Time you have
A minute
Single-round games and one-shot toys. Long enough to be satisfying, short enough that walking away costs nothing.
252 sites · page 6 of 6
Two portraits side by side, one photographed and one generated. A University of Washington project, and your score keeps falling.
Instructions for very nearly anything, illustrated in that unmistakable cartoon style. The artwork alone justifies the visit.
Wikipedia articles served as a vertical swipe feed, which is either a public service or the end of civilisation.
A dilemma, a tempting benefit, a horrible catch, and the percentage of everybody else who pressed it regardless.
Ten minutes out of somebody else's window somewhere in the world, filmed by them and left quietly running.
- 2 min
- Sound on
Answers computed rather than retrieved: integrals, unit conversions, orbital mechanics and the nutritional content of a Mars bar.
Six goes at one five-letter word, the same word for everybody, once a day. The puzzle that spawned an entire genre in three months.
- 2 min
Guess the country from its silhouette alone, with each miss handing you the distance and compass bearing to the real answer.
- 2 min
One expanding circle to breathe along with, adjustable to box breathing or 4-7-8, and nothing else on the page.
Two minutes of mental arithmetic at whatever difficulty you set, boiled down to a single number. Trading desks drill on this one.
- 2 min
- Desktop
Feeds your own video call bad audio — echo, crying baby, wind — until everyone agrees the connection is the problem.
- 2 min
- Sound on
- Desktop
The sequel quilt, darker and stranger than the first, still folding into itself with no end and no explanation.
- 2 min
How we picked these
Every entry in Detour is hand-sorted rather than scraped: filed under one category, given one to three moods, and placed in a time band for how quickly it pays off. The practical facts — cost, sign-up, sound, device and whether it is safe at a desk — are recorded per site and shown on every card, so you can rule things out before you click.
A minute: questions
How many sites are in the a minute list?
252 sites, each hand-sorted by category, mood and how long it takes to pay off. 6 of them are AltF originals that run right here.
Which of these sites are free with no sign-up?
247 of the 252 are free and need no account. None of them are paid.
Do these sites work on a phone, and are they safe for work?
190 of 252 work on a phone; the rest are desktop only. 250 are safe for work and 233 work with the sound off.