Is the Houseparty App Still Available? What Replaced It

Short answer: no. The Houseparty app was discontinued in October 2021 and cannot be downloaded from any app store. If you searched for it in 2026 you are probably after one of two things: a replacement for spontaneous group video calls, or an actual house party near you. This post covers both, with most of the space on the second, because that is what the phrase has come to mean in India.

What Houseparty was

Houseparty launched in 2016 from the team behind the live-streaming app Meerkat. The idea was low-effort togetherness: you opened the app to signal you were "in the house", friends saw it, and they dropped into a video room without a scheduled call. Rooms held up to eight people and came with built-in games like Heads Up! and trivia. It was free, without ads, and it made money through paid game packs.

Epic Games bought Houseparty in 2019. During the 2020 lockdowns usage exploded, and for a few months it was the default way many friend groups ran birthdays, quizzes and Friday nights. Once restrictions lifted, usage fell just as fast.

Why it shut down

In September 2021 Epic announced it would discontinue the standalone app the following month, saying the team would move to building social features inside Fortnite and Epic's wider platform. The app was pulled from the iOS, Android and macOS stores and the servers were switched off in October 2021. There was no successor app under the same name, and accounts were not migrated anywhere. Anything claiming to be "Houseparty" in an app store today is unrelated.

What replaced it for video hangouts

Nothing copied the drop-in model exactly, which is partly why people still search for it. In practice friend groups split across a few tools.

• Discord for persistent voice and video rooms, especially for gaming groups.

• WhatsApp group video calls for most Indian friend groups, since everyone already has it.

• FaceTime and Google Meet for quick calls and scheduled catch-ups.

• Zoom for larger or more structured gatherings.

If your goal is the old Houseparty feeling of bumping into friends online, Discord is the closest. If your goal is the feeling of being at a party, read on.

What "house party" means in India now

Search the phrase from Mumbai, Bangalore or Pune today and the results are about physical parties in people's flats, not an app. Over the last few years a ticketed, host-approved house party scene has grown in Indian cities. A host opens their home to 15 to 40 people, sets a per-head price of roughly Rs.300 to Rs.800 to cover drinks and food, and approves each guest individually. Guests often do not know the host beforehand. That is the house party most people under 35 are searching for.

It is a very different thing from a video call, and it runs on a different kind of tool: a listing where you can request a spot, an ID check so the host knows who is coming, and an address that only approved guests receive. What is a house party covers the format in detail, and does Gen Z have house parties looks at why the scene grew when it did.

How to find a real house party in India

1. Pick a discovery platform. The options, including Event Flo, Instagram, and a few others, are compared on the best apps to find house parties page. The important differences are whether guests are ID-verified, whether the host approves each person, and whether your address stays private.

2. Verify once. On Event Flo that is a one-time government ID check, after which you can request a spot at any listing.

3. Browse your city. Live listings are split by city: house parties in Mumbai, house parties in Bangalore and house parties in Pune. Delhi NCR and Hyderabad have pages too, though inventory is thinner.

4. Request at two. Hosts approve manually and capacity is capped, so a single request is a coin flip on a busy weekend.

5. Pay the host directly. Approved guests pay by UPI or cash at the door. Event Flo charges 0% and does not handle the money.

6. Get the address shortly before start, show your QR ticket at the door, and be on time. Hosts remember who turned up when they said they would.

For the city-specific texture (which neighbourhoods, what to bring, what time things actually start), the Mumbai house party guide and the Bangalore house party guide are the two to read first.

If you would rather host one

The same tools work from the other side. List a party at /create-event, set a capacity your flat can take, decide on a price or keep it free, and approve requests from ID-verified guests. Your address goes out automatically to approved guests shortly before the start, and you check people in by scanning their QR ticket from your phone browser. How to host a house party covers the evening itself.

A note on safety

Going to a stranger's flat is a bigger step than joining a video room, and it deserves a little care. Prefer listings where the platform verifies every guest and the host approves the list, tell someone where you are going, and be wary of addresses or payment links sent by DM from accounts you cannot check. Safe event platforms for women in India has a fuller checklist that applies to everyone.

So: the Houseparty app is gone, and it is not coming back. The house party itself did fine without it. Pick a city page above and see what is on this weekend.