SPOOKY BOX / GHOSTTUBE VS SPOOKY BOX

GHOSTTUBE OR SPOOKY BOX.
WHAT EACH ONE DOES.

GhostTube is a camera-first paranormal toolkit, a magnetometer meter, word dictionary and sound analyzer over a video recorder, listed on Google Play with ads, in-app purchases and subscriptions. Spooky Box is a spirit box-style word app for Android that times its words from the phone's sensors, shows the reason under each one, and has no ads, no account and one optional one-time unlock.

What GhostTube is, from its own listing

On Google Play it is listed as GhostTube Paranormal Videos, by GhostTube. Its description says it "measures numerous environmental changes using real sensors in your device while simultaneously allowing you to record videos". The feature list names a magnetic field meter built on the phone's magnetometer, a sound spectrum analyzer for anomalies in recorded audio, a customizable dictionary "spanning over 20 languages", custom voices, low-light video filters, a word log, and an online community with a haunted-locations database.

Its price model, in the listing's own words: the labels Contains ads and In-app purchases, a description that "offers in-app purchases and subscriptions", and an asterisk on the dictionary, custom voices, word log and filters. Its website sells twelve-month subscriptions to each GhostTube app; the Original subscription page lists unlimited stored videos, recording longer than thirty seconds, a dictionary of more than a thousand words, your own words, extra filters and more community privileges. Whether the subscription removes the ads is not stated on its listing.

The Play listing does not say whether an account is needed; the website says a subscription bought there is redeemed by an account. Its companion GhostTube VOX, a "radio stream sweeper" by its own listing, plays snippets of real radio streams when the sensors read a particular signature; it and the camera app also carry the Contains ads label and list subscriptions. To its credit, the listing says plainly that paranormal tools "are designed to measure and react to changes in the environment only".

What Spooky Box does differently

Spooky Box is narrower on purpose: a spirit box-style app with no radio in it. It reads the sensors the phone has, magnetic field, motion, pressure, temperature and humidity, learns the room's normal readings in the first five seconds, and after that a bigger shift makes the next word likely to come sooner. The word itself is random, drawn from a built-in bank of more than 3,500 words that do not repeat within a session.

What GhostTube's listing does not describe is a reason line. Under every Spooky Box word is why it came up: "Magnetic shift +14.2 µT", "Pressure shift", or "Spontaneous" when nothing stood out. Readings taken while the phone is handled are thrown out, and hands-off mode pauses words until it is still.

Recording is built around the session, not the camera. Choose Nothing, Audio, or Audio and video when you start; filming runs up to 20 minutes with the current word and its reason drawn in. Afterwards, tap any word in the log to hear the room from just before it; Mark stamps a moment. Figures, an on-device body-pose overlay, draws a stick figure over whatever it reads as a person, right or wrong, with no network. Words and voice come in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Sessions, recording, filming and playback cost nothing. One optional one-time unlock through Google Play opens every archived session instead of the five most recent, adds custom words and names with a setting for how often they appear, the Dead Channel and Wraith voice effects, and export of a session's audio or video. No ads, no account, no subscription; it goes online only to check the unlock. Android 8.0 or later; no iPhone version yet.

Side by side

Does either of them show anything?

No. A phone has no sensor for a presence. GhostTube's listing says its tools measure and react to changes in the environment only; Spooky Box says the same another way: the word is random, the sensors decide only when it arrives, and the reason under it is an ordinary measurement, a magnetic field or air pressure that changed, or nothing at all. Both apps are entertainment. The guide on ghost hunting with a phone covers what each sensor can and cannot measure.

Which one fits you

GhostTube fits someone who films first and wants meters and words over the video, likes a community feed inside the app, and accepts ads and a subscription. It is also the one if you need an iPhone app today.

Spooky Box fits someone who wants a spirit box-style session, in a hallway at home or on a visit to Waverly Hills: set the phone down, ask out loud, listen, and see why each word came up. It fits anyone who wants to replay the room from the moment before a word and would rather pay once, or not at all. How it chooses a word is on its own page, and the home page lists everything included. Nothing stops you running both in the same room.

Try it

Spooky Box is on Google Play for Android 8.0 or later. Set the phone down, start a session, and watch the reason appear under each word. The unlock can wait until you want custom words or exports.

Read next

• A spirit box app that shows its work: how a word is timed, and why it is random.
• Haunted places: where people take these apps, and the stories told there.
• The Spooky Box home page: everything included, and the five things the unlock adds.

Questions

Spooky Box is paranormal entertainment. It uses device sensor activity and a word engine to create atmospheric sessions. Generated words and sensor readings do not establish the presence of spirits or verified communication.