A TimeGuessr alternative: YearLens
YearLens is a historical photo guessing game you can play in your browser. Study a photograph, choose its year and pin its location on a map. Each game has five rounds. Play solo, try the Daily or share a room with friends.
Which game should you try?
If you enjoy the year-and-location puzzle in TimeGuessr, YearLens offers that familiar challenge with its own daily selection, optional timers and rooms for small groups. Its current library contains 30 credited historical photographs, so images can repeat. Try a solo game or the free Daily challenge to see whether the pace suits you.
YearLens is published by AFKGame. It is independently operated and is not affiliated with or endorsed by TimeGuessr. The games have separate accounts, subscriptions, scores and daily challenges.
YearLens and TimeGuessr compared
TimeGuessr’s official website pages were checked on . The sources below describe the features compared here; availability can change.
| Feature | YearLens | TimeGuessr |
|---|---|---|
| The puzzle | Guess the year and location of each historical photograph. | Guess the year and location of each photograph. |
| Solo play | Five-round games, themed photo collections and an optional timer. | Random games and games made by the community. |
| Daily play | A shared five-photo challenge for each date, plus an archive. | A Daily challenge and an archive of past challenges. |
| Multiplayer | Private rooms with friends: up to four players with a Free host, or eight with a Premium host. The host advances the rounds. | Free 1v1 duels with friends and ranked matchmaking with divisions. |
| Round score | Up to 5,000 points for the year and 5,000 for the location. | Up to 5,000 points for the year and 5,000 for the location. |
Official TimeGuessr sources: Daily game entry, solo, community and archive modes, multiplayer formats and round scoring.
What is free in YearLens?
Guest solo play and Free accounts have three counted games per UTC day. The Daily challenge is free, and the seven previous Daily dates are accessible without Premium. Premium removes the counted-game limit and opens the full YearLens Daily archive.
A Free account can host a room with up to four players; a Premium host can invite up to eight. A YearLens account is required for online rooms and server-saved game records. Premium also unlocks additional visual themes. The Premium page explains the plans and current limits.
The library currently contains 30 public-domain or Creative Commons photographs, with attribution and source links on the reveal screen and photo credits page. Random games, collections and dated challenges draw from that finite library. Playing a different date can bring back a photograph you have already seen.
Choose your pace and learn from the reveal
Play without a timer to inspect clothing, vehicles, signs and architecture, or set a time limit in 15-second steps. Each reveal shows the reference year, location, your distance and the photograph’s description. A five-round game offers up to 50,000 points.
The YearLens playing guide covers the controls and scoring. For a practical approach to reading an unfamiliar image, use the photo guessing tips before your next game.
Start a five-round game
Choose a solo challenge when you want to practise, or play today’s Daily to compare the same five photographs with friends. For a shared live game, create a YearLens room.
Your TimeGuessr login, subscription and score history do not transfer. YearLens keeps its own progress in your browser and, when signed in, in your YearLens account.