Kahoot alternatives: quiz games everyone plays from a phone
Kahoot made the shape familiar: questions on a shared screen, everyone answering from their own phone, points for being quick. It is still a good tool. But it is not the only one, and depending on the room — a class revising for a test, an office party, a pub — something else may suit better.
Here is what else is out there, what each one is best at, and where we think our own game fits. We make one of these, so read the last section with that in mind.
For revision and homework
1.Quizizz (now Wayground)
Students answer at their own pace, so it works as homework as well as live. Teachers get a report of who missed what. Best when the point is checking what a class has learned.
2.Blooket
The same question sets, wrapped in game modes that students choose between. Younger classes love it; the questions are the lesson, the game is the reward.
3.Gimkit
Students earn and spend in-game money as they answer, and the same questions come back until they stick. Built for repetition.
For meetings and talks
4.Mentimeter
Polls, word clouds and quizzes inside a presentation. Best when the quiz is a small part of a talk.
5.Slido
Questions from the audience and quick polls, built into the tools a company already uses for calls. Less of a game, more of a conversation.
When the room just wants to play
6.A picture quiz that sharpens
depixelate is the one we make. Every question is a picture that starts as a few blocks and sharpens over ten seconds, with four options; the sooner a player commits, the more it is worth. There is nothing to write: pick one of 1,800 ready-made packs — flags, logos, dog breeds, landmarks, famous faces — or make one from your own photos. Players join from any phone browser with a four-letter code, and a free game takes up to 30 phones.
7.Why pictures
A written question rewards whoever reads fastest. A picture coming into focus puts everyone on the same footing: the eight-year-old and the grandparent see it at the same moment, and the shout when somebody gets it from six blocks is the best part of the game.
8.Where it fits less well
If you need to quiz a class on this week’s vocabulary list, or set homework with a report afterwards, the revision tools above are built for that. depixelate is for playing together in one room or on one call.
