1. Put the TV up: open app.trivia-fun.com/tv in the TV's browser and enter your room code. It shows the join QR code, then the questions, answers and standings.
2. Open the night: tap ▶ Start a night… on Home. It opens on your game night defaults. Pick a night length and tap Open lobby.
3. Players join: they scan the QR code with their phone camera and type a name. Nobody needs an account or the app.
4. Start: players vote on the first category in the lobby. Tap Start with winner to play it, or Pick category to choose yourself. A night of rounds you built starts with Start night.
5. Let it run: questions, reveals, breaks and each round's vote run on their own timers. A dropped tablet doesn't stop the night: sign in again and tap 🔴 Live game.
6. Finish: the night ends when its length runs out, or tap End night at a round end or break. Every screen shows the recap.

Just trying it out? 🚀 Quick Start plays one round on your defaults, with no setup.

Game night defaults: on Home, Edit defaults (the owner's login). Voted rounds, difficulty, emcee rounds, teams and the four timings. Quick Start, Start a night… and scheduled nights all start from them. Leave a time empty for the built-in: a 4 min break, 12 s reveal, 15 s per question and 10 questions per round.

Redesign my night, next to Edit defaults: seven quick questions (when you run trivia, how long a night is, who picks the categories, questions per round, the break between rounds, teams or solo, and the crowd) set your default night plan, one weekly night and your question content. Setup asks them once.

📅 Schedule (Pro): the same night every week. The lobby opens early, the night starts on time, and it runs with nobody hosting.

Solo or teams: on Game night defaults. Solo, Teams you name (players pick one of yours) or Tables players name (pub style). One answer per team makes a table of two and a table of six play even.

⏱ Timing changes the break, reveal, seconds per question or questions per round for the rest of the night; nothing already counting down moves.

On a question, +15s and ⏭ Reveal now. On a break, +1 min and Skip break. On the night clock, +15 min night.

🎤 Next round: emcee (Pro), at the scoreboard or during a break: pick one of your Emcee night plans and read the next round yourself.

One tap → instant lobby. One round from a random category, on your default night plan: its questions per round, seconds per question, time on reveal, teams and break ads (10 questions, 15s and a 12s reveal where the night plan sets none). Use this when you don't want to configure anything.

A full night with a live host. The setup opens on your default night plan — a night where players vote each round's category, unless you've changed it — so the quickest night is: pick a night length, Open lobby. Pick another night plan at the top, or change anything for tonight. Format chooses how rounds are picked: Players vote (a ballot during each break; rounds keep coming until the night length runs out), Build rounds (your own queue of categories) or Emcee (Pro: your own questions, read aloud, with each typed answer judged by you).

Your week, set up once. Each day lists its game nights and its Open Play windows, in the timezone at the top. A game night has a start, the night plan it plays, a length or an end time, and how early the doors open; Tweaks holds anything that one night sets for itself, and everything else follows its night plan. Scheduled nights and Open Play windows run on Pro. Only the venue owner can change the schedule; staff can read it. Home's This week shows what's coming and what's live.

Self-serve mode that runs on autopilot. Players join anytime, no host required. Good for slower afternoon crowds or background bar entertainment. Two ways to play: each player at their own pace (the default), or the whole room on one shared question shown on the Open Play TV, like a slow table game. Optionally configure rounds with breaks. The shared-question switch lives in Venue → Open Play; the weekly windows are on 📅 Schedule.

Free. One played game night a calendar month, in your venue's timezone. A night counts once its first round starts, so a lobby you open and close doesn't count. Rooms hold 20 players. Open Play, and scheduled nights that start by themselves, come with Pro.

Every game night you want, rooms of up to 100 players, Open Play, and scheduled nights that open, start and end by themselves. Each location has its own Pro plan; two or more on Pro can share a leaderboard.

Pro free for 30 days, no card. A new sign-up starts on it. There is one trial per login, shared by every location on it. Nights played during the trial don't count toward Starter's month afterwards.

For a one-off event — a company party, a fundraiser, a conference: 7 days of everything Pro has, starting whenever your event is. Venue → Account → Event Pass.

The big screen at the bar. Two URLs depending on what's running: /tv for Game Night (QR + question + timer + category, reveal, leaderboards, ad rotation, break countdowns) and /tv-op for Open Play (QR + active-player count + leaderboard, plus the shared question when the room plays one question together). Everyone in the room looks at this.

Your (the bartender's) iPad or laptop — this page. Shows the same question + timer as the TV but with control buttons (Pause / ⏭ Reveal now / +15s for this question / ⏱ Timing for the rest of the night / Next question / End round / Kick player, and ⏱ Timing to change the break, reveal, seconds per question or questions per round for the rest of the night — from the next question, break or round; nothing already counting down moves). Live vote counts per choice. After reveal: Next question button + auto-advance countdown. Only you look at this.

Each player's phone, after they scan the QR code or visit /play?code=ROOM. Shows the question + A/B/C/D buttons (or a text input for open-ended), their live score, a rank chip, streak badges (3/5/7/10 in a row), and round/night totals during reveals. Players can join as a guest or register / Sign in with Google for cross-venue stats.

The row at the top of the setup. A night plan is a whole night's setup — format, rounds, timing, teams, break ads. The setup starts from your default night plan; pick another night plan and it applies at once. Change anything for tonight: the night plan stays as it is unless the owner taps 💾 Save as night plan. 📋 Night plans on the home screen lists every night plan with the nights that play it. Night plans sync to every device; signed out, they're saved on this device.

How the night's rounds are chosen. Emcee rounds and built rounds don't mix in one night, so switching between them asks before dropping the other kind. A Players vote night can play emcee rounds among the voted ones (Final round, or every 3rd, 4th or 5th round), from your Emcee night plans; each plays the next set from those night plans, night after night, and only while a host is connected.

How long the night runs. It ends at the end of a round, never in the middle of one, and a round that ends with less time left than the break ends the night there. With Players vote and Unlimited rounds, the night plays as many voted rounds as fit.

Build the rounds yourself: pick a category, difficulty, question count, and seconds per question for each. Rounds play in the order you add them. Categories already played in the night are skipped from voting picks if you switch later.

Skip building a queue — players vote on the next category from a ballot of random options each round (Venue → Gameplay → Categories on the ballot, 6 by default). Under Tonight’s settings: Rounds (Unlimited, or exactly a number), Questions per round and Seconds per question. A night either votes its rounds or builds them, not both.

Add a host-judged round to the night (alongside category rounds, or alone). Name it, set Seconds per question and a Round length, then add your questions with their answers. Players type answers and you approve or reject each. The round runs at your pace; in Batch mode every question goes out at once and the round length is its one timer. Comes with Pro.

How long the reveal screen sits before the next question fires. Manual = host clicks Next. Any number = set-and-forget. Affects within-a-round pacing only.

One choice. Break: a dedicated break screen with a big countdown, "Up next: [Category]", the night leaderboard and ad rotation — for actual pauses where players hit the bar or bathroom. On a Players vote night it is when the room votes on the next category. Alternate long and short breaks switches between two lengths every round.

Short pause: the round-end scoreboard stays up with a countdown, then the next round starts — momentum without a break screen. On a Players vote night it is never under 10 seconds, and leaves little time to vote.

No pause: a Build rounds night starts the next round 18 seconds after the scoreboard; a Players vote night still gets 30 seconds to vote.

Toggle to show a mini scoreboard on the TV after every question (in addition to between-rounds). Off by default.

Toggle whether uploaded TV ads alternate with the scoreboard during breaks. On by default. Manage ads from the home screen → 📺 TV & ads.

Toggle on for team play, then choose how teams are made: Teams you name (2 to 12; players pick one) or Tables players name. Anyone who hasn’t picked is put on a team when a round starts, and you can move a player from 👥 Players. Switching between rounds is off unless you turn it on. Team scores add up from individual answers and lead the night-end screen + recap email.

One answer per team (or per table): everyone still plays on their own phone, but the first answer from a team locks it for the whole team, and the team scores it once — so a table of six and a table of two play even. Typed-answer questions are still answered on every phone.

Teams add up across nights under their own names: a team called "Quizzly Bears" collects its points night after night (capitals and punctuation don't matter). See them on 🏆 All-time leaders → 👥 Teams, and on the TV between nights. Default names like Red Team or Table 2 don't count, because a different group uses them every night. A player's phone remembers their last team name at your bar and offers it next time.

Night length is a time budget, not a promise of rounds. At the end of each round the night decides once whether there is room for another: it ends when less time is left than the wait before the next round (the break, or the vote). So a night can end early by less than one break, never later by more. +15 min night adds time while it runs.

A scheduled night opens its lobby early by its doors time, starts at its start time and ends after its length — or at its end time, counted from the scheduled start, so a night that opened late still ends on the clock. Nobody needs to be signed in.

Above the tabs. Shows your venue name, room code, and current plan (Starter / Pro / Custom). Logged-in venues can't edit the room code from the home screen — it's locked to whatever you registered with. A yellow "⚠️ Your room code changed" banner appears here if an admin renames the room code.

Tap ✓ Check setup 5–10 minutes before opening doors. It returns a colored checklist: server reachable, plan quota state, content bank loaded, recovery email status, email service, TV + player URLs. Catches "is this thing actually going to work tonight?" in a second.

Your default night plan at a glance: how many rounds the room votes on and their difficulty, whether nights are solo, Teams you name or Tables players name (with a table cap), and the break, reveal, seconds per question and questions per round. 🚀 Quick Start, ▶ Start a night and scheduled nights on the default night plan all start from these; a host can still change any for one night. Save defaults saves only what you changed. Full night plan › opens everything else (break ads, content, team names). Owner only; staff see them read-only.

Per-venue policies that apply to every new Game Night you open: Allow guest players (off = require login) and Minimum display-name length (1–4, blocks one-letter names). They are checked each time a player joins, so a change applies at once, a running night included.

How your scheduled Open Play and ▶ Start Open Play now run, and where the 🎲 Open Play setup starts. Round structure: Continuous (question after question), Breaks (a 3-minute pause after each round) or Alternating (10 minutes, then 3). Questions per round sets how many come before each break, and Difficulty which questions it draws. Open Play that's already running keeps its settings until it starts again.

Default off: each player has their own question and timer. Switch on and the whole room sees one shared question with one shared countdown, also on the Open Play TV — like a slow-paced trivia table game. Takes effect the next time Open Play starts; if it is already running, it switches over by itself.

Optional. When on, Open Play joins must be physically near the bar — players' phones send their location on join and the server rejects anyone outside the radius. Stops random internet players from scoring on your leaderboard. Important: capture the center coordinate while you're physically inside the bar — indoor phone GPS is ~100m off, so seeding from home will mis-locate the fence. Doesn't affect Game Night joins.

Controls what /tv shows between game nights (when no night is running). Three modes: This month's leaderboard (default, keeps the TV useful between events), Last night's final standings (after-action victory lap the morning after), QR only (minimal — just the join code). The join QR is always visible regardless.

Your own images and videos, shown on the TVs between rounds and on the Open Play TV. 📺 Manage TV ads opens the ads screen (also on Home as 📺 TV & Ads). The Open Play TV works out how it is mounted and re-fits when you rotate it, so there is nothing to set: an ad you mark portrait plays only on a screen mounted vertically. The Game Night TV is always landscape.

Upload a PNG/JPG/WebP logo (transparent backgrounds look best) to replace "Trivia Fun" branding on the TV. Roughly square (around 512×512) crops cleanest; very wide or tall logos get letterboxed. Pro plan unlocks branding.

Two high-res QR PNGs: one for Game Night joins, one for Open Play (it opens Open Play). Save and print on coasters / table tents / posters. Room codes never change — print these once. If an admin ever renames the room, a "⚠️ Your room code changed" banner appears above the tabs and you'll need to reprint.

Tracks repeat players across nights. Shows total visits, last seen, and lifetime score for each. Recognition is by display name only — encourage players to use a consistent name (or create an account) for accurate tracking.

Hardest 5 + easiest 5 questions at this venue, ranked by % correct across all plays. Filtered to questions with at least 3 plays so a one-off fluke doesn't dominate. Updates live after every reveal; hidden until your venue has tracked data.

Questions your players reported during a game (via the small flag icon on the question screen). For custom-bank questions you own, edit or delete inline; for shared-bank questions, dismiss to clear the flag — repeated cross-venue flags get reviewed centrally for global removal. The section hides itself when you have zero flags.

Players other players reported for an offensive name or profile photo. Reports don't hide anything by themselves: you decide. Kick from the lobby to remove someone mid-game; dismiss the report here once you've dealt with it. Hidden while there are none.

Per-question stats from emcee rounds — how often you scored an answer correct vs. wrong, response time. Tracking is keyed on the question text, so reusing the same wording (or running the same night plan again) makes stats add up over time. Useful for spotting questions where your scoring criteria may need refining. Hidden until you've run at least one trackable emcee round.

Add an email + verify it (we send a one-click link). Required for the "Forgot password?" reset flow. Verification is required before notifications start arriving — unverified addresses still let you log in, but won't get emails. Switch to a shared venue inbox here and re-verify when you hand off to a manager.

Give bartenders and hosts their own logins instead of sharing the venue password. Invite by email — they set their own password and can run game nights and manage questions, but can't touch billing, account settings, or the staff list. Remove someone and their access ends immediately. When staff leave, remove them here; no password rotation needed.

Extra inboxes are notification-only (no login). Each address gets its own verify link; once verified, it receives the same daily score emails + post-night recaps as the primary. Remove any time — recipients stop getting emails immediately.

Daily score emails bring yesterday's scores each morning (~3 AM ET). Two independent toggles: Open Play covers the day's Open Play results; Game Night covers final standings from completed nights. Days with no activity skip the email entirely — no empty "0 players" mail. Defaults off; opt in to whichever modes you actually want a digest for.

My locations: run more than one bar from one login. Add each location with its own room code and switch between them without logging out.

Group (Pro): link your locations into one group for a shared cross-venue leaderboard and combined reporting. To add a bar another owner runs, contact us and we link it. Each venue keeps its own room code, plan and stats; the group adds an aggregate view on top. Most useful for chains, franchises, or pop-up tour ops running multiple bars.

Share your referral link with another venue owner. When they sign up with your code and start a paid plan, one month of plan credit is added to your account. Credits aren't taken off your bill automatically — contact us and we'll apply them to your plan. Available on every plan including Starter; each referral adds its own month.

The upgrade card. Hidden when you're already on the highest tier you can buy. Shows the next-plan benefits and pricing inline — no separate billing page needed.

Auto-fires on night-end. Your verified account email (plus any verified additional notification addresses) gets a venue summary — top 3 + team standings if applicable. Each registered + verified player who participated also gets a personalized recap (their rank, score, top 3 of the night). Guests and unverified players are skipped so inboxes stay clean.

Every reveal during the night feeds the Question insights card in your Venue panel. Hardest / easiest lists refresh automatically.