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Spirit Box

How to use a spirit box app on iPhone, step by step

Open Spirit Box, tap Words, then Start Session, and ask short questions out loud while it speaks a random word every few seconds. Tap End Session when you are done to review everything it produced. The words come from a list of common words in your phone's language, picked at random — a session is something you interpret, not a recording of anyone's voice.

4 min read · Updated 2026-09-16

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What a spirit box app does on a phone

A hardware spirit box scans radio frequencies and you listen for words in the fragments. A phone cannot do that, so Spirit Box works the other way round: it generates the words, letters or numbers itself, at random intervals, then shows and speaks them so you can follow along without touching the screen between outputs.

Four free modes do that job, each one different in what it outputs and in what decides when the next one lands.

Free session modes and how often they output
ModeWhat you getWait between outputs (free)Wait (PRO)
WordsA common word in your phone's language, spoken7-18 s4-10 s
LettersA string of 2-12 random lowercase letters, spoken5-15 s3-8 s
Numbers ITC3-8 digits from π, e, φ or √2, shown only6-14 s3-8 s
Sound AnalysisA word when the microphone hears a loud peakAt most one per secondSame

How to do a spirit box session in the app

  1. Find a quiet spot and turn the volume up so you can hear the spoken outputs.
  2. On the home screen, under Begin Your Session, tap Words. The header shows how many free sessions you have left today.
  3. Tap Start Session. The screen title changes to Words ITC and a timer starts.
  4. Ask one short question aloud, then wait. Each word appears with its time and is spoken with the system voice.
  5. Tap any word in the list to hear it again. Tap Skip if you want the next word straight away.
  6. Tap End Session when you are done, or let the timer end it. The Session Complete screen shows the date, stats and every output.
  7. Tap Share as Image, Share to Stories or Copy Outputs to Clipboard, then Done. The session is saved to Session History.

How many words will a free session give you?

There is no fixed count, it is random. On the free plan, where Words waits anywhere from 7 to 18 seconds (12.5 seconds on average), a 3-minute run usually lands around a dozen words. PRO cuts that wait to 4 to 10 seconds, so the same 3 minutes gives you noticeably more to work with.

Session length by plan
PlanSessions per dayLongest session
Free3 (plus bonus sessions)3 min, or 5 min with Watch Ad for +2 min once
PROUnlimited20 min

Which mode should you pick?

  • Words if you want readable answers — most outputs are short function words such as "the", "after" or "again", since the list is built from the most common words in a language, not the interesting ones.
  • Letters if you would rather look for names or initials in raw letter strings.
  • Numbers ITC if you like number sessions. Pick the constant next to Source: first; each run of digits is pulled from a random position in it.
  • Sound Analysis if you want the room to set the pace. Tap Start Listening and a word appears only on a sudden loud sound, stored with the sound level. Manual gives you one on demand.

Common mistakes

  • Expecting whole sentences. Outputs are single words or strings — meaning comes from how you read them in context.
  • Starting in a noisy room with Sound Analysis. Traffic, doors and voices all count as peaks, every one of them.
  • Forgetting the free session clock. It ends itself at 3 minutes, and the Watch Ad for +2 min button only shows up once most of that time is gone.
  • Treating the app as your only record. There is no iCloud backup here, so export or share anything you actually want to keep.

Questions and answers

Is there a free spirit box app for iPhone?
Spirit Box is free to download and its Words, Letters, Numbers ITC, Sound Analysis and Ouija modes are free, with ads and 3 sessions a day of up to 3 minutes.
Does the app pick words based on what I ask?
No. Words are drawn at random from a built-in list; the app does not listen to your questions. Only Sound Analysis uses the microphone, and only to decide when a word appears.
Can I use the spirit box app without internet?
Yes. All session modes run on the device. You only need a connection for ads and purchases.
Why are most words so short?
Because the list is built from the most common words of each language, and common words are usually short — "the", "what", that kind of thing. It is by design, not something broken.

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