Hold.
You do nothing. You're good at this already. The clock counts up and you get on with your day in another window.
The line rings every 1 to 5 minutes.
You pick up. You do one small thing.
Miss a call and it's over.
We had such plans for you.
Your call is important to us.
Don't close the tab.
A game about being put on hold. The line rings every 1 to 5 minutes. Pick up in time, do the small task you're given, then get on with your day. Miss one call and the run ends. The most anyone can hold is 24 hours.
On a laptop
Stay plugged in with the screen on. The computer's power saving can cut the line. And pin this tab: its icon shows how the call is going.
More time for every call. With "Play with one button" on, the highlight moves through the answers by itself, and you press Space, Enter or tap when it reaches yours. It works with an accessibility switch too. You don't need to say why. Extended Line has its own board.
What this is
Don't Close the Tab is a free browser game about being put on hold, and the only skill it tests is not wandering off. Start a hold, then go back to whatever you were doing. Every 1 to 5 minutes, at a time only our server knows, the line rings. You have up to a minute to pick up and a few seconds for one small task, like dialling an extension or counting lamps. Miss a single call and your run is over. Your score is how long you held, up to 24 hours, and the longest holds go in the records.
There's nothing to install and no account to make. It works best on a computer, with notifications allowed and the tab pinned. How it works has the exact rules. It's also, loosely, an attention span test, and there's a shorter vigilance test if you'd like to be bored for a fixed period.
We'd hate to lose you.
First, a test call.
Before we connect you.
Please confirm you're a person.
Your call is important to us.
All circuits are busy.
You're in the queue, and we'll connect you automatically. Your clock hasn't started.
Time held
00:00:00
Please continue to hold.
- Calls answered
- 0
- Line
- Connected
- Line-downs left this run
- 2 of 2
- Sound
- On
Your call has ended. We had such plans for you.
Time held
Amount dueOne longer hold
Don't Close the Tab,
The Directory
0 listings.
The longest holds, one line per person, timed by the exchange's clock rather than yours. The all-time top 10 stays provisional until someone has looked at it.
| Position | Name | Time held | Calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checking the Directory. | |||
We'll check.
Getting listed
When a call ends after at least a minute, choose a name on your result. After that, your times are listed for you, and only your best one shows. Ties go to whoever finished first.
The boards
Today and this week run on UTC, and a hold counts for the day it ends. Computers and phones have separate boards, because a phone can't promise to stay awake, and Extended Line has its own. Holds that look automated don't get a place.
The Manual
The life of one call.
Scroll to follow it through. All the exact rules are further down.
Ring.
Every 1 to 5 minutes, this whole page changes colour, on whichever section you're reading, and a notification goes out if you allowed them. Pick up with the button or Enter.
Answer.
Do the one small thing you're asked: press a number, dial an extension, count the lamps, answer the operator, follow an arrow or spot the odd shape. Click, or use the number keys on your keyboard. The keys are shuffled every time.
Back to hold.
That's the entire reward. You return to exactly where you were, and the clock never stopped.
Line down.
Connections drop. A short blip costs nothing. A long one usually stops the clock while we look for your line.
Ended.
Miss a call and the run is over. You keep your time. Hang up, or reach 24 hours, and you keep it too.
The exact rules
| Time held | To pick up | To answer |
|---|---|---|
| First 30 minutes | 60 seconds | 8 seconds |
| 30 minutes to 2 hours | 45 seconds | 6 seconds |
| After 2 hours | 30 seconds | 6 seconds |
- Test call
- Every run starts with one, to check a ring can reach you. The clock doesn't start until it's done. If your notification was slow, you get that much longer to pick up, up to 15 seconds.
- Rings
- One every 1 to 5 minutes, at a time only the server knows.
- A wrong key
- Costs only time, though an extension has to be dialled again from the start. Keep pressing until the window closes.
- A missed call
- Ends the run, unless your line has gone silent (see below). Your score is the time at which that call rang.
- The cap
- 24 hours. There's nothing beyond it. Please don't lose sleep over it.
- Extended Line
- Gives you two, five or ten times as long for every call, on its own board. "Play with one button" moves the highlight through the answers by itself, and Space, Enter or a tap chooses the highlighted one, so an accessibility switch can play the whole game.
- A line drop
- Must last over 15 seconds to count. It then stops the clock for up to 120 seconds, and can do so twice per run. After that, calls ring as normal. If your network dies silently, we can take up to 90 seconds to notice. A call you miss in that time spends a line-down instead of ending the run, as long as we've heard nothing from you for 90 seconds by the time it runs out, and you have one left. Otherwise, it ends the run. Any silence of 90 seconds or more comes off your clock, apart from the first 15 seconds, even if no call fell due during it, so the clock can jump back when you return.
- Server faults
- Don't count against you: the clock stands still and the call rings again in full. The one exception: an outage ending within 5 seconds of a deadline can't be told from a normal miss, so that run ends.
What your browser can do to you
- Hidden tabs
- Browsers can slow down or freeze tabs you aren't looking at. Notifications and hold music are there to help, and neither is a guarantee.
- Laptops
- Power saving can cut the network when the screen turns off. Stay plugged in with the screen on.
- Sleep
- If the computer sleeps, the line goes down, and in practice the run ends.
- Sound
- Browsers only allow sound after a click. If the page reloads, use "Turn the sound back on".
Reading the browser tab
Pin the tab and this icon is all you'll see of us.
Keyboard, from any section: Enter picks up, and the number keys answer. Arrow keys work for routing a call.
Complaints
We value your complaint.
Please continue to hold it.
About this site
Don't Close the Tab is a game. You open the tab, get on with your day, and answer when the phone rings. The score is how long you held.
The Interminable Telephone Co. is invented. It doesn't exist and isn't connected with any real telephone company.
Frequently avoided questions
- Can I speak to a person?
- You can speak.
- Why is it ringing?
- So that you'll pick up.
- What do I win?
- Nothing. There are no prizes.
Contact
We'd rather you didn't. If you must, use the form below.
Privacy
What we keep, why and for how long is on the privacy page.