How ClapOut works

ClapOut is a card game that lives in your phone's web browser. Here is the whole journey, from opening the link to the last clap, and what happens behind the scenes along the way.

By the ClapOut team · Updated 11 October 2026 · 6 min read

If you only want the rules, How to play has every one of them. This page is about everything around the rules: how you get to a table, what the host decides, what you see on your turn, and why nobody at the table can peek at your cards or bend the rules.

1. Open the page and type a name

Go to clapout.app in the browser you already have: Safari on an iPhone, Chrome on an Android phone, or any modern browser on a computer. There is nothing to install and no sign-up form. The join screen asks for one thing, a name, and that is the name the rest of the table sees.

The first time you visit, your browser is given a player id, which is how ClapOut keeps your Claps, your level and your seat at a table without an account. If you want to keep them on another phone, or keep them safe if you clear your browser's data, you can sign in later from your wallet, with Google, with Apple or with a sign-in link by email. There is never a password. Signing in is optional; every part of the game works without it.

2. Choose how to sit down

The join screen has three ways in.

A table's code is also the end of its link, so a table called ABCD lives at clapout.app/ABCD. Codes never use the letters I or O, so a letter that looks like an O is a C, D or Q. Quick play, levels and ranks explains how the queue picks your table, and Host a table and invite friends walks through hosting.

3. The lobby: the host sets the table

A hosted table opens in the lobby. Everyone who joins appears in a seat, and the host is in charge of what kind of game it will be:

• Seats. A table seats two to six players. The host can add a bot to any empty seat, one of each of Nana, Rocket, Sly and Chaos, and remove a bot to make room for a person.
• House rules. The elements are on by default, and the host can switch them off. The host can also switch on Stacking, Jump-in, Seven-zero, Draw to match, Force play, Storm challenge, the Long game and the Twist pack. House rules explains each one.
• The turn timer. Ten seconds by default, or fifteen, thirty or sixty.
• Voice. A switch for voice chat at the table. Everyone starts muted and unmutes when they want to talk.

When everyone is in, the host taps Start. The Start button shows the stake each person puts in and what the winner takes, so nobody is surprised. Guests see the same line.

4. Your turn at the table

Your hand is fanned along the bottom of your phone. The pile is in the middle of the table, with the other players' seats around it, each showing how many cards they hold but never which ones.

When it is your turn, the cards you are allowed to play rise out of your fan, so you never have to work out whether a card is legal. Tap one to play it, or tap the draw pile. With the elements on, a playable card that would change the pile's element wears a small tab saying what would happen: Douse, Kindle, Eclipse or Scorch when it would overpower the pile, and Fizzle when it would cost you a card. The elements guide explains what those mean.

Every turn has a clock. If it runs out, the table moves for you: it draws you a card and passes, names the element you hold most of, or declines a Storm challenge, depending on what you were due to do. A slow player can hold a game up for seconds, never for minutes.

5. The clap

The big CLAP button sits at the bottom of the table all game. When a play leaves you with exactly one card, tap it before the next player plays or draws and you are safe. Forget, and anyone at the table can catch you, which costs you two cards. A Catch button appears by any seat that can be caught.

You can also clap with your hands. Turn on the clapping-hands icon at the table and your phone listens for the sharp sound of a clap; a real clap then counts exactly like a tap. Clapping out loud explains how the listening works and how to make it reliable.

6. The results

The first player to empty their hand wins the game and takes the pot of Claps. Everyone who stayed to the end then sees the XP the game earned them, line by line, and their level card fills up. With the Long game house rule on, rounds are scored instead and the first player to 500 points wins. From the results, the host can play again with the same table.

What runs where

ClapOut is split between your phone and our game server, and the split is what keeps the game fair.

Because your phone is only ever sent your own cards, there is no way to see someone else's hand, and because the server checks every play, there is no way to play a card the rules do not allow. The same rules apply at every seat, and nothing you can buy changes them. Claps, the Club and the store sets out that promise in full.

If something interrupts you

Phones lose signal, and people answer calls. If your connection drops, the table shows "Reconnecting…" and tries to put you back on its own. Meanwhile your seat is marked away and the game carries on, with the turn clock moving for you. Refreshing the page, or opening the table's link again on the same phone, puts you straight back in your seat with your hand as it was. If the table has closed in the meantime, you land on the join screen with a note saying why.