How to play
Find the when. Find the where.
When&Where is a five-round history and geography game. Each photo asks for two answers: the year it was taken and the place it shows.
Want to see a round before trying it? Watch the gameplay demo, or start the introduction with a free account.
One round, three simple steps
Study the photograph
Look for clues in signs, buildings, clothing, vehicles and the landscape. Select View photo to enlarge it. Zoom in, then scroll or use the arrow keys inside the viewer to inspect a detail.
Choose a year and a location
Move the timeline, type a whole year from 1900 to 2025, or use the plus and minus buttons. Click or tap the map to place your pin. You can drag the pin and pan or zoom the map until you are happy with its position.
Lock in your guess
Submit when both answers are ready. When&Where reveals the actual year and location, gives a basic caption, and links to its archive record. Plus adds the expanded Behind the photo story. Select Next photo to continue. After five rounds, you can copy your score and choose your next journey.
How the score works
A round is worth up to 10,000 points: 5,000 for time and 5,000 for place. The maximum across five rounds is 50,000. Your two guesses are scored independently, so a strong year guess can still help when the location is difficult.
Year points
The exact year earns 5,000 points. Points decrease as the gap between your guess and the correct year grows.
| Years away | Points |
|---|---|
| Exact year | 5,000 |
| 1 | 4,730 |
| 5 | 3,787 |
| 10 | 2,869 |
| 25 | 1,247 |
Location points
Full location points account for the documented site and its uncertainty: a photo-specific allowance on reviewed rounds, and 25 km on clearly labeled approximate practice rounds. Documented alternative targets can also receive full credit. Beyond the allowance, points decrease with distance. Saved games keep their original rules.
| Distance away | Points |
|---|---|
| Within 1 km | 5,000 |
| 100 km | 4,681 |
| 500 km | 3,585 |
| 1,000 km | 2,569 |
| 5,000 km | 178 |
Read how photo targets and uncertainty allowances work for a worked distance example and the difference between the camera position and the subject’s location.
Choose your kind of journey
- Random game
- Five different photos drawn from the released archive. Random games are included with Plus. There is no timer, so you can take your time looking for clues.
- Daily challenge
- The same five photos, in the same order, for everyone on a given UTC date. The daily selection resets at midnight UTC. You have one saved attempt per day. Finish before midnight UTC to earn a daily streak and leaderboard score; unfinished games can still be completed as practice. Photos can appear again on other days.
- Explore eras
- Choose a period from the collections page. Each collection shows its date range and photo count. Some collections overlap because photographs can belong to more than one part of the archive.
Play free, then choose what comes next
Create a free account to play the introduction and daily challenge, with saved progress and streaks. After completing today’s daily, return for a new selection at midnight UTC. Plus adds unlimited random games, collections and previous dailies as practice.
Our daily challenge guide explains the reset, one-attempt rule and leaderboard choices. Compare free and Plus features before choosing a membership.
Keyboard and phone controls
Use Tab to move between controls and Enter or Space to activate buttons. Focus the year slider and use arrow keys for one-year changes, or Home and End for the range limits. On the map, use arrow keys to pan and the zoom buttons to change scale, then choose Place pin at center.
On a phone, use Where and When to switch between the map and year controls while keeping the photograph in view. Select View photo to inspect a clue more closely. Each answer reveal scrolls into view automatically.
What happens to my progress?
Sign in to When&Where to save your locked guesses and completed games. Open My journey to resume a game, review results, see personal bests and track daily streaks. For solo games, your unsubmitted pin and year can be restored when you reload the same game in the same browser tab, if browser storage is available. These drafts do not sync across devices. You can choose whether your player name and daily score appear on the daily leaderboard; your email stays private.
After finishing a game, choose Challenge a friend to create a link containing the same five photos. Friends sign in and get one attempt; everyone with the link can compare player names and scores. Challenge hosting is included with Plus.
Want a better starting strategy? Read our photo guides for dates, locations and better guesses.
Your next clue is waiting.
Five photographs. Create a free account and start exploring.