SPOOKY BOX / SPIRIT BOX APP OFFLINE
A SPIRIT BOX APP
THAT WORKS OFFLINE.
Yes: Spooky Box runs without a connection. Sessions, the words, the voice, recording, the archive and replay all happen on the phone, and the app goes online only to check the unlock purchase with Google Play.
What works offline
Spooky Box is a spirit box-style app for Android with no radio in it and no server behind it. It reads the phone's own sensors, and when a reading shifts away from the room's normal level, it speaks a word from a bank built into the app.
- The session. Magnetic field, motion, pressure, temperature and humidity, as far as your phone has them, are read on the phone. The first five seconds learn the room; a bigger shift makes the next word likely to come sooner.
- The words. The English bank of more than 3,500 words is built in, and so are the Spanish and Portuguese banks. The word is drawn at random on the phone, and the reason under it is the phone's own reading.
- The voice. The Android text-to-speech engine on your phone speaks each word. Voices that need a network are labelled Needs internet in the app's voice list, and unless you choose otherwise Spooky Box uses an offline voice when one is installed.
- Recording and the archive. When you tap Start session, choose Nothing, Audio, or Audio and video (up to 20 minutes). Tap Mark to stamp a moment; afterwards, tap any word in the log to hear the room from just before it. Photos, clips and the Figures overlay run on the phone, and every session stays in the archive with each word, its time and its reason.
Nothing is uploaded. Session logs, recordings, videos, photos, clips, settings and custom words stay on your device. There is no account, there are no ads, and the app has no analytics of its own; the privacy policy lists it in full.
This matters because of where people take a spirit box app. Old buildings have thick walls and deep basements, and the places on our haunted places pages, such as Waverly Hills Sanatorium, run investigations overnight. An app that needs a server to produce a word falls silent there. Spooky Box does not notice: the word is random with or without a signal, the sensors decide only when it arrives, and it is made for entertainment either way.
The one thing that needs a connection
Spooky Box's own code uses the internet for one purpose: checking the optional one-time unlock. Google Play handles the payment. To make sure the unlock is genuine, and to notice if Google later cancels or refunds it, the app sends the purchase token Google Play gave your phone, with the app version number, over an encrypted connection to a verification service. It sends no name, email address, Google account, location, sensor readings, session logs, words, recordings, videos, photos or clips.
The check runs when you buy, when you tap Restore purchase, after you reinstall or change phones, and when you open the app a week or more after the last successful check. After a successful check the app keeps the unlock status on the phone so that, in the words of the privacy policy, "your unlock keeps working without a connection". An unlock already on the phone stays open when no check can be made. The one moment you need to be online is the purchase itself: if the app still says confirming, keep it open on Wi-Fi or mobile data and tap Try again.
Two things outside the app may also need a connection: downloading a new voice for the speech engine, and sharing an export to a cloud or messaging app.
How to set up before you go
- Install it. Spooky Box is on Google Play for Android 8.0 or later.
- Open it once online. If you have bought the unlock, or are restoring one, the check completes while you are connected. Then open Voice settings, pick a voice not labelled Needs internet, and tap Test voice; if none is installed for your language, add one in your phone's text-to-speech settings while you still have a signal.
- Choose the recording setting. Run a short session. When you tap Start session, the app asks whether to record it: Nothing, Audio, or Audio and video. It remembers your choice, and you can keep it as the default so it stops asking. Filming a whole session needs at least 1 GB of free space.
- Charge up. The screen stays on during a session by default, and recording and filming use more. Start full and carry a power bank.
- Airplane mode, if you like. The app does not need a signal, so turn airplane mode on before you start. A session ends if Spooky Box goes into the background, so anything that keeps you from switching apps helps.
On site, set the phone down away from speakers, magnets and other electronics and give it five seconds to learn the room. The ghost hunting guide walks through a session step by step; the spirit box guide explains how a word is chosen.
Try it
Spooky Box is on Google Play for Android 8.0 or later; an iPhone version is coming next. Install it, open it once while you are connected, and it is ready for a building with no signal. What the home page says about sessions, recording and replay holds without a connection.
Read next
- Ghost hunting with a phone: how to run a session on an investigation, and what the sensors measure.
- Haunted places: the buildings people investigate, and how to run a session there.
- The Spooky Box home page: the session preview, what is included and what the unlock adds.
Questions
Does Spooky Box need Wi-Fi or mobile data to run a session?
No. A session reads the phone's own sensors, draws a word at random from the bank built into the app and speaks it with the Android speech engine on the phone. Recording, filming, the archive and replay are on the phone too. Turn the connection off and a session runs the same way.
What happens to the unlock when the phone is offline?
After a successful check, the app keeps the unlock status on the phone, so your unlock keeps working without a connection. The check runs when you buy, when you restore, and when you open the app online a week or more after the last successful check. Buying or restoring the unlock does need the phone to be online, because that goes through Google Play.
Will the voice work with no internet?
It uses the text-to-speech engine installed on your Android phone. Voices that need a network are labelled Needs internet in the app's voice list, and unless you choose otherwise Spooky Box uses an offline voice when one is installed. Open Voice settings and tap Test voice before you leave to be sure an offline voice is there.
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.