WhenTaken

Look at five photos a day and guess where and in what year each one was taken.

Every day: Five photos a day, the same for every player: pin where each was taken on a map and pick the year on a slider. New puzzle: Midnight local time.

Play WhenTaken on whentaken.com

Play WhenTaken

An older London street scene with a red double-decker bus and black cab, the example photo from WhenTaken's home page

WhenTaken shows you a photo and asks two questions: where in the world was it taken, and when. You drop a pin on a map and pick a year on a slider, scoring up to 100 points for each, over five rounds a day.

About WhenTaken

WhenTaken is a daily photo game from Teuteuf Games, the studio behind Worldle and a group of other daily geography games. Its archive goes back to 28 February 2024, and every past daily game can be replayed from there.

Each day has five photos, from street scenes and landmarks to family snapshots, taken anywhere between the 1860s and today. For each one you place a pin on the world map and set the year with a slider or by typing it. A round is worth 200 points, 100 for location and 100 for year, so a perfect day is 1000.

The scoring is spelled out on the site. On the year, you lose 1 point per year for the first five years off, then more steeply the further you are. On location, points fall with distance in brackets: under 100 km still earns at least 95, while anything over 10,000 km earns nothing. You can also use up to two hints per round, one for place and one for year, without losing points; after the first, each hint costs watching an ad. Besides the daily game there is a Community section where players build and rate their own photo sets.

WhenTaken suits people who enjoy reading clues in a picture: the cars, the clothes, which side of the road people drive on, whether it was shot on film. It sits between a geography game and a history quiz.

How to play WhenTaken

  1. Press Play Now to open the day's first photo.
  2. Study the picture for clues about place and period.
  3. Drop your pin on the map where you think it was taken.
  4. Set the year with the slider or type it in, then press Guess.
  5. See your points for location and year, then play the next of the five rounds.

Tips

  • Check which side of the road cars drive on; it rules out much of the world at once.
  • Cars, clothes and signs date a photo better than buildings do.
  • Film grain and colour cast usually mean the photo is older than it looks.
  • Save your free hint for the round where you have no idea of the place or decade.
  • A guess in the right country is worth far more than a precise pin on the wrong continent.

Questions

When is a new WhenTaken game available?

Every day at midnight in your device's local time.

How is WhenTaken scored?

Five rounds of up to 200 points each: 100 for how close your pin is and 100 for how close your year is, for a maximum of 1000.

Can I play past games?

Yes. The archive has every daily game since 28 February 2024.

Do hints lower my score?

No. You can use one location hint and one year hint per round; after the first hint, each one requires watching an ad.

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