MIMIC PARTY · DEVELOPMENT NOTE
A room can share scores without sharing voices
Online play needs coordination, but it does not need an always-on voice channel. Mimic Party keeps public rooms score-only and makes every private replay a deliberate, temporary action.
The default room boundary
Public rooms appear in the lobby with a title, code and player count. Players join with a nickname and receive the same four reference sounds. Readiness, round progress and numeric scores are shared with room members; live voice chat is not part of the product. A player who wants to talk can use a separate call of their choice.
Private means invite-only, not anonymous
A private room does not appear in the public list, but anyone who receives its code or link can join while it is active. Room names should not contain personal information. The room state expires after two hours, and the browser uses a session token to reconnect after a refresh. The token is kept in session storage and should not be shared.
Sharing a take is an explicit action
After a private-room round is scored, a player may choose to share a short take. The client sends a bounded WAV only after the player agrees, and the server requires the matching consent header. Playback is never automatic. A member can listen, mute a replay or hide an unwanted clip, and the owner can remove their own take.
Short expiry is part of the design
A shared take lives in temporary room memory for up to five minutes, until the round changes, when the player leaves or when it is removed. A server restart can expire it sooner. The clip is not written to the public library, leaderboard or analytics tables. Removal cannot recall audio that another listener already recorded, so players should share only with people they trust.
Why the rule is explained in public
A visible privacy boundary helps a new player decide whether to join. The microphone intro repeats that recordings stay on-device by default, the online footnote links to Privacy and the Terms page describes acceptable room use. Clear copy is part of the feature: a consent switch hidden in a technical request would not be a useful party rule.
A room state is deliberately small
The online service coordinates a code, players, readiness, round, scores and expiry. It does not need a live voice channel to decide who advances or show a result. Keeping the state small makes reconnects easier to explain and gives the operator a clear answer when a room expires: start a new one rather than expecting a private invitation to last forever.
Replay controls are social controls
Listen, mute, hide and remove are visible actions because a group should know when a sound is being requested. Playback is never automatic, and a shared clip is temporary. These controls cannot recall audio a listener records outside the site, so the best privacy feature is still choosing a trusted room and sharing only a take you are comfortable showing.
The rule applies to support too
If a player reports a room issue, support does not need a voice file or a private invitation pasted into a public place. A code, approximate time and the visible error are usually enough. The Contact page gives the operator a route for a correction, and the Privacy page explains what can and cannot be removed.