How to host a ClapOut table and invite friends
A private table takes one tap to open and one link to share. Here is everything from the code to the last clap — the lobby, the bots, the microphone, voice chat, and what to do when a friend can't get in.
ClapOut is at its best with people you know. Everyone plays on their own phone, so every hand stays private, and nobody needs an app or an account: a friend opens a link, types a name and sits down.
Three ways to sit down
The join screen offers three doors, and they suit different evenings.
| The door | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| QUICK PLAY | Finds you a four-seat table. It looks for real players first; after twenty seconds, bots take the seats nobody has filled, and the deal comes. | A game right now, on your own |
| Join a table by its code | Type the four letters a friend gave you and tap Join. | When someone else is hosting |
| Host a table | Opens a private table with its own code. You choose the rules, the timer and the bots. | Friends, family, a planned game |
A quick play table has no invite and no lobby settings, and QUICK PLAY AGAIN takes you to a fresh one. The rest of this guide is about hosting, where the table is yours.
Your name
The first box on the join screen is your name, up to 24 characters. It is what everyone sees beside your seat, and your browser remembers it for next time. Quick play asks for one before it starts looking; host or join with the box empty and you are simply called Player.
Hosting, step by step
- Open clapout.app, type your name and tap Host a table.
- You arrive in the lobby with a four-letter code, such as ABCD, shown in big letters in the invite panel.
- Tap Share to send the link through your phone's share sheet, or Copy link to paste it wherever your friends are. On a browser without a share sheet, Copy link is the main button.
- While people arrive, set the house rules and the turn timer, and add any bots you want.
- When everyone is seated, tap Start.
The shared message reads "Join Sam's ClapOut table — the code is ABCD", with your name in it, and the link. If your browser will not let a page use the clipboard, the link is selected on screen so you can copy it by hand.
The code and the link
Every table has a four-letter code, and the invite link is simply that code on the end of the site's address: the table ABCD lives at clapout.app/ABCD. A friend who opens the link lands on the join screen with the code already filled in, types a name and taps Join. A friend on the other side of the room can just as well type the four letters into the code box; capitals or lower case make no difference.
You do not have to be the host to invite people. Every seat in the lobby shows the same invite panel, so a guest can pass the link on to someone else while the host is busy with the rules.
The host's lobby
Guests see every lobby setting too, greyed out, so nobody is surprised when the cards are dealt.
Seats
The seats panel lists everyone at the table, marked ready, away or bot, with a count such as "3 of 6 seats". A free table seats up to six. The host can remove any other seat, which is handy if a friend joined twice from two phones.
House rules and the turn timer
The House rules panel is a row of checkboxes: Stacking, Jump-in, Seven-zero, Draw to match, Force play, Storm challenge, Long game (to 500), Twist pack and Elements. The Elements are ticked from the start; everything else begins off. Each one is explained in House rules. Below them is the turn timer: ten seconds by default, or fifteen, thirty or sixty. For a table of first-timers, thirty is a kind choice. The host can change the rules at any point between games, but not during one.
Bots
Only the host sees the Bots panel. It has one button for each of the four bots — Nana, Rocket, Sly and Chaos — and each can sit at the table once; a bot already seated is marked "seated". Two people and two bots make a lively game of four. Bots join and leave only between games.
Voice, the scene and Start
Beside the rules is the Voice switch: "talk at the table — everyone starts muted". It is on unless the host turns it off. The Scene row changes the backdrop behind the cards on your own phone only, so everyone can pick their favourite. The host's Start button wakes up once there are at least two seats. When a game ends, the same button reads Play again and deals a new game to the same table.
At the table: the clap
The CLAP button sits at the bottom right. When a play leaves you with one card, tap it before the next seat acts. When somebody else is down to one card and their window is open, the same button turns into CATCH: tap it first and you have caught them. Once a player's window has closed without a clap, a Catch button with their name appears by their seat, and anyone can tap it. A catch costs the caught player two cards, and a wrong catch costs nothing.
Clapping out loud
Next to the emote button is a small icon of clapping hands with sound arcs: "Clap with the microphone". Tap it and your browser asks for permission to use the microphone. Once it is on, the icon lights up and a real clap near your phone counts exactly like a tap on CLAP — your own clap when it is your window, or a catch when someone else's is open.
The listening happens on your phone. It waits for the sharp sound of a clap arriving out of quiet; no sound is recorded or sent, only the fact that you clapped. While it is on, the game's sound effects go quiet, so the phone's speaker cannot fool its own microphone. Tap the icon again to turn it off.
Clapping out loud is the most fun when you are all in one room, and the most chaotic. If the house is noisy — a television, a dog, a cheering younger brother — the button is the safer choice.
Voice chat
For friends who are not in the same room, a table with two or more people and Voice switched on has its own voice chat. Everyone starts muted. Tap the microphone button at the bottom of the table to talk, and again to mute. Your browser asks for the microphone only the first time you unmute; if you say no, a tap on the button asks again.
Each seat in the voice chat carries a small badge showing whether that player's mic is live or muted, and a gold ring pulses around whoever is speaking. To stop hearing one person without silencing them for anyone else, tap their seat and choose Mute for me. It changes only what your phone plays; they are not told, and Unmute brings them back. Voice is live and is not recorded.
If you drop out, or refresh
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: when your turn clock runs out, the table plays for you.
Your browser remembers your seat at each table, so 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 so.
The Rule book
The game carries its own illustrated rule book, never more than a tap away: the Rule book row on the join screen, the same row under the lobby's house rules, and a small open-book icon at the bottom of the table. It opens over the game, which carries on underneath, so you can check a rule mid-game.
When something goes wrong
| What you see | What it means, and what to do |
|---|---|
| "no table with that code" | The four letters do not match an open table. Check them with the host. Codes never use the letters I or O, so a letter that looks like an O is a C, D or Q. Opening the invite link avoids typing altogether. |
| "that table is over" | The table has closed. The host can open a new one and send a fresh link. |
| "that table is full" | Every seat is taken. The host can remove a bot to make room. |
| "that table is mid-game" | New seats open between games. Ask the host to let you in when the current game ends. |
| "The host left; the table closed." | A table closes when its host leaves or closes it. Someone hosts a new one. |
| "The microphone isn't available; the CLAP button still works." | Permission was refused, or the browser could not open the microphone. Allow it in your browser's site settings and tap the clapping-hands icon again — or just tap CLAP. |
| No sound effects | Sound starts on your first tap on the page, so tap anything once. Check the phone's volume, and remember the effects go quiet while clapping out loud is on. |
Join and Host also wait while your Claps are below a game's stake; Claps, the Club and the store explains the free ways to top up.
Hosting for children or first-timers? Set the timer to thirty seconds, leave most house rules off, and seat Nana, the gentlest bot. Family game night has more ideas for a mixed-age table.