How to set up a private Okey table: code, invite link and bots

A private Okey table with friends needs no account and no app, just a name and a link. Below is every step, from setting the table to what happens when someone drops. It all works the same for 101 Okey and Okey.

Set the table

Open the 101 Okey or Okey screen; the table's format comes from the screen you open. In the first step, type your name and press "Pick a mode →". In the second, pick how you'll play and a few quick rules.

For a table with friends, the switch that matters is "Private table". Off, your table goes on the "Public tables" list and anyone can sit down from there; on, it stays off the list and the only way in is the code or the invite link. It starts off, so remember to flip it. Then press "Set the table →" and you're in the lobby.

Whoever sets up the table is its host: they add the bots, change the rules and start the game. The format and rules can change until the game starts, but only the host can change them; everyone else reads them with "View rules". If the host leaves before the start, hosting passes to the first person left at the table.

Drop the link in the group

Once the table is up, the code sits in the lobby: 6 characters, letters and numbers. The worst look-alikes, I, L, O, 0 and 1, never appear in codes, and upper or lower case doesn't matter. The "Share the code" button next to it (just "Share" on a phone held upright) copies the invite link, and you paste it into the group.

Whoever opens the link sees the table's invitation straight away: whose table it is, how many seats are free, and the code. They type a name and press "Sit down →". The link doesn't carry the format, and doesn't need to: whether it's 101 Okey or Okey is written into the table itself.

No link? Type the code: in the first step of the Okey screen, enter it in the "6-character code" box below the name field and press "Join".

When the code won't work

Arriving by invite link, you'll see most of these before you press anything. Typing the code in the box, these are the messages you might get:

• No such table. Check the code again; the table may also have closed. You'll see this too if the code belongs to another game: a ONE table's code won't open from the box on the Okey screen. An invite link says so instead, and takes you to that game.
• The table is full. Four people are already sitting there. Bots in the lobby don't count: when someone arrives, the bot gets up and hands over the seat.
• The game has started. A table that's already playing takes no new players. If you have a seat there, come back from the browser you took it with.
• That name is taken at this table. Someone at the table already has that name; capitals don't count. Pick another.

The rules come with the table

You don't need to send the rules separately. The rules the host picked are stored with the table, and everyone who arrives by code or link sits down to them. They don't change while the game is running.

You can share a rule set without setting up a table, too. A rule set link carries the rules inside the address itself; whoever opens it sets up their table with the same rules. In Okey and in ONE alike, that link comes from "Share your own set" under the "Sets" tab of the "Rules" screen.

Short-handed? Bots.

Okey is played by 4, but the table doesn't wait for 4 people to turn up. Empty seats fill with bots when you press Start. On your own, the button reads "Start · 1/4" and bots make up the rest.

You can seat bots ahead of time too: the host puts one in an empty seat with "Add a bot" and takes it out with "Remove" (the same button removes a guest as well). A bot in the lobby doesn't hold on to its seat either: if your friend arrives when the table is full, the bot gets up and the seat is theirs.

Guests press "I'm ready"; the host always counts as ready. If someone at the table hasn't said they're ready, the start button stays locked and tells you who you're waiting for. A guest whose connection dropped doesn't hold up the start; once the game begins, a bot takes their seat. Two people at the same table can't use the same name, and after the game starts the code only lets back in people who already have a seat.

If someone drops

The table doesn't stop for you, but it won't give your seat away either. If you fall away from the table (your connection dropped, the tab went to the background or your phone locked), the table soon notices; from then on your seat waits another 20 seconds, and if you're not back, a bot sits down and the hand carries on with it. It works that way whoever's turn it is. A quick glance at a notification won't cost you your seat.

"Turn timer" is off by default. With it on, a player whose time runs out 3 turns in a row also hands their seat to a bot; that number is set by "Missed turn limit" (3 by default). Whichever way it happened, the moment you're back the bot steps aside and the hand carries on with you from wherever the bot left it.

Same story in ONE

A ONE table works the same way: code, invite link, bots in empty seats, and a bot that takes over when someone drops. The difference is the line-up: ONE plays with 2 to 4 people, and you pick each bot's level seat by seat.