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How to Play Impostor (and Undercover): Rules, Tips and Variants

By House Party Games · 29 October 2026

Impostor is the word game where everyone knows the secret word except one player, who has to fake it. It takes a minute to explain, works with three people or fifteen, and needs nothing but a phone. Here are the full rules, the two main variants, and the tips that make it fun.

What you need

Players: 3 or more. It plays best with 4 to 10.
Time: 5 to 15 minutes a round, and you will want more than one.
Equipment: one phone passed around, or one phone each. You can play with paper slips, but then someone has to pick the word and see who the impostor is, so they can't play.

We use Impostor on House Party Games in the examples below. It is free, runs in the browser and has about 1,500 words in 30 categories, but the rules are the same whatever you use.

How to play, step by step

Deal the cards. Everyone gets the same secret word, say "coffee", except the impostor. On one phone, each player presses and holds the door to peek at their card, then passes the phone on.
Give clues. Go around in the order on the screen. Each player says one word or a short clue about the secret word. The impostor has to give a clue too, without knowing the word.
Go again if you like. Play as many clue rounds as the table wants. The order stays the same until the next word.
Vote. Everyone votes for the player they think is the impostor. Enter each vote, or switch to a group vote when the table agrees on one name.
Reveal. The player with the most votes is out. A tie means nobody is out. Then the word and the impostor are shown.

Scoring

What happened	Points
You voted for an impostor	+1
You were the impostor and were not voted out	+2
Hint mode: you were caught, but guessed the word	+2

Scores add up from game to game until you reset them, so play to a target (first to 10 is a good evening) or for a set number of words.

The two main variants

Hint mode (the classic)

The impostor knows they are the impostor and sees a hint instead of the word. You choose how much help they get: only the category, a weak hint or a strong hint. A strong hint suits kids and first games. The category alone is hard, and makes for the best bluffing. If the impostor is caught, they get one guess at the word for +2 points, so even a caught impostor has a reason to keep listening.

Undercover mode

The impostor gets a similar but different word, and doesn't know they are the impostor. If the word is "coffee", the undercover player might get "tea". Their clues sound almost right, and they defend themselves honestly, because they think they are innocent. This is the version popularised by the game "Who is Undercover?", and it is the sneakiest way to play.

More than one impostor

With 8 or more players, add a second impostor. The app allows up to just under half of the players. Two impostors who don't know each other make the vote far messier, in a good way.

Other house rules

No-word impostor: some apps call this "Mr. White": the impostor gets nothing at all. Hint mode with only the category is the closest version here.
One-word clues only: stricter and faster. Good for big groups.
Silent round: instead of a clue, everyone acts out the word for three seconds. Chaos.

Tips for players

Aim for a clue only an insider would get. For "coffee", "morning" is good; "brown drink" hands the word to the impostor.
Don't be too clever. A clue so vague that nobody gets it makes you look like the impostor.
Watch, don't just listen. Players who hesitate, wait to go last or repeat an earlier clue are worth a second look.
Talk about the clues before you vote. Ask someone to explain their clue. Impostors struggle to explain a guess.

Tips for the impostor

Listen first. The clues before yours are your best information. Stay close to them.
Go general, not wild. A safe clue that fits many words beats a specific guess that turns out wrong.
Accuse someone. Confidently doubting another player's clue is a classic impostor move, and it works.
In Undercover mode, question your own word. If every clue feels slightly off, you may be the undercover player.

Playing online

Choose "Each on own phone", create a room and share the code, link or QR code. Every player sees their own card on their own phone and votes there. The host's phone deals the cards and sends each player only their own card, encrypted, so nobody can read someone else's word from the network. Start a video or voice call so you can hear the clues and see the faces. Half the fun is the bluffing.

Impostor, Spyfall and Undercover: what's the difference?

They are cousins. In Spyfall (a boxed game for 3–8 players), everyone except the spy knows a location, and players ask each other questions instead of giving clues. Undercover apps usually use the similar-word twist described above, sometimes with a Mr. White. Impostor sits in between: simple clues, no questions, and both modes in one place. If your group loves Spyfall's question-and-answer style, it is well worth buying; if you want something free on any phone in ten seconds, start a game of Impostor.

Want something longer with the same bluffing? Try Mafia, where the app is the narrator.