A silent disco with phones and headphones

Late night, thin walls, or a room that has to stay quiet. Everyone puts headphones on, every phone plays the same instant, and the room dances to one beat nobody outside can hear.

3 min read

A phone playing a song in a BeatBuddies party next to a phone showing the Nudge this phone slider

Thin walls, neighbours who complain, a hostel after lights out, or a garden where the music has to stop at ten. The party does not have to stop. Everyone puts on headphones, every phone plays the same song at the same instant, and the room dances to a beat nobody outside can hear.

That is a silent disco, and you do not need rented wireless headsets to run one. You need phones, headphones, and a way to keep every phone on the same moment of the same song.

Why sync matters even with headphones on

It is tempting to think timing only matters when phones play out loud. It matters just as much here, for a different reason. The fun of a silent disco is the room moving together: everyone jumping on the same drop, everyone shouting the same chorus into the silence. If one person is half a second ahead, they jump before everyone else and the moment falls apart.

In a BeatBuddies party every phone is given the same start time and keeps checking its own clock, so the whole room hits the drop together. Someone who joins halfway through a song starts halfway through, on the beat, not from the beginning.

Setting it up

  1. The host starts a party in the app or at beatbuddies.online/app, and adds songs with Search or with + Files from their own phone.
  2. Everyone joins with the six character code, the QR on the host’s screen, or a link in the group chat. No account needed to join.
  3. Headphones in, volume up to a comfortable level, and the host presses play. Every phone counts down and starts together.

Wired or Bluetooth?

This is the one thing worth understanding before the night. Wired headphones play the sound almost as soon as the phone makes it. Bluetooth earbuds and headphones have to encode the sound, send it over the air and decode it again, and that adds a delay. How much depends on the model and the connection, but it is often somewhere between a tenth and a quarter of a second, which is easily enough to put someone behind the room.

Extra delay added by different ways of listening Illustrative bars, BT meaning Bluetooth. Wired headphones and the phone speaker add almost no extra delay. Bluetooth earbuds often add roughly 100 to 250 milliseconds. A Bluetooth speaker often adds roughly 100 to 300 milliseconds. The Nudge slider covers up to 300 milliseconds either way. WiredPhone speakerBT earbudsBT speaker 0100200300 ms Nudge: up to 300 ms either way
Illustration of typical ranges. BT means Bluetooth. Your own headphones may be quicker or slower.

Where a phone reports how long its own audio takes to come out, BeatBuddies already takes that into account. Many phones do not report the extra Bluetooth delay accurately, and that is what the Nudge slider is for.

Lining up Bluetooth headphones with Nudge

Do this once per person, before the party gets going. It takes under a minute.

  1. Stand next to a friend whose phone is playing through wired headphones or its own speaker. That is your reference.
  2. Put one earbud in and keep the other ear free, so you hear both.
  3. Tap the sync pill at the top of your phone and find Nudge this phone.
  4. If your earbud sounds behind, drag the slider to the right in small steps until the beats land together.

The setting stays on that phone, so the next song needs nothing.

The Nudge this phone slider in BeatBuddies set to plus 180 milliseconds
Nudge only moves the phone it is set on.

Two channels, like a real silent disco

Hired silent discos often have two or three channels, and people pick the one they like. You can do the same with two parties. Two people with accounts each start a party, one for Bollywood and one for everything else, and guests join whichever code they want. Switching is leaving one party and typing the other code.

Good habits for the night

  • Keep the volume sensible. With headphones it is easy to creep up over an evening. If you cannot hear someone talking right next to you, it is too loud.
  • Charge first. Bluetooth and music together use battery faster than people expect.
  • Short on data? Low data mode fetches only the current song and the next one.
  • Keep the queue with the host. Only admins can add and skip songs, so the night keeps a shape. Make a friend an admin if you want to share it.

Questions people ask

Do Bluetooth earbuds work?

Yes. They add their own delay, so line each pair up once with Nudge this phone in Sync and settings. Wired headphones need no adjustment.

Can we have more than one channel?

Yes. Start two parties with two codes, one for each kind of music, and guests join whichever they like.

Do guests need an account?

No. Joining is free, with ten minutes straight away and a free sign-up after that.

More from the blog

New feature

New: hosts can lock play and pause

One tap, and only the host and admins can start and stop the music.

Guide

How to play the same song on several phones at once, in sync

Four steps, about a minute, and every phone in the room plays the same beat.

House party

No speaker at the house party? Use every phone in the room

Where to put the phones, how loud to set them, and who runs the music.