Face Down Support

Starting a table

Tap New table. Your phone shows a four-letter table code and a QR, and the share button sends the table's link. Choose the house rule (the loser pays the bill, buys the next round, does the dishes, or your own, up to 40 characters) and, if you want one, a hold timer. When everyone's in, tap Phones down.

Joining a table

With the app: tap Join a table, then scan the QR on the host's phone or type the four-letter code.

Without the app: scan the QR with your phone's camera, or open the link the host shares (playfacedown.com/t/ and the code), and play in your browser. You can also go to playfacedown.com and type the code. It works on any phone, Android too, with nothing to install. Your name can be up to 20 characters, and only the people at your table see it.

Playing in a browser

Your browser asks once to use your phone's motion and orientation. That's how the page knows your phone is face down, so allow it. If you said no, or it never asked, reload the page or open the table's link again and allow it when asked; if it still doesn't ask, close the browser completely and open the link again.

Keep the page open and on screen while you play. It keeps the screen awake, and switching tabs or apps counts as picking up.

What counts as picking up

Your phone counts as picked up when it stops lying face down for more than a moment: lifted, tipped up or turned over. A bump on the table doesn't count. Leaving counts too: locking your phone, switching to another app, or, in a browser, switching tabs. If two phones come up at almost the same instant, both lose.

Why your phone has to stay in Face Down

Face Down can only tell your phone is face down while it's open. During a round it keeps the screen on, turns it black at its lowest brightness while the phone is face down, and puts your brightness back when the round ends. Locking the phone or switching apps ends your round as if you'd picked up.

Check, please

Only the host can call it. Pick up your phone and tap Check, please within 3 seconds: the round ends, everybody wins, and the table sees how long it held. If you don't tap in time, your pick-up counts like anyone else's, and if someone else picked up before you, they lose.

The hold timer

Before Phones down, the host can choose Open (no timer) or a hold timer of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour or 2 hours. When it runs out with every phone still down, everybody wins. A phone picked up before the timer ran out still loses.

Reconnecting

If your connection drops, Face Down reconnects on its own. If it's back within about 20 seconds and your phone stayed face down, you're still in the round. After that you've left the table, and leaving during a round counts as picking up. In a browser, reopening the table's link in the same browser takes you back to your seat while the table is open.

Tables close on their own

A table closes 6 hours after its last activity, and everything about it (names, the house rule, the round's timing) is deleted from our server. Next time, start a new table. Your own round history stays on your iPhone.

Practice table

On the home screen, Practice table starts a round on your phone alone, against a simulated player named Robin. It's the whole game, start to finish, before you try it with friends.

Face Down Plus

Face Down Plus is an optional in-app purchase: $14.99 a year with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers, $2.99 a month, or $29.99 once. It adds saved tables (your rule and timer, one tap), nightly streaks for every night the table holds, history and who picks up most, and four more loser sounds: Buzzer, Siren, Gong and Slide. The game itself, joining from the app or a browser, the Practice table, house rules, the hold timer and share cards are free and stay free. Every plan is shared with your family through Family Sharing.

Restore a purchase: in Face Down, open Settings and tap Restore purchases. Cancel a subscription in the Settings app › your name › Subscriptions at least 24 hours before it renews.

Contact us

Email hello@apexmade.ai with your phone, its iOS or Android version, whether you played in the app or a browser, and what you see. We usually reply within a day.