SPOOKY BOX / CUSTOM WORDS
A SPIRIT BOX APP
WITH YOUR OWN WORDS.
Yes. With its one optional unlock, Spooky Box lets you add your own words and names, typed in or imported from a text file, and choose how often they come up beside its built-in bank of more than 3,500 words.
How custom words work
Spooky Box is a spirit box-style app for Android with no radio in it. It reads the sensors inside your phone, and when they shift away from the room's normal readings, a word is spoken aloud and shown with the reason it came up. Your phone's sensors decide the moment. Chance decides the word.
Custom words join that same draw. With the unlock, you keep a list of your own words and names beside the built-in bank, and a setting decides how often a draw comes from your list instead. The bank of more than 3,500 English words and short phrases carries the rest of the session, so your names arrive now and then among words you did not choose.
Once drawn, a custom word is treated like any other. It is spoken aloud, goes into the session log with its time, and shows its reason underneath: Magnetic shift +14.2 µT, Pressure shift, or Spontaneous when no reading stood out. If you recorded the session, tap it in the log afterwards to hear the room from just before it came up.
Two things are worth saying plainly. Which of your words comes up is random, and adding a word does not mean it will come up in a given session. And while built-in words do not repeat within a session, custom words are kept out of that no-repeat list, so a name on your list can come up more than once. If a name you added arrives right after you ask about it, that is a random draw landing on a short list. The app is made for entertainment, and it shows nothing more than that.
What is included, and what the unlock adds
Sessions are unlimited and cost nothing, and so does nearly everything else: the full built-in bank, live sensor readings, hands-off mode, recording a session as audio or as audio and video for up to 20 minutes, replay from any word, marks, photos and clips with the words drawn in, the Figures overlay, words and voice in English, Spanish and Portuguese, your five most recent archived sessions, and the word log exported as text. There are no ads and nothing to sign up for.
One optional one-time unlock, bought inside the app through Google Play, adds five things:
- 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.
- The Dead Channel and Wraith voice effects.
- Export of the audio or video of a session.
It is a single payment, not a subscription, and Google Play shows the price in your currency. The full comparison is under What you get on the home page.
How to add your words
Open the Custom words screen in the app. There are two ways in.
Type them. Add a word or a name at a time. Entries can use letters, spaces, apostrophes and hyphens, up to 24 characters, so a room name or a first and last name fits. The list holds up to 200 of your words.
Import a text file. Put one word or phrase per line in a plain text file and import it. The app reports how many it added and how many it skipped as duplicates or not allowed.
Then set how often custom words appear. There are four levels:
- Off. Your words stay in the list but are not used.
- Low. About 1 word in 30 comes from your list.
- Medium. About 1 in 15, which is where the app starts.
- High. About 1 in 8.
What to add is up to you: the names, places and phrases that matter on your investigation, such as the family who lived in a house, the name of a ward or a cell block, or the objects in the room. If you are visiting somewhere with a long history, our pages about haunted places, such as Waverly Hills Sanatorium, are one place to start. For running the session itself once the phone is down, see the ghost hunting guide.
Your list stays on your phone, stored on the device with your sessions, recordings, photos and clips, until you remove a word in the app. There is no account to sign in to and there are no ads.
Try it
Spooky Box is on Google Play for Android 8.0 or later; an iPhone version is coming next. Sessions cost nothing, so you can run a few with the built-in bank first and add your own words if the unlock suits you. The home page has a preview of a session.
Read next
- A spirit box app that shows its work: how a word is chosen and what its reason means.
- Haunted places to investigate: twelve reportedly haunted places in the United States, and how to run a session at each.
- The Spooky Box home page: what is included, what the unlock adds, and the questions people ask.
Questions
Can I add my own names to a ghost box app?
In Spooky Box, yes, with its one optional one-time unlock. Type words or names in, or import a text file with one per line, then choose how often they come up: Off, Low, Medium or High. Which of your words comes up is random, and adding a word does not mean it will come up in a given session.
Does a custom word coming up mean anything?
No more than any other word. Every word in Spooky Box is a random draw, and your phone's sensors decide only when the next one arrives. A custom word is spoken aloud and shows its reason like the rest, whether a magnetic shift, a pressure shift or Spontaneous. The app is made for entertainment.
How do I import a list of words into Spooky Box?
Put one word or phrase per line in a plain text file and import it from the Custom words screen. Entries can use letters, spaces, apostrophes and hyphens, up to 24 characters, and the list holds up to 200 words. The app tells you how many were added and how many were skipped as duplicates or not allowed.
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.