Houseparty — Going Wild at Home

Houseparty is a mobile messenger that allows you to throw an online party for your friends and family. With up to five members, you can organize a nice little get-together to discuss the latest rumors, play games, brainstorm the Quarantine Over! grand barbecue and just goof around.

Please, Don’t Stop the Party

Houseparty is a pretty good solution if you have an urge to hang out with someone, but can’t really leave your house-prison. Or if a great distance separates you from the close ones. Either way, with the app you can create a virtual party and send out invitations.

Up to 8 members can chum with you at the same time. So, if you’re studying overseas or on a business trip — Houseparty can mitigate that burningly nostalgic feel of homesickness. At least partly.

Technicalities

The app manages to provide decent audios and visual quality. At times picture tends to be a bit unstable — probably the app’s servers weren’t meant for a surprise splash in fan numbers during the quarantine.

As for the rest, Houseparty can fairly compete with the likes of Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp, and others. Although, It’s more likely that networks older than 4G aren’t supported by the application.

Houseparty has gained some notoriety as a hackable app. Concerns were raised due to party rooms being crashed by randoms strangers. In reality, the issue occurred due to the infiltrated rooms being public. Once a room is locked, no unwanted guest can interfere.

The Game Night

To start a blowout you simply need to invite your friends from the contact list. Houseparty appears as an option in your phone book similar to WhatsApp. You can also ‘scan’ your Facebook friend list and invite them to join a get-together.

Sitting and parlaying is nice. But Houseparty tries to offer more than just that. There’s a number of games your little squad can play:

• Quick Draw.
• Chips and Guac.
• Heads Up: Animals Gone Wild.
• Trivia: Fortnite or Finish the Song Lyrics.

And of course, you can play the classic Charades, Truth or Dare, Pictionary, Would You Rather or versions of Blindman’s Swag and Kings Cup adapted for quarantine. Just don’t forget to enable privacy: Account —> Settings — Private Mode.

In conclusion

Houseparty is a great free app for hosting a nice get-together. You can do the same in the likes of Skype, of course. But this app is specifically designed for hanging out. Plus your other messengers may be already stuffed with business contacts.