Telegram Games for 2: What to Play With One Friend

Telegram games for 2 come in four kinds, and three of them need nothing installed: the animated emoji games built into every chat, the old high-score games that live on a message, and turn-based bots you call up from the message field. The fourth is the Mini App duel, where you send a challenge and your friend is in the same match a tap later. Here is how each one starts, what it costs, and how to make the simplest of them into a proper contest with a couple of house rules.

2 player Telegram games at a glance

Nothing on this list needs a download from an app store. The difference that matters is whether you play at the same moment: emoji games and duels are live, while a high-score game works just as well when one of you plays at breakfast and the other at midnight.

Emoji games: the multiplayer Telegram games already in your chat

Six emoji in Telegram are not pictures but throws: the die, the dart, the basketball, the football, the bowling ball and the slot machine. Send one of them on its own as a message and Telegram replaces it with an animated throw. The result is picked on Telegram's servers before the animation plays, so neither of you can choose it. According to the Bot API, the die, the dart and the bowling ball land on one of six results, the basketball and the football on one of five, and the slot machine on one of 64 reel combinations.

On their own they are a random number. With a rule or two they become a two-player game, and these are the ones that work well in a private chat:

• High roll. Each of you sends one die; higher wins the point, a tie is thrown again. First to three points. It settles who picks the film faster than an argument does.
• Race to 30. Take turns throwing the die and keep a running total in your head or in a pinned message. The first to reach 30 wins, but landing on a total ending in 7 sends you back ten.
• Penalty shootout. Five shots each with the football, taking turns. The animation shows whether it went in. Most goals wins; level after five goes to sudden death, one shot each.
• Horse. With the basketball: the first player shoots, and if it goes in the other has to score too or take a letter. Spell H-O-R-S-E and you lose.
• Three darts. Three throws each; a bullseye beats everything, then the closest to the centre. Agree before you start how you rank the near misses.
• Ten frames. Ten throws each with the bowling ball, counting only strikes. Simple, and long enough for a proper comeback.
• Jackpot hunt. Take turns on the slot machine; the first to land three matching symbols wins. It can take a while, which is the point on a slow evening.

Two house rules keep it honest. Throws count only in the order they were sent, one each per turn, so nobody sends five dice and keeps the best one. And a throw that gets deleted counts as a loss. Telegram guarantees the result; it cannot stop a player from quietly binning a bad one.

High-score games: beat each other on the same message

Telegram's Gaming Platform dates from 2016 and still works the way it did then. A game bot posts a game into a chat as a card, you tap it to play a short HTML5 game, and your score goes back to that chat's own high-score table. In a private chat that table has exactly two names on it, which turns any one-player game into a head-to-head.

1. Open your chat with your friend and type a game bot's @username followed by a space in the message field. If the bot supports inline games, a list appears above the keyboard.
2. Pick a game from the list. It is sent into the chat as a card.
3. Both of you play from that same card. When one of you beats the other, the scoreboard on the card updates and the chat gets a note about it.

To see the format first, open @gamebot, Telegram's own demo bot for the platform, and press Start: it sends a handful of sample games you can play or forward to your friend. The in-chat scoreboard is a platform feature and works for any game built on it.

These games are free by construction: the platform has no way to charge for them. They also do not need you online together, which makes them the best fit for friends in different time zones.

Turn-based bots: tic-tac-toe, chess, word games and quizzes

The third kind is a bot that runs a board or a word game with messages and buttons, no game screen at all. Most of the popular ones work inline: you type the bot's username in your chat with a friend, it posts a board, and each of you presses a button on your turn. The common categories are:

• Tic-tac-toe and connect-four bots, the quickest of the lot: a match is over in under a minute.
• Chess and draughts bots, some of them with clocks, which suit a slow correspondence game across a week as well as a fast one.
• Word-game bots: word chains, guess-the-word and hangman-style games where you set the word for each other.
• Quiz and trivia bots, which ask both of you the same question and usually score whoever answers first.

Bots come and go, so we describe the kinds rather than recommend handles. Search Telegram for the game you want, check the bot's profile, and read how Telegram bot games work for the quick checks worth doing before you trust one.

For quizzes there is also a built-in option. Telegram polls have a quiz mode with one correct answer, and polls are made in groups, so a two-person group with your friend is enough: take turns writing five questions for each other and keep score.

Mini App duels: a real opponent, one link away

A Mini App is a full web app that opens inside Telegram, and it is the only kind on this list that can run a real-time match with a board, a clock and both players on screen at once. You find them in the Apps tab of Telegram's search, or open one straight from a link a friend sends.

Gift Club is one of them, and its duels are the example we know inside out. There are five, all in the Play with friends room of the Games hub:

Dice Duel and Minefield are pure chance, which makes them fair between a seasoned player and a first-timer. Ludo and Sea Battle reward the better player, and Balloon Pump sits in between with one repeated decision: how much of the risk to take yourself.

How to send a challenge

1. Open Gift Club in Telegram, go to Games, and pick a duel.
2. Choose a stake, or the free mode, and tap Challenge a friend.
3. Telegram's chat picker opens. Choose your friend's chat, or a group; your friend receives a card with the game, your name, the stake and an Accept button. On an older Telegram version it goes as a plain link instead.
4. The match starts when your friend taps it. The challenge stays open for 10 minutes, and you can cancel one nobody has answered and get your stake back.
5. Afterwards, offer a rematch at the same stake or a new one, or challenge the same friend to a different duel.

Your friend does not need to have played before: the card opens the Mini App on your match. There is no random matchmaking with strangers. If nobody is free, each duel has a bot you can play straight away, and it is labelled as a bot.

What it costs

The free mode moves no Stars. Each player spends one Spark, the currency the daily streak pays, if they have one, and a player with none still gets to play. The result pays XP instead of Stars. If you challenge a friend for Stars and they cannot cover the stake, they can offer to play the same match free instead.

A Stars duel has stakes of 5, 10, 20, 50 or 100 Stars. Both of you stake the same amount, and the winner collects both stakes less a 5% rake: 1.90× their own stake, so 19 Stars on a 10-Star duel. At 5 Stars the exact figure is 9.5, settled to 9 or 10 so it averages out. Both players earn XP equal to the stake, win or lose. What the rake costs you in any 1v1 works through why a rake is the honest way to run a duel.

Challenge a friend in Telegram

Five duels, a free mode that moves no Stars, and a bot when nobody is around.

Play Gift Club

In-app Stars can't be redeemed or withdrawn. 18+.

Telegram games with friends who live far away

Most people searching for Telegram games to play with friends are really looking for a way to keep a long-distance couple or an old friendship ticking over between calls. A few things make that work better:

• Match the game to the time zone. If your evenings overlap, play live: emoji games and duels. If they do not, use a high-score game or a slow chess game, where each of you moves when you wake up.
• Keep a running score. Pin a message in your chat with the season's tally and edit it after each game. A score that carries over from week to week is what turns a one-off into a habit.
• Play for something that is not money. The loser picks the next film, writes the next quiz, or sends a voice message singing. The free mode of every duel exists for exactly this kind of stake.
• Pick a skill game for one of you and a chance game for the other. If one of you always wins at Sea Battle, alternate it with Dice Duel, where the odds are the same for both sides.
• Talk while you play. Start a Telegram call on one device and play on the other, or trade voice messages between rounds. The game is the excuse; the conversation is the point.
• Keep it short on weeknights. A best of three at Ludo takes a few minutes. Save the ten-frame bowling night for the weekend.

Common questions

Are there Telegram games for 2 that need no bot at all?

Yes. The six animated emoji games and quiz polls are built into Telegram. Send the die, dart, basketball, football, bowling ball or slot machine emoji on its own in any chat, and add a house rule to turn it into a match.

Do both players need to install anything?

No. Emoji games, high-score games, bots and Mini Apps all run inside the Telegram app you already have, on phone and desktop. Gift Club opens on the first tap, with no separate sign-up.

Can we play in a group instead of a private chat?

Yes. Emoji games and high-score games work the same way in a group, and the scoreboard then shows everyone in it. A Gift Club challenge can be sent to a group too; the first person to tap it becomes your opponent.

Are Telegram games for 2 free?

The built-in emoji games, quiz polls and Gaming Platform games are free. Most turn-based bots are free. Gift Club's duels have a free mode that moves no Stars, and a Stars mode where both players stake the same amount.

Can I play against a stranger?

Not in Gift Club's duels: an opponent is either someone you challenged or the labelled bot. Some trivia and werewolf-style bots run public lobbies, which is a different kind of game from playing with one friend.

Keep reading

• Telegram games — the general guide to what you can play on Telegram.
• Telegram bot games — the four kinds, and how to check one before you spend anything.
• Ludo with friends — a private board from one chat link, and what happens when a friend drops.
• Battleship rules — the classic game behind Sea Battle.
• Every Gift Club game guide