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Spirit Box

Spirit box vs Ouija board: what is the difference on a phone?

A spirit box gives you spoken fragments on a timer; an Ouija board gives you a planchette that spells letters one at a time. In Spirit Box both are random number generators in different packaging: Words picks a common word and says it, Ouija draws 3 to 7 letters and slides a planchette across them.

4 min read · Updated 2026-09-16

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Same free plan, same 3 minutes, and the two modes feel nothing alike. Words gives readable single words, from a list that includes "after" and "again". Ouija gives a planchette that is fun to watch and almost never lands on a real word. Running both back to back makes that gap obvious in under a minute. The reasons are below.

What a real spirit box does, and what the app does instead

The hardware version sweeps through radio stations very fast, and people listen for words in the scraps of speech and noise. A phone cannot scan radio, so the app does not pretend to. It generates the output and says it aloud, so the word comes out clean instead of buried in static.

The nearest thing to the hardware idea is the Ghost Box module. It plays short synthesized sound fragments, not words, and needs PRO or a one-time ad trial. The free spirit-box experience is the Words card.

Words and Ouija side by side

Free plan, same 3-minute session
WordsOuija
What comes outOne common word from your phone's language3 to 7 random letters, A to Z
How it is shownListed with its time, then spokenPlanchette moves 0.75 s per letter, then the word is spoken
Wait before the next one7-18 s (12.5 s average)7-18 s, after the spelling finishes
Time for one average output12.5 s plus a short 1-2.5 s generation pause16.85 s (5 letters is 4.35 s, plus the 12.5 s wait)
Outputs in a 3-minute runAbout 12 to 13 (simulated 40,000 runs: 12.8)About 11 (simulated 40,000 runs: 10.8)
Shown on screenFull listLast 4 words under the board

Why Ouija gives you so few real words

Words only ever draws from a list of common function words, 570 entries for English, so every output is a real word. The Ouija board has no list. It draws each letter independently from A to Z.

Take the 3-letter word YES. There are 26 x 26 x 26 = 17,576 possible 3-letter strings, so one draw lands on YES 1 time in 17,576. The board picks a length from 3 to 7 with equal odds, so a given 3-letter draw comes up only 1 time in 5, which makes it 1 in 87,880 for any single output. Checked against the app's English word list of 570 entries, about 1 random string in 1,250 is on it.

The planchette never drifts to YES or NO. It only visits letters, and it never stops on YES, NO or GOODBYE.

Which one to pick

  • Words, if you want something you can read aloud to a friend and talk about. Most outputs are short words like "the" or "never", because the list is built from the most common words, not the interesting ones.
  • Ouija, if the point is the show: the haptic tap on each letter, the planchette gliding, a group around a table reading letters over each other's shoulders.
  • Sound Analysis, if you want the room to affect the timing. A word comes when the microphone hears a sudden loud sound, or when you tap Manual. The word itself is still a random draw.

For a group, Ouija works well. Alone in a quiet room, Words suits better. Neither is better at "contact". They differ in how much you read into them: a string like KRTMB makes you supply the meaning, and so does a word like "never", just from a smaller pile.

How to start either one

  1. On the home screen, tap the Words card or the Ouija card.
  2. Tap Start Session. The screen title becomes Words ITC or Ouija Board.
  3. Say a short question out loud, then wait for the next output.
  4. Tap End Session when you are finished. Session Complete lists every output with its time, and you can use Copy Outputs to Clipboard.

Limits to know before you install

  • Free: 3 sessions per day, up to 3 minutes each, with ads. Sound Analysis is also free. Watch Ad for +2 min adds 2 minutes once per session.
  • PRO shortens the wait between outputs to 4-10 s and allows sessions up to 20 minutes. A 20-minute PRO Ouija run is about 106 outputs by the same simulation.
  • Nothing in either mode listens to your question. The next output comes on a timer.
  • The app says so itself: the Ouija screen reads "Entertainment only", and the settings footer says results are generated through randomization algorithms.
  • It works on iPhone and iPad, offline. There is no Android version and no Apple Watch version.

Questions and answers

Is a spirit box like a ouija board?
They share the idea of reading meaning into something random, but they work differently. A spirit box produces spoken fragments on a timer, and an Ouija board spells letters one at a time. In this app both come from random generation on the phone.
How does a spirit box work?
A hardware spirit box scans radio stations quickly and people listen for words in the fragments. The app does not scan anything: the Words mode picks a random word from a list and speaks it.
Is a spirit box real?
The app makes no claim that it is. Outputs are random, and a word you hear is your interpretation. What the app does say is that the choice of word is made by a random draw.
Does the Ouija mode answer my question?
No. It does not hear the question. The planchette spells 3 to 7 random letters on its own timer and never goes to YES or NO.
Which mode is free?
Both Words and Ouija are free, with 3 sessions a day and ads. PRO removes the ads and shortens the wait between outputs.

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