How to use Jackbox to play virtual games over video chat with your friends

A good way to have fun while you’re doing social distancing.

The other day, while on a video chat with a pair of my friends, one of them mentioned that we could totally do a night of trivia for our next conference call by using something called Jackbox (which made it to our super-helpful list of 34 video games you should be playing to get through quarantine).

I had so many questions, and it seems like a lot of other people do, and that’s where this comes in.

It’s a series of trivia games put out by Jackbox Games that you can play, and by using Jackbox TV, you can actually connect and have the host screenshare the game on a video meeting service like Zoom or Google Hangouts. Here are the steps:

1. Someone needs to have purchased a Jackbox title

Let’s call that person the “host” to make it easy to describe. That person should launch the game on their computer.

2. The host should share their screen on their favorite video meeting service

Hangouts, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, whatever. If you’re the host, find the button that shares your screen with the other people on your call.

3. Go to Jackbox.TV and enter the code you see

It’s a four-letter code for your specific room, and you enter it using your phone.

4. Start playing!

That’s it!

And if none of that made sense, well, fine, here’s a video from Jackbox Games:

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[jwplayer pKS8kcq0-q2aasYxh]