One Second: guess the song from 0.1 seconds, Songless-style, with real clips

01 · DefinitionWhat is One Second?

One Second is the shortest music quiz in Dronk, the party game app with 16 games in one. The idea is the one you know from browser games like Songless, Heardle and Guessable: you get a tiny snippet of a song, you guess, and every miss buys you a longer snippet. One Second squeezes it further. The first clip is 0.1 seconds, a single drum hit or the start of a vowel, and a surprising number of hits are recognisable from exactly that.

Three things make it a party game rather than a solo puzzle. You guess by searching a real catalog, so any version of the song counts and there are no multiple-choice giveaways. The Daily 5 gives everyone the same five songs each day, with a streak and a friends leaderboard. And LIVE turns it into a duel: the host shares a pin code, everyone hears the same clip on their own phone, and the app shows who hit the song at which second.

The catalog is the same one behind Guess the Song, the Board and the Timeline: real clips from 50+ international artists, ranked by how well known each song is. One Second only uses the best known songs of each artist, so a round is about your ear, not about trivia.

02 · RulesHow to play One Second (step by step)

Three screens: pick, guess, reveal. The screens below are the single-phone version. The Daily 5 and LIVE are shown further down.

1. 
   1

   Pick the Daily 5, a pack or an artist

   The top card is the Daily 5: the same five songs for everyone, once a day, always free. Below it is Free play: 5 songs from a pack, and the fewer seconds you need, the more points. Search for an artist to play only their songs, or pick a pack such as Mixed hits or The Biggest Songs. Tap Start.

2. 
   2

   Hear 0.1 seconds and guess

   Tap the big button to hear the clip, as many times as you want. Type a title or an artist and the list narrows as you go: Title · Artist. Tap your guess. If you have no idea, tap No idea. Give me 2 sec; it costs the same as a wrong guess, and it saves you from typing something random.

3. 
   3

   Wrong? The clip gets longer. Right? Reveal

   Every miss marks a dot with a cross and moves you up a step: 0.1 → 0.5 → 2 → 4 → 8 → 16 seconds, worth 1,000 down to 100 points. A hit, or a miss after step six, flips to the reveal: the cover, the title, the artist and the whole clip. Tap Next song. After 5 songs you get your score and, in Free play, your personal best for that pack.

03 · Daily 5The Daily 5: same five songs for everyone, once a day

The Daily 5 is the habit part of One Second. Every day at 6 in the morning the app draws five songs from the biggest hits, the same five for everyone in your market. You play them once, get a score out of 5,000, and the day is locked. Your progress is saved per step, so a phone call in the middle doesn't reset the round.

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   Score, streak and a spoiler-free share card

   The result screen shows your points, your streak in days, your best streak and a countdown to the next five. Share the result renders a card with your score and the step you hit each song on, so friends can compare without seeing the songs before they play.

2. 2

   Beat your friends every day

   Sign in with Apple, add your friends in Dronk, and their Daily 5 scores appear right under yours: who had the best ear today, and who hasn't played yet. Tap Ping to nudge a friend who is still missing, once a day. It is the closest thing to a group chat scoreboard without the group chat.

04 · Packs and artistsPlay any artist, or a pack

Free play is where you choose the music. Search for an artist to play only their best known songs, or pick a pack. Each round is 5 songs, and the app keeps your personal best per pack.

Search always covers the whole catalog, so a guess is never limited to the pack you picked. Duplicates such as remasters and live versions are grouped, and any of them counts as a hit.

05 · LIVEPlay One Second LIVE: a duel from everyone's own phone

LIVE is the party format. The host opens a room, picks a pack and 5, 8 or 10 songs, and shares a 4-digit pin code. Everyone joins from their own iPhone, and the same clip plays for all at the same time.

1. 1

   Shared steps, 12 seconds each

   Every step is open for 12 seconds and everyone gets one guess per step. A wrong guess locks you until the next, longer clip. While you search, the app hides how many others have already hit, so nobody gets a hint from the room.

2. 2

   "Hit on 0.5 seconds" and a reveal per song

   When you hit, the app shows the second you got it on, and who is still guessing, without revealing the song. The round closes when everyone has hit or six steps have passed. Then the reveal: cover, title, who hit on which step, and the standings.

3. 3

   Podium after the last song

   After the last song the podium shows the top three. Play again with the same room, switch to another pack, or hand the penalty to whoever finished last.

LIVE needs one host with the Dronk app; joining is done with the pin code. Mixed hits is free to host, other packs are chosen at setup. Testing tip: two phones and a pair of headphones each.

06 · ComparedOne Second vs. Songless, Heardle and Guessable

If you already play a daily snippet game in the browser, here is what changes when it lives in a party game app.

Songless, Heardle and Guessable are trademarks of their respective owners; One Second is a separate game, and Dronk is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. If you love your daily browser round, keep it. One Second is for the days you want five songs instead of one, your own artists, and a scoreboard with the people you actually know.

07 · TipsHow to win One Second

Replay 0.1 seconds five times before you type

The first clip is free to replay. A single snare hit, a synth stab or the first vowel of a hook carries more information than you think. Most 1,000-point hits come on the third or fourth replay, not the first.

Guess the artist first, then the song

Search shows title and artist. If you know the voice but not the song, type the artist and scan their best known songs; the list is short on purpose. In Free play with a single artist, that list is the whole game.

Ask for more on 0.1, never on 8

A wrong guess and "No idea" cost the same, so ask for the longer clip early when you have nothing. By 8 seconds you have heard a full phrase; a guess there is worth 250 and a skip is worth nothing.

09 · More gamesMore games in Dronk

One Second is one of four music games in the app, and one of 16 games in total: