I’ve recently started having trivia nights with friends after work. Sometimes at lunchtime, we sneak in a quick Pictionary game. And we’ve all been doing this without even stepping out of our respective houses, thanks to the Houseparty app.

Houseparty is a group video chat app — kinda like Zoom and Google Hangouts — but way more fun. In these virtual soirees, you can play an array of games with friends. Don’t want to change out of your PJs? No one will judge. Naturally, many thought the app was a godsend in these times of safe distancing and quarantine. Houseparty was a smash hit with a sudden surge in popularity the past few weeks (there were reportedly over 2mil downloads just last week alone). But its reputation took a hit yesterday (Mar 31), but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Download Houseparty’s mobile app from the App Store or Google Play, or its desktop app on Mac or Google Chrome. Sign up for an account, choose to add friends from your contact list or Facebook account (or not), and you’re in. To start chatting, click on the ‘Join’ button next to your friend’s name. If your friends are already in a chat group, all you have to do is to join the room. Up to eight people can join a chat room.

Here’s where it gets slightly tricky: Whenever someone joins or a new chat group starts, there is no warning. No ringing. No buzzing. No nothing. Admittedly, it threw me off when I first downloaded the app and was playing around with the settings when one of my friends saw that I was online and decided to start chatting. It took a few seconds before I realised there was someone looking at me in my unglam work-from-home get-up.

One more word of caution: Chat privacies are set to public by default, so if you want to keep it private, it’s best to lock your chat room. Why? Anyone can join your chat group — other friends on your list, or friends of your friends that you may not know. Great if you’re the social butterfly; not so fab if you think you’re slouched on the couch just having a tete-a-tete with friends.

And gatecrashing does happen, okay? British YouTuber Archie Manners told The Guardian that he “saw that a mutual friend was having a Houseparty with someone called Boy George and assumed that was someone using a nickname”.

“I opened it up and had an hour with Mr Karma Chameleon himself,” he said. “We chatted about self-isolation and music.”

Now that that’s all sorted, here's the fun part: the games. There are four that are currently available to play: Heads Up, Trivia, Quick Draw (sorta like Pictionary) and Chips and Guac, a variation of the popular Cards Against Humanity game. There are multiple categories to choose from per game. Caution: You may get carried away and spend more time than you intended on the app.

Get your mind out of the gutter. The answer was 'hopscotch'.

Because of this tweet from Houseparty, that’s why. The app, owned by Fortnite’s parent company, came under fire after a user claimed that Houseparty had been breached and hackers were using her data to access her Spotify account. The claim went viral, of course, and people began deleting their accounts. However, there has been no evidence of a data breach, and Houseparty has since refuted these claims. Experts have also said that the claims in the viral reports are unlikely . Houseparty has since put out their theory that all this was no more than a smear campaign, and are even offering a cash reward for anyone who can provide proof.

As for me? I’m keeping a close watch for updates, and will be continuing my trivia sessions and Quick Draw marathons.