Playing Go Fish online with other people, step by step: the code, the seats, the table rules, and what happens when somebody drops out.
The host opens the table, which needs a free account, and shares the six-character code or the link from "Copy link". Everyone else picks a name and sits down as a guest — handy when half the table are children without accounts.
Go Fish seats two to six, and it is best with three to five. The host chooses whether everyone is dealt five cards or seven, and the game starts when at least two are seated. Bots can fill empty chairs if the host adds them before the deal.
On your turn, pick a rank you are holding and then pick the player to ask. If they have that rank, every card of it comes to you and you ask again; if not, you go fishing in the lake and your turn is over, whatever you draw.
Every question and every answer is printed across the table for all players, just as it would be said out loud. Whoever pays attention to who asked for what has the advantage, so it pays to watch the other players' turns, not just your own.
As soon as a player has all four cards of a rank, the set goes face up in front of them, and everyone can see how many sets each player has. A player whose hand is empty is not out: they draw from the lake when their turn comes and carry on.
The game ends when all the sets have been made or nobody can make any more, and the player with the most sets wins. There is no score to carry over, so a new game is a new table.
Go Fish works well for a family spread over several phones or tablets. Nobody can see anybody else's cards, so there is no need to hide a hand, and the site hands over the cards and lays down the sets, so nobody gets the rules wrong.
There is no chat at the table. For younger players, playing in the same room or on a call keeps the fun of saying go fish out loud.
If somebody's page closes, their seat is held for twenty-five seconds. After that a bot answers for them until they open the table again and take their seat back. A player who presses Leave is replaced by a bot for the rest of the game.
If the host leaves, hosting passes to whoever has been sitting longest. A table with no activity for six hours is cleared away.