SPOOKY BOX / SPIRIT BOX APP
A SPIRIT BOX APP
THAT SHOWS ITS WORK.
Spooky Box is a spirit box-style app for Android phones. Set the phone down, and when its sensors pick up a shift in the room, a word appears, is spoken aloud, and shows the reason it came up.
What a spirit box is
A spirit box, also called a ghost box, is a radio changed to sweep through the stations without stopping. It rests on each frequency for a fraction of a second, so what comes out is static broken by scraps of voices and music. People ask questions out loud and listen for words in the sweep.
Spooky Box comes from the same tradition, but it does not use radio. It reads the sensors already inside your phone, and when they shift, it speaks a word aloud. If you came looking for a ghost box app, that is the plain description of this one: a word app for ghost hunting nights and paranormal investigations, made for entertainment.
How Spooky Box chooses a word
Your phone's sensors decide the moment. Chance decides the word.
For the first five seconds of a session, Spooky Box only learns the room: the normal level of each sensor your phone has. After that, words arrive at unpredictable moments, and a bigger shift away from those normal readings makes the next word likely to arrive sooner.
The word itself is drawn at random from the built-in bank. It is not picked for its meaning, and what you make of it is yours. Under every word, the screen shows the reason it came up, and the session log keeps it with the time:
- Magnetic shift. The strength of the magnetic field around the phone moved away from its normal level. The change is shown in microtesla, for example +14.2 µT.
- Pressure shift. The air pressure changed.
- Temperature shift and humidity shift. The air warmed, cooled, dried or dampened, on phones that have those sensors.
- Spontaneous. No reading stood out. The word arrived by chance alone.
One tap during a session opens the live readings from every sensor Spooky Box uses: magnetic field, motion, gyroscope, compass, pressure, temperature and humidity, as far as your phone has them.
More than 3,500 original words
The English bank holds more than 3,500 words and short phrases written for Spooky Box: names, places, objects, actions, feelings, and phrases such as "the hallway" and "another room". Built-in words do not repeat within a session. With the one-time unlock you can add your own words and names, typed in or imported from a text file.
Hands off
Picking a phone up shakes every sensor in it, so Spooky Box throws out readings taken while the phone is being handled. It measures the strength of the magnetic field, not its direction, so turning the phone is not read as a shift. Hands-off mode, on by default, pauses words until the phone is still again. Keep it a little way from magnets, speakers and other electronics, which move the magnetic reading.
Record it, replay it, film it
Turn on Record the room and the microphone keeps the whole session on your phone. Afterwards, tap any word in the session log to hear the room from just before it came up. Tap Mark during a session to stamp a moment worth going back to.
Open the camera during a session and the current word, its reason, the clock and the magnetic reading are drawn into your photos and clips. More in Keep what the room said and on the page about filming and the Figures overlay.
Three languages
Words and voice come in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Each bank was written from scratch for its own speakers, not translated: 1,869 entries in Spanish and 1,751 in Portuguese. The app's own menus are in English for now. Read about Spooky Box en español or em português.
What costs nothing, and what the unlock adds
Sessions are unlimited and cost nothing, and so is everything above apart from custom words. One optional purchase 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 the audio of your recordings.
It is a single payment, not a subscription, and Google Play shows the price in your currency. There are no ads and no account. The full list is under Yours to run all night on the home page.
Getting it
Spooky Box is for Android phones running Android 8.0 or later. Available sensor readings depend on your device. An iPhone version is not currently offered.
Spooky Box is on its way to Google Play.
Read next
- Taking a phone on a ghost hunt: what its sensors can and cannot measure, and how to run a session.
- Filming a session, and the Figures overlay: what the stick figure is, right or wrong.
- The Spooky Box home page, and support if something is not working.
Questions
Does Spooky Box use radio like a spirit box?
No. A hardware spirit box sweeps through radio stations. Spooky Box has no radio in it: it reads your phone's sensors, and when they shift, it speaks a word from its built-in bank. It is an app in the same tradition, made for entertainment.
Is it just a random word generator?
The word is random, and we say so. When it arrives is tied to your phone's sensors: each session learns the room's normal readings, a bigger shift brings the next word sooner, and every word shows the reason it came up. Built-in words do not repeat within a session.
Will it work as a ghost box app on my Android phone?
It runs on Android 8.0 or later. Every phone has its own set of sensors: most have a magnetic field sensor and motion sensors, fewer have a barometer, and few have temperature or humidity sensors. Any sensor your phone lacks is shown as not on this device, and the session uses the rest.
What does the one-time unlock add?
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; and audio export of your recordings. It is a single payment through Google Play, not a subscription.
Can I hear a session again afterwards?
Yes. Every session is saved in an archive on your phone with each word, its time and its reason. If Record the room was on, tap any word in the session log to hear the room from just before it came up.
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.