Who buzzed first? How fair phone buzzers work
Most phone buzzers rank whoever’s message reaches the server first. That rewards good Wi-Fi, not fast hands.
Get it on the App StoreThe problem with arrival order
If one player is on fast Wi-Fi and another is on a weak cellular signal, the Wi-Fi player’s buzz can arrive 100 milliseconds earlier even if they pressed later. In a close race, that decides the winner.
Ordering by press time
Game Show Buzzer syncs each phone’s clock with the server when it joins, keeping the fastest of several measurements. When a player presses, their phone stamps that moment. The host ranks buzzes by those stamps, so a slow connection doesn’t push anyone down.
Too close to call
Clock sync has a small margin of error. When two presses land closer than that, the app says too close to call instead of guessing, and the host picks who answers first.
Keeping it honest
A press stamped before the round opened, or implausibly long before it arrived, is ranked by its arrival time instead. Players can’t win by tampering with their phone’s clock.
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