Canopus Labs

Back Cover: Charades Party

The charades game where everyone knows the word but you

Back Cover is a forehead guessing game for family game night, Christmas parties and evenings with friends. Hold your iPhone to your forehead while your team mimes, describes or sings the word, and tilt it down each time you guess right.

Pre-order on the App StoreComing 23 October
  • iPhone
  • iOS 26 or later
  • Optimised for iPhone Duo
  • Three decks free; nine more with All Decks

The 12 built-in decks are in English, and you can make your own in any language.

Back Cover mid-round on iPhone: the word Kangaroo in giant letters, sideways for the forehead, with Pass and Correct buttons and 0:42 left.
  • The shelf of decks as paperback covers: Animals, Act It Out and Food & Drink marked Free, then Around the House, Jobs, and Sports & Games, locked.

    12 decks, 1,441 family-friendly cards

    Animals, Act It Out, Places, Fairy Tales & Fantasy and eight more, each drawn as a pocket paperback. No celebrities or brands to know, and every deck keeps track of the words you’ve played, dealing new ones first.

  • A deck of your own written in Japanese: twelve folk-tale cards, with Edit Deck and Play buttons.

    Your own words, in any language

    Make a deck out of anything: family nicknames, the songs from your road trip, this week’s French vocabulary. Write one card a line, in any language or script, and play as soon as it has ten cards.

  • The New Game page for the Animals deck: Red Team and Blue Team, Add Team, 60 or 90 seconds, 3 rounds each, and Start Game.

    Up to six teams, 60 or 90-second rounds

    Name your teams, pick the round length and up to five rounds each, then pass the phone along. It’s a word game for groups of any size, and an icebreaker that needs no explaining.

  • Red Team’s round results: 7 correct, both teams’ scores, and the words they guessed, from Kangaroo to Sloth, each ticked.

    See every word you got, and who won

    After each round, a contents page lists the words you guessed and the ones you passed, with the scores so far. When the last round ends, the winning team takes the trophy.

On iPhone Duo, the word goes on the back cover

Back Cover is optimised for iPhone Duo. Open the phone and hold it like a book: your team reads the word on the cover display, its back cover, while the back camera films their clues for a reaction reel you can save to Photos or discard.

An open iPhone Duo in book mode: the timer at 0:42, 4 correct, a REC light, and Pass and Correct buttons across the two pages.
OpenHeld like a book, the inside is the guesser’s page: the timer, the score, and Correct and Pass, with a REC light while the back camera films your team.
A folded iPhone Duo playing on its cover display: the word Kangaroo sideways, with Pass and Correct, 0:42 left and Red Team on 4 correct.
FoldedIt plays on the forehead from the cover display, like any iPhone, with the same tilt controls.

Three decks free, one purchase for all twelve

Back Cover is free with Animals, Act It Out, and Food & Drink, plus one deck of your own. All Decks is a one-time in-app purchase: it adds the nine other decks, over 1,000 more cards, and unlimited decks of your own. There’s no subscription.

Prices in the UK

  • All Decks£3.99 once

Your decks stay on your iPhone

No ads, no account and nothing collected: Back Cover’s App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected, and reaction reels go nowhere but your own Photos. Read the privacy policy.

Questions

How do you play charades with a phone on your forehead?
In Back Cover, the guesser holds the iPhone against their forehead, screen facing the room. Their team acts out, describes or hums the word without saying it. Tilt the phone down when you guess right and up to pass, or tap the buttons, and fit in as many as you can in 60 or 90 seconds.
Is there a charades app with no ads?
Yes: Back Cover has no ads anywhere, free version included, and no account to set up. It’s free with three decks and one deck of your own, and a one-time purchase, All Decks, adds the other nine. There’s no subscription, and its App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected.
What’s a good charades game for a Christmas party?
Back Cover works well at Christmas: the rules take a minute to explain, every card is family-friendly, and up to six teams can play. The Celebrations deck in All Decks has festive words, from mistletoe to the Yule log, and you can write a Christmas deck of your own in any language.
Can I make my own charades words in any language?
Yes. Back Cover lets you type or paste a deck of your own in any language, one card a line, and play it once it has ten cards. The 12 built-in decks are in English. One deck of your own is free, and the All Decks purchase lets you make as many as you like.
How many people do you need to play charades?
Two is enough: one guesses while the other gives clues. Back Cover also takes up to six teams of any size, each playing up to five rounds, so it works as an icebreaker or a word game for big groups at parties.
Can you play charades on iPhone Duo?
Yes. Back Cover is optimised for iPhone Duo. Held open like a book, the word shows on the cover display, facing the team, while the inside shows the guesser the timer, the score, and Correct and Pass, and the back camera films a reaction reel. Folded, it plays on the forehead like any iPhone.

A room laughing in a minute

No sign-up and no ads. Pick a free deck, hand the phone to the first guesser and let the clues fly.

Pre-order on the App StoreComing 23 October

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