Reverse Audio Challenge: How to Play the Backwards Words Game

By KT Apps · Updated October 16, 2026

What you need

• Two or more players. It also works as a solo challenge.
• A phone, tablet or computer with a microphone that can play a recording backwards.
• A fairly quiet room, so the recording picks up voices rather than background noise.

How to play, step by step

1. Player A secretly chooses a word or short phrase and records it clearly.
2. Play the recording in reverse to the group. Player A should not say what the original was.
3. Player B listens to the reversed clip as many times as the group allows, then records an imitation of the reversed sound, as closely as they can.
4. Play Player B's imitation in reverse.
5. Everyone guesses the original phrase from what they hear. Player A then reveals it.
6. Swap roles and go again.

A popular variation skips the secret: Player A says the phrase openly, and the challenge is simply whether Player B can produce a convincing reversal.

Tips for imitating a reversed clip

• Listen several times before you try. Break the clip into syllables in your head.
• Copy the rhythm and the order of sounds, not the meaning. It will feel like nonsense, which is right.
• Pay attention to where sounds start and stop. Reversed speech often has sounds that swell up and then cut off sharply, the opposite of normal speech.
• Keep the same pace as the clip. Rushing is the most common reason an imitation fails.
• Speak at a steady distance from the microphone.

Good words and phrases to try

Start easy and get harder:

Easy

• Names of family members or pets
• Short words with clear sounds, such as "banana", "pizza" or "elephant"
• Two-word phrases like "good morning"

Medium

• Well-known catchphrases or song titles
• "Happy birthday to you"
• Short tongue twisters like "red lorry, yellow lorry"

Hard

• Full sentences with many soft consonants
• The first line of a nursery rhyme
• Words in another language

Scoring ideas for groups

• One point to whoever guesses the original phrase first.
• One point to the imitator if the group can understand their reversed recording.
• Teams: each team writes a phrase for the other team to perform.
• Rounds of increasing difficulty: one word, then two, then a full sentence.

Ways to reverse audio compared

Audio or video editing software

Desktop editors such as Audacity include a reverse effect, and many video editors can reverse a clip. They give fine control and let you save the results, but each round means recording, importing, selecting and applying the effect, which is slow when a group is waiting.

Social video apps

Some social apps offer a reverse or rewind effect for videos. Fun for sharing, but usually designed for clips you post rather than quick rounds of play.

A dedicated reverse recorder

An app with a record button and a reverse button is the fastest for the game: record, reverse, pass the phone. It is limited to that one job and may not save or export clips.

Playing the challenge with Voicechain

Voicechain is built for quick rounds of the game.

1. The first time, allow the browser to use the microphone when asked.
2. Tap Start Recording and say the phrase. Tap Stop Recording when done.
3. Tap Play to check the recording, or go straight to Reverse playback to hear it backwards.
4. The next player listens, then records their imitation the same way. The new recording replaces the previous one.
5. Tap Reverse playback on the imitation and see whether the original phrase comes back.

Quiet recordings are boosted automatically so everyone can hear. In the web version, recordings are kept only in memory in your browser while you use the page and are never uploaded; there is no download button. Voicechain is also available for iPhone and Android.

Frequently asked questions