麻雀友 - 香港麻雀 Mahjong & Friends

Works on a plane, a train, a coach. Two phones with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and the table is open, no network needed. Friends elsewhere? Send them the table link on WhatsApp.

Mahjong Yau is Cantonese mahjong built for playing with people you actually know.

■ Three ways to sit down

• In the same room Two phones with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on. They do not need to be on the same network, and neither needs mobile data. On a trip, on a long coach ride, on a plane, waiting at the gate: take the phone out and the table is open.

• In different places Open a table and you get a table code. Send the link on WhatsApp and your friend taps it to sit straight down, with no code to type in. Wherever they are, they can join.

At an online table you can talk to the other three: hold the button, say it, let go. Mute any seat you would rather not hear.

• Nobody free right now Quick match seats you with other players immediately, and the computer fills any empty seats so there is no waiting. Or play the computer on its own: start whenever, leave whenever.

■ Two ways to play, chosen when the table opens

• Cantonese style: chow and flowers, faan counted on a win. Chicken hand, all sequences, all triplets, mixed one suit, pure one suit, thirteen orphans. Faan and the limit are worked out in full, in one place. • Pao Ma Zai, horseracing style: no chow, no flowers, a self-draw turns the horse. Fast, and a hand is over quickly.

House rules are agreed before the table opens, and everyone at it plays the same ones.

■ A real Cantonese table

• Cantonese throughout: sik wu, zi mo, soeng giu, zit wu, ceot cung. Reading the table should not be the hard part. • Sideways or upright: landscape gives the table room, portrait fits one hand. • Your tiles, your order: two rows of seven, or the tile you just drew on a row of its own. • Whose turn it is is written on the table, so nobody has to work it out. • Discarding and drawing buzz. Turn it off in settings if you would rather they did not.

■ What it costs

• Free: playing the computer, joining a friend's table, quick match, choosing how hard the computer plays, choosing the stake, and the advanced table settings. Three free tables a day to open yourself. • Subscribe and you get: no pauses to watch anything, no ads anywhere, open as many tables as you like, and hints. • No coins, no gems, no spinning wheel. Play when you want to play.

You open the table. Your friends do not have to buy anything to sit down.

■ Subscription

Mahjong Yau Plus comes monthly or yearly, and the price is shown in the app. It renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends, in your App Store account settings.

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