Support

Nobody can see the room I am hosting

Every device has to be on the same Wi-Fi network, and some networks refuse to let devices talk to each other at all — guest Wi-Fi, hotel Wi-Fi and many office networks block exactly this. If you are on one of those, turn Wi-Fi off on every phone: Family Room will connect the devices directly instead, and plays the same.

On the first launch iOS asks for permission to find devices on your local network. If that was declined, the list stays empty forever. Settings → Family Room → Local Network.

Does everyone need the app?

Yes — every player installs Family Room. There is no web page to join from, because there is no server to serve one. It is a free download and the eleven games are included.

How do I use my TV?

Install Family Room on an Apple TV and open it; it offers to be the table's shared screen. An iPad can do the same job. The screen shows the board and the scores and never shows anybody's private hand, so you can leave it pointed at the room.

A TV is always optional. Every game is playable with phones alone.

Somebody's phone died in the middle of a game

Nothing is lost. The table pauses on every device, every timer freezes, and that seat is held. When they reopen the app they land back in the game exactly where it was. If they are not coming back, the host can remove them and carry on.

Can I change my name or my emoji?

Any time you are not mid-game. Tap your name and emoji on the home screen, or on the Join screen right before you walk into someone else's room.

How do I import a game somebody sent me?

Save the .zip to your phone — from Messages, Mail, Files, anywhere — and open it with Family Room, or use Import in the app and pick the file. It then sits alongside the built-in games. Everyone who wants to play it needs to import it too, and it has to be the same version on every device; the app tells you if it is not.

Is a game I was sent safe to open?

A bundle is HTML and JavaScript that runs in a sandboxed web view with no network access of any kind, no access to your files, and no access to anything else on your phone. It cannot reach the internet even if it tries. Treat the content of a game the way you would treat anything else a friend sends you.

I want to make my own game

Start at Make a game. You do not need a Mac, an account, or anything beyond a text editor — and the Studio lets you play what you have written against eight virtual phones in a browser tab.

Something is wrong with a game I made

Run node check.mjs in the dev kit first: it plays every bundle to a finish under bots and reports the specific failure, which is faster than any bug report I could answer. The authoring reference covers the rules the validator enforces and why each one exists.