SPOOKY BOX / RECORD AND FILM
A SPIRIT BOX APP
THAT RECORDS VIDEO.
Yes. Spooky Box records a session as audio, or films it as video with the words drawn on screen, and the recording stays on your phone. Afterwards, tap any word in the log to hear the room from just before it came up.
How recording works
When you tap Start session, Spooky Box asks one question: Record this session? There are three answers.
- Nothing. Words only; every word is still saved with its time and reason.
- Audio. The microphone keeps the whole session on your phone: your questions, the spoken words and anything else it picks up.
- Audio and video. The session runs in the camera view and is filmed with sound from its first second, for up to 20 minutes.
Spooky Box remembers your choice for next time, and Settings can stop it asking.
A filmed session carries its own notes. The current word, its reason, the session clock and the magnetic reading are drawn into the picture as they happen, so the video shows which word arrived, when, and on what reading. Show figures, if you turn it on, draws a stick figure over whatever an on-device body-pose model reads as a person, right or wrong; it uses no network.
During any session, tap Mark to stamp a moment worth going back to: a sound in the next room, a word that landed. The log shows the mark between the words.
Afterwards, open the session in the archive. Its log lists each word with its time and reason, with your marks between them. With a recording, tap any word or mark to play the room from just before it.
In a session you are not filming, open the camera for photos and clips with the same overlay drawn in; the session keeps running behind it, and you can share them from the log. If you film a clip with sound, the room recording stops for the rest of that session and the clip carries the sound.
Everything stays on the phone until you share it. The app goes online only to check the unlock purchase.
What is included, and what the unlock adds
Recording, marks, filming, photos, clips and playback are included, and sessions are unlimited. So is exporting a session's word log as a text file to share. The five most recent sessions open from the archive.
One optional one-time unlock through Google Play adds five things, and one of them is export, in two forms:
- Export video shares a filmed session as it is. For any other session, Spooky Box builds a vertical 1080 × 1920 video on your phone from the words as they came up; the sound is the room recording, or the spoken words where there is none.
- Export audio shares the room recording on its own.
The other four: every archived session opens, not just the five most recent; custom words and names, typed or imported from a text file; a setting for how often custom words appear; and Dead Channel and Wraith, two voice effects. It is a single payment, not a subscription, and Google Play shows the price in your currency. There are no ads and no account.
A note on what a recording shows. The word is drawn at random from a built-in bank of more than 3,500 words; the phone's sensors decide only when it arrives, and the reason under it names the reading that moved. A video of a session is a record of what happened in the room and what the app said, not of what caused either, and Spooky Box does not claim otherwise.
How to start
Install Spooky Box from Google Play on a phone running Android 8.0 or later. Then:
Set the phone down. Choose a steady surface away from speakers, magnets, metal and other electronics, which move the magnetic reading.
Tap Start session and choose Audio and video. Or Audio, if you only want the sound. Filming a whole session needs at least 1 GB of free space, and recording and filming use more battery, so start full.
Let it learn the room. For the first five seconds Spooky Box only learns the normal level of each sensor your phone has. The screen says Sensing when it is ready. Hands-off mode is on by default: readings taken while the phone is handled are thrown out, and words pause until it is still again.
Ask out loud, and mark what matters. Ask in a normal voice and leave a pause after each question. Tap Mark for anything you will want to find later.
Keep the app open. A session ends if Spooky Box goes into the background, for example when you switch apps; its words are saved in the archive. Tap End session when you are done.
Find it again. The session is in the archive with its log, its recording and your marks. With the unlock, Export video or Export audio shares it.
For how the words are chosen, read the spirit box app guide; for running a session on an investigation, the ghost hunting guide. Choosing where to take it? Waverly Hills Sanatorium is one of twelve places with a page on running a session there.
Try it
Spooky Box is on Google Play for Android phones running Android 8.0 or later. Recording, filming and playback are included, and sessions are unlimited. An iPhone version is coming next.
Read next
- Filming a session, and the Figures overlay: what the stick figure is, right or wrong.
- Haunted places: twelve reportedly haunted places in the United States, with how to visit and run a session at each.
- The Spooky Box home page: the full feature text, and a sample video made by Export video.
Questions
Can a spirit box app record video?
Spooky Box can. When you tap Start session, choose Audio and video and the session is filmed in the camera view with sound for up to 20 minutes. The current word, its reason, the session clock and the magnetic reading are drawn into the picture, so the video explains itself. Filming is included; sharing the film is part of the one-time unlock.
Where does the recording go?
It stays on your phone, in the session archive. Open the session and its log shows each word with its time and reason, with your marks between them; tap any word or mark to play the recording from just before it. Nothing leaves the phone until you share it.
Can I record a ghost hunting session as audio only?
Yes. Choose Audio on the start sheet and the microphone keeps the whole session: your questions, the spoken words and anything else it picks up. Spooky Box remembers the choice for next time, and Settings can stop it asking. Export audio, which shares the room recording on its own, is part of the one-time unlock.
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.