"Who said it?": the game made from your group's real messages

“Who said it?” is one of the oldest party games around: someone reads a quote, everyone guesses the author. With a group chat you already have years of material, written by the people sitting at the table. The trick is picking the right messages: long enough to be guessable, short enough to read aloud, and nothing that should never leave the chat.

This guide explains how Chat Recap builds the game from a WhatsApp export, how to share it, and how to play it in person or over a video call without anyone leaving upset.

How the game works

Each round shows one real message from the group and up to four names: the real author and up to three others from the game, in random order. You tap a name and immediately see whether you were right, who actually wrote it and on what date. After the last question you get a score (for example 11/15) and a verdict that ranges from “Perfect” to gently suggesting you’ve muted the group.

Every time someone opens the link or taps “Play again”, the order of the questions and of the answer options is shuffled, so the same game can be replayed without memorising positions.

How the messages are chosen

When you analyse a chat, the analyzer proposes up to 40 candidate messages. They are picked in your browser following fixed rules, which also explain why a particular gem might be missing:

• Only text messages. Photos, voice notes, stickers and deleted messages are skipped.
• Length between 45 and 220 characters, and at least 7 words. Short replies like “ok” or “haha true” are impossible to attribute; essays are no fun to read aloud.
• At most 3 lines. Long lists and pasted texts are left out.
• Nothing that looks like contact details or a link. Any message containing a URL, an @, an email, something that looks like a phone number, or placeholders in brackets (like the <Media omitted> WhatsApp writes instead of a photo) is discarded.
• No repeats. If the same text was sent twice, it only counts once.
• People need at least 15 text messages to appear in the game, and there must be at least two such people. A group where only one person writes can’t produce a game.

Among the messages that pass, those with laughs, exclamation or question marks, emojis, or a medium length (70 to 160 characters) score higher, because they tend to have personality. The selection then takes turns between people, starting with whoever writes most, so one prolific member doesn’t take over. For each person it also tries to take messages from different months, so the game covers the whole history and not just last week.

The process is deterministic: analysing the same chat again proposes the same candidates.

Building and sharing your game

You open the game builder from the last screen of the Wrapped (the Wrapped guide shows how to get there) or from the report. Then:

1. Review the list. The first 15 candidates come selected. Untick anything you don’t want, tick others. You can choose between 3 and 25 questions. Each message shows its author and date so you can judge it in context.
2. Add a group name (optional, up to 40 characters). It appears on the game’s start screen.
3. Confirm the consent box. It states that anyone with the link will be able to read these messages and who wrote them, and that you have the group’s permission to share them.
4. Generate the link and share it, copy it, or open it to try it yourself first.

What’s inside the link

The game contains only what you selected: the text of each chosen message, its date, the names of the people who appear as authors, and the optional title. It doesn’t include the rest of the chat or any statistics.

Normally the link is short. Your browser encrypts the game, an encrypted copy is stored on Chat Recap’s server for 90 days, and the decryption key is in the part of the link after the #, which browsers never send to any server. That means the server only holds unreadable data, but also that anyone who has the full link can read the messages. After 90 days the stored copy expires and the link stops working. If the storage isn’t available when you generate it, you get a long link instead, with the whole game compressed inside the # part and nothing stored anywhere.

Practical consequence: treat the link like the messages themselves. Send it to the group, not to a public story. More on this in the privacy guide.

Ways to play

Everyone on their own phone

The simplest version: drop the link in the group and let everyone play whenever they want. At the end, the “Share my score” button sends the result with the link, which turns it into a challenge (“I got 12/15. Bet you can’t beat me”). Good for groups spread across time zones.

At a dinner or party, one screen

Open the game on one phone (or a TV, if you can mirror the screen) and have a host read each message aloud, ideally in a neutral voice. Everyone answers at once by pointing, or writes the name on a napkin, before the host taps. The app keeps only one score, so keep the tally on paper.

On a video call

The host shares their screen and reads the quote; players type their guess in the call chat before the reveal. Typing at the same time avoids the “I was going to say that” problem.

House rules worth trying

Variation	How it works
Teams	Split the table in two. Teams confer for 10 seconds, then answer. Good for big groups.
Authors can’t answer	When your own message comes up, you sit that round out (or score double if you bluff successfully).
Bonus for context	One extra point if you also remember what the conversation was about.
Speed round	Whoever shouts the right name first gets the point; a wrong guess costs one.
Sudden death	Players are eliminated after their third mistake.

Keeping it fun, not hurtful

Group chats contain everything: jokes, plans, but also breakups, health worries and things said in a bad moment. The automatic filters remove links and contact details, but they can’t know what is sensitive. That part is on you.

Before generating the link, go through the list with these questions in mind:

• Would the author be happy to hear this read aloud in front of everyone at the table?
• Does it mention someone outside the group (an ex, a boss, a family member)?
• Is it about health, money, relationships or anything said in confidence?
• Could it be misread without context, like sarcasm that sounds cruel?

If the answer to any of these is “maybe”, untick it. With 40 candidates there’s usually plenty left. And if one person in the group would rather not be in the game at all, untick their messages and generate it again: it takes a minute.

A good balance is a mix of the classics (the person who always announces they’re “five minutes away”) and harmless oddities from years ago that nobody remembers writing. Those tend to get the biggest laughs.

If something doesn’t work

• “There aren’t enough long messages”: the chat is too short, mostly media and stickers, or fewer than two people have 15 text messages. Try a longer export.
• “This link doesn’t work”: the link was cut when copied (common in some apps that break long URLs) or, for a short link, the 90 days have passed. Ask the creator to copy it again or generate a new one.
• Someone is missing from the options: only people who wrote at least one of the selected messages appear as possible answers.

Next step: before the next group dinner, export the chat, build a 15-question game and test it alone first, so you can remove anything that shouldn’t be read aloud.