Open Hearts — Support

How to get help, and answers to what people ask.

Getting help

Questions

How do I play?

Go to play.openhearts.game, or (coming soon) search for “Open Hearts” in the App Store or Google Play. New to Hearts? How to play explains the game in a few minutes, and Learn to play, in the game's menu, teaches you a hand.

What are the rules for Hearts?

  1. Four players, thirteen cards each.
  2. Pass three cards: left, right, across, then no pass.
  3. The two of clubs leads. Follow suit if you can.
  4. No points on the first trick, unless you have nothing else.
  5. Hearts can't be led until one has been played.
  6. Each heart is one point; the queen of spades is thirteen.
  7. Take all twenty-six to shoot the moon: everyone else gets them.
  8. Play to fifty or a hundred. Lowest score wins.

The rules in full, with the variants this game leaves out, are on their own page. For the game's history, see Wikipedia.

How do I subscribe?

Tap the Subscribe button under Play live. On the web, payment is on Stripe's page, and Link, Stripe's affiliate, sells the subscription. In the phone apps, it is through the App Store or Google Play, which bill and renew it. Subscribing makes your account: your name, picture, rating and games go with it onto any device you add (up to 5), and a change to your profile on one of them shows on all of them.

How do I cancel?

Open the menu, choose Subscription, then Manage subscription. That opens the store you subscribed in, or for the web Stripe's billing page, where you cancel; a web subscription can also be cancelled at link.com.

The game's menu with the pointer on Subscription, then the subscription page with the pointer on Manage subscription

Without the app:

What cancelling leaves you with, and refunds, are in the terms.

How do I add another device?

On a device in your account, open the menu, choose Subscription and tap Add a device, then scan the code with the other device, or tap Send the link instead. A code works once, for ten minutes.

The game's menu with the pointer on Subscription, then the subscription page with the pointer on Add a device

What if I lose my phone, or clear my browser?

If another of your devices is in your account, add the new one from there and drop the lost one. If not, use a backup code: on the new device, open the menu, choose Activate subscription and enter it, and the device joins the same account, with your name, picture, rating and games. Signed in with Apple or Google? Sign in the same way on the new device instead. Any device in the account can Show backup codes, and a web subscription's were emailed when you subscribed: keep them somewhere safe. Bought in the App Store or Google Play? On the new phone, tap Subscribe, then Restore purchases.

How do I delete my account?

On a device in your account, open the menu, choose Subscription, and tap Delete account at the foot of the page. It deletes the account at once, on all its devices: its profile, devices, backup codes and sign-in, and your name on the games you played. A web subscription is cancelled with it, and the time left on it is lost. One from the App Store or Google Play has to be cancelled in the store, as above, or it goes on renewing.

Without any of your devices, email help@openhearts.game with the name you play under and, if you subscribed on the web, from the address you paid with, and we will delete it. What stays after a deletion, and why, is in the privacy policy.

Why does it say Open Hearts is open on another device?

Your account plays live on one device at a time, and the one opened most recently is the one in use. The other steps back: it leaves any table it was at and stops playing live, and you can still play alone on it. Tap Use it here to take the account back. If your account is in a game on the other device, you are asked first, because that game will be lost: a bot finishes your seat, and a rated game counts as one you left.

What if nobody else is online?

Ten seconds after you start waiting, bots fill the empty seats. You can play with bots at once instead, or wait up to five minutes for a person: we are told someone is waiting, and one of us may come and play. What we are told is in the privacy policy.

What if I leave a live game early?

A bot takes your seat at once and plays it to the end, so the game goes on for everyone else. A rated game counts as one you finished last. And if Play live seated you there, with other people still at the table, it waits a few minutes before seating you again, and shows how long is left; playing alone and with friends stay open. A seat a bot takes because your time ran out, or your device stopped answering, counts the same as one you left.

Can I play with a screen reader, or bigger text?

Yes. Every card, seat, trick and score has a name a screen reader can read. In a browser, press Enable accessibility, the first button a screen reader finds, and use the browser's zoom for bigger text. In the phone apps, turn on VoiceOver (iPhone) or TalkBack (Android); the app follows the phone's text size.

Can I pick the language?

The game follows your device's language. On the web, choose another under Language on the game's About page, or with the language menu at the foot of this site. On a phone, use the phone's own setting for each app: on an iPhone, Settings, then Open Hearts, then Language; on Android 13 and later, Settings, then System, then Languages, then App languages.

How do I know the deal is fair?

Random. At a live table every seat shuffles the deck in turn and proves it shuffled honestly, a player's own device for their seat and our server for a bot's, so one honest shuffle is enough for a fair deal. Each hand opens for its own player alone: no other player sees it. Our server sees the bots' hands, which it plays, so at a table of one player and three bots it could work out the player's hand from them. Alone, every deal comes from your device's secure random generator.

Refereed. Each live table has a referee on our relay: it puts every move in one order and keeps the time, and decides nothing else. Every device applies the same rules to the same moves, so they all come to the same table, and every move is signed by whoever made it. Our server plays the bots' seats, and holds half of what it would take to open each player's hand; the other players hold the other half, so our server cannot open your hand alone. When a player leaves mid-hand, their hand is opened to the table for the rest of that hand, so that a bot can play it out.

Audited. After each hand every seat's secret is published, the bots' too, so the whole game can be replayed and every shuffle, card and play checked, our server's among them. After a live game, See the whole game does that check for you; after a game alone, Copy record keeps it.

How it all works is in the write-up.

What happens to my data?

Alone, nothing leaves your device. Live play shows your name, picture, account number and results publicly. Nothing is sold or used for ads. More in the privacy policy.