajamas.
- If you want to watch together in real-time, there are apps and extensions that allow you to sync your video feeds.
Do group workouts.
It’s an old suggestion, but it works!
Even if it’s okay to go to the gym, sometimes the weather or traffic doesn’t allow it. If you and your friends are into exercise or fitness, schedule a time to work out together, and choose some exercise activities or routines to do. You can also try yoga or meditation sessions together, too, as a less-intense option.
Learn or practice skills together.
Building a skill with friends might appeal to you.
The suggestion of taking a class together may feel a bit old by now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn anything with your friends. If one of your friends has a hobby that you’d like to pick up, or vice versa, you can try mentoring each other online. You can also practice things that you’re both learning, too—like reviewing or speaking a language together.
- For example, if you know how to cook and your friend doesn’t, you could try teaching them cooking skills over a voice or video call.
Check out new places online.
It’s easy to be “tourists” together online.
Virtual tours boomed during the pandemic, and they’re still a great option if you and your friends aren’t able to meet up in person. Many famous museums have virtual tours online, so you can either share your screen with your friends, or have everyone explore on their own devices. There are also online tours of famous landmarks or natural wonders of the world, if none of you are interested in a specific museum.
- If you can share your screen, you can also try picking a random spot on Google StreetView to explore, or playing a game like GeoGuessr.
Have a meal or drink over video call.
You can still catch up over coffee or lunch online.
Schedule time for a video call, and then make or order your food or drink beforehand; once you’re ready, you can eat and talk together. It’s a pretty flexible option, so you can spend as much or as little time on your meal or coffee meetup as you all would like!
- Some people might enjoy having cocktail nights or playing drinking games, but you don’t need to drink alcohol to have fun together.