Shorthand — Support
Need help with Shorthand? You’re in the right place.
Frequently asked questions
How do we play? Split into 2–4 teams and build a bowl of cards together — written by the group, drawn from the built-in decks, or both. Teams take turns giving clues under the timer across three rounds using the same deck: round one you can say anything except the name itself, round two you get exactly one word, round three is charades. Highest point total after round three wins.
How do I mark a card right or wrong during a turn? Throw it. Fling the card right to score it, fling it left to put it back in the bowl. If you release without committing, the card springs back to your hand. Skips are free and unlimited.
Someone swiped the wrong way. Can we fix it? Yes. Every turn ends with a recap screen showing each card as it was marked — tap a card to flip its result. Scores update accordingly.
How long is a turn? 60 seconds by default, configurable from 30 to 120 in the rules settings before the game starts.
What happens when the bowl empties in the middle of a turn? The round ends, and the team that cleared the bowl opens the next round with only their leftover time. It’s the classic fairness rule — nobody gets a free full turn out of ending a round.
Do written cards stay private? Yes. Guests write their cards on their own phones after scanning the room’s QR code, and only the host’s phone ever receives them — not other guests, and not even the guest who wrote them once they’re sent. If you’d rather not use the QR, the host’s phone has the same form built into the room screen, so it can be passed around instead. Either way the deck stays face-down between turns, and the next clue-giver has to hold-to-start before any card is shown.
We got interrupted mid-game. Did we lose everything? No. Shorthand saves the game as it goes. Reopen the app and resume where you left off.
Does it need an internet connection? The game itself, no — once the bowl is built, every round runs on the one phone, offline. The only part that needs a connection is collecting cards from guests’ own phones by QR code, since those cards travel to the host’s phone. No connection, or it drops out? Write the cards on the host’s phone instead, using the same form on the room screen. Nothing else in the game touches the network.
Reporting a bug
If something isn’t working as expected, let us know:
Contact
For anything else, reach out via email: