A baby shower or birthday screen puts a question on the TV that your guests vote on from their phones, "What will the baby's first word be?", with the bars moving as the votes come in, beside their photos, their notes and a countdown to presents or the cake. It is a board on the TV you already have, set up from your phone in an afternoon.
A question the whole room answers does what a game on paper never quite manages: everyone plays, nobody needs a pen, and the result is up on the wall for the moment it's revealed.
A question everyone votes on
Write the question and up to six answers. Guests scan the code on the poll tile and tap an answer, with no app and no sign-up. Each phone has one vote, and voting again moves it, so a guest who changes their mind isn't counted twice. Change the question or an answer and a fresh count starts; put the old words back and their votes come back with them.
Questions guests enjoy are quick to answer and fun to argue about:
- "What will the baby's first word be?"
- "Will the baby arrive early, on time or late?"
- "Whose eyes will the baby have?"
- "What year was this photo taken?"
- "Which song gets everyone dancing first?"
- "How many candles can they blow out in one go?"
The big reveal
For a gender reveal, or the year that photo was really taken, keep the results to yourself. Set the poll's results to "Hidden until you reveal them" and the TV keeps the bars hidden while the votes come in. When everyone is gathered, switch on "Reveal the results" from your phone: the bars grow on the TV one answer after another, and the winner is marked last. Switch off "Voting is open" to close the vote, and the results stay up.
Their photos and notes
With a photos tile on the board, guests scan its code and send the pictures they're taking anyway, with their name and a caption of up to 80 characters if they like, and the TV shows them one at a time or as a wall. A messages tile does the same for words: a note for the parents-to-be, a birthday wish, in a color of the guest's choosing. Nothing goes up until you have seen it, unless you switch that off.
A countdown to the moment
Set a countdown to presents, the cake or the reveal, and the room can see how long is left. At zero it says your own words, or "It's time" if you leave them out. Switch on the big finish and, ten seconds before, the numbers take over the whole screen. Nothing on the board makes a sound.
What it costs
Built around the poll, so it needs Pro or an Event Pass. On the free plan, Party night is the closest. An Event Pass is $6, once, for 7 days around the party, with nothing to cancel afterward, and it has the poll and the photos.
Party night keeps the wifi, the countdown and your guests' messages for nothing, which is most of a party without the vote.
After the party
Everything that went up on the TV waits on the board's After the party page: the photos to download, a ZIP of up to 50 at a time with each guest's name in the file, and the notes laid out as a guestbook you can print, for the baby book or the birthday box. The page says how long they are kept, so you can take your time.
A board worth copying
Pick "Shower or birthday" when you make the board. The wifi, the poll and the photos stand side by side across the top, the same size, and underneath run your guests' notes and the countdown. That is five tiles. On a screen turned on its side the wifi, the poll and the photos stack down the screen, with the notes and the countdown side by side at the bottom.
The party guide covers an evening without a vote, and the layouts guide has every starting point.