16 Fun Things To Do With Your Friends During Your Next Virtual Hangout

I shaved my husband's head live on Zoom, but you don't necessarily *have* to do that....

While social distancing is still in effect in most places, my friends and I have been doing our best to stay in touch and have some fun via video chat hangouts. However, we've started to get a bit bored.

Nickelodeon

So I asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell me what their most creative ideas have been for making virtual hangouts fun. They certainly didn't disappoint!

1. Watch a movie, a TV series, or a musical together and create a drinking game around it for some next-level virtual bonding.

Bravo

"My friends and I have been watching musicals (Cats, Legally Blonde, Rent, etc.) over Zoom with said musical-themed drinking games. We watched MTV's Legally Blonde the musical and let me tell you, 'Blood in the Water' was a rough number — you had to drink every time the word blood was said. And the word blonde (do you know many times they said blonde?...about a bottle worth of vodka)." —k4b62acecc

2. Throw a virtual bachelorette party for your friend who had to postpone hers to next year.

Heather Braga / BuzzFeed

My girlfriends and I threw a surprise bachelorette party for my best friend whose trip to Austin (very sadly) had to be postponed. We shipped a bunch of decorations to her apartment, which her fiancé displayed while she was out picking up dinner. Yes, he did blow up that massive penis all by himself. Sounds like a keeper to me! We played drinking games and watched a YouTube compilation of Magic Mike performances ;).

BuzzFeed writer Abby Kass also participated in a Zoom bachelorette. She said:

"We played a few more traditional bachelorette games (like "Drink if..."), but probably one of the most fun things we did was play survivor flip cup. It's basically a regular game of flip cup except everyone goes at the same time and the last person to flip their cup is out until there's one person left. It was super fun and easy to do virtually!"

Check out some fun bachelor and bachelorette party decorations from Amazon!

3. Use a random word generator to choose a topic to paint or draw.

The Walt Disney Company

"My best friend is an artist. Whenever she has artist's block, we have a two-minute watercolor challenge where we use a random word generator to serve as our prompt." —limag

4. Start up a Dungeons and Dragons campaign over Zoom and prepare to battle some seriously wild creatures.

instagram.com

"It wasn't really my idea but my DM for Dungeons and Dragons has been hosting/playing games over Zoom." —google_113495385264595780498

Get a Dungeons and Dragons starter set from Amazon for $37.99.

5. Gather all the ping pong balls lying around your home and play virtual beer pong with your pals.

NBC

"For my husband's birthday I bought him ping pong balls off Amazon and he and his friends played virtual beer pong! I had thought that idea up and they all had a blast. It was a great way for them to kill a few hours one night and still be able to have fun and hang out safely. Virtual Beer Pong for the win! Side note, my husband won!" —mullinsrolfeswedding

Get 50 ping pong balls from Amazon for $16.99.

6. Round up all your friends into a Zoom call and follow along with the same Bob Ross episode to create some *happy little trees* of your own.

buzzfeed.com

"My friends and I did a Bob Ross painting party through Zoom! We did a screen share and all followed along to an episode of Bob Ross. Artistic talent in the group varied but it was a super fun time for everyone." —taraisfab

You can watch seasons of The Joy of Painting on Hulu or Netflix.

7. Have a themed lunch (Beach party? Hollywood glam? You decide!) with your co-workers for some socially distanced team bonding you'll all surely get a kick out of.

NBC

"We had a beach-themed team lunch! Everyone dressed up for a 'day at the beach' (sunnies, Hawaiian shirts, someone even had an inflatable watermelon float as a prop), and had a special ice cream treat delivered from the boss. Of course since this was a work lunch, we had a PowerPoint drawing contest to draw ourselves at the beach and we took turns roasting each other's drawings (it ain't a day at the beach unless you get burnt). We also had a sandcastle building competition where everyone had two minutes to build a sandcastle out of items around them. Not sure why, but a lot of the sandcastles featured some kind of alcoholic beverage bottle." —whataboutjen

8. Get creative with your camera placement and play a board game together.

Target

"We've played Trivial Pursuit a few times. We just hang a webcam from the chandelier over the dining room table for a bird's-eye view of the game board, and set up a laptop facing us so we can see the other folks playing and also switch back and forth between the board and us." —prolixitie

Get Trivial Pursuit from Target for $39.99.

9. Or share a screen and play virtual games together through easy-to-use platforms like Jackbox or a free online version of Codenames.

playjackboxgames / Via instagram.com, playjackboxgames / Via instagram.com

My friends and I play games on Jackbox (the T-shirt game is our fave) and have enjoyed playing a free online version of Codenames. Be sure to give your silliest or most inappropriate answers during ALL of the Jackbox games and you'll be laughing for hours. Codenames is also great for a group — we divide ourselves into teams and play all night (it gets super competitive).

10. Host all of your friends via Zoom for a virtual karaoke night — simply search your go-to song's karaoke version on YouTube!

Netflix

"I've done karaoke (although there is a delay if you share the screen) and we've written our own trivia games." —eveb4447b30d2

Friends not into it, but you're dying to sing your little heart out? You can join a 24-hour Zoom karaoke party through Karaoke Camp!

11. Convince your friends to indulge in a fake award show in which YOU choose the categories and can all vote on the winners while getting dressed to the nines and walk a virtual red carpet.

E!

"My friends and I did an award show for movies, TV, Broadway, and internet memes. It was called the Zoomies. We all got dressed nice, had a red carpet, had musical guests, and even an in memoriam. It was real morale-booster!" —radeagle74

12. Buy a Mad Libs book and fill it out with your friends or family — guaranteed to bring lots of laughs to your video call.

Amazon

"My friend Marissa mailed me a Mad Libs book and honestly it's made our weekly video chats so much more fun... especially since my friend Aaron really got behind 'went' as a verb. The person with the book simply reads out the prompts like normal and then the other people on video chat supply the words. One Mad Lib about wine making got particularly out of hand (in the best way possible)." —elizabethlilly

Get one from Amazon: Adult Mad Libs for $4.98 or Goofy Mad Libs for $4.99.

13. Surprise your friends during your weekly Zoom call by giving your roomie an impromptu haircut (or...maybe not) or some other giggle-eliciting activity.

Heather Braga / BuzzFeed

During our first week of self-isolation, I shaved my husband's head for the first time in his life while on Zoom with all of our friends. I was *very* sweaty and nervous about actually being the "barber." Thankfully it turned out OK! We didn't tell our friends about our plan and they all got a real kick out of it. Everyone really appreciated when we separately FaceTimed my mother-in-law to get her reaction. The following week one of my friends upped the ante by spontaneously bleaching his hair.

14. Pick your favorite musical production or movie and assign each friend a role. Sing each song together like you would if you were performing IRL!

Universal Pictures

"We performed a concert version of Sweeney Todd." —jubileef

This user sang along to Sweeney Todd (available to rent on Amazon Prime Video) which feels SUPER ambitious to me. I'd also suggest Mamma Mia 1 and 2 (available on Hulu), all editions of High School Musical (available on Disney+), or truly test your singing *and* dancing skills by streaming Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour (available on Netflix).

15. Throw a PowerPoint party in which everyone builds a presentation about a random topic, then someone else in your squad has to present it to the group without knowing what exactly they'll be talking about. Hilarious.

buzzfeed.com

"My friends and I had a PowerPoint Party over Zoom! All of us made a five-slide presentation about a random topic of our choice and then used a Secret Santa website to determine who would present each other’s presentations. You just sit back and share your screen! It was hilarious and I actually ended up learning a lot about Korean TV shows, the science of poop, and fun facts about Waco, Texas." —anniep404e0f757

16. And subscribe to The New Yorker for access to *tons* of crossword puzzles you and a friend can digitally work on together.

The New Yorker

"My boyfriend and I both like doing crossword puzzles, and we found out that you can do partner mode digitally on The New Yorker. We'll do them together and FaceTime while we work on it so we can talk through the answers." —Abby Kass

Check out The New Yorker's puzzle section here and subscribe for $4.99 a month.

If you'd prefer something more hands-on, you can get The New York Times Best of the Week Series crossword book from Amazon for $9.99 and just chat while you each work on it in your separate homes.

Me, sending you a virtual hug while we all navigate this weird time together:

The Walt Disney Company

Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.

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