Last updated on December 15th, 2025 at 05:01 am
Mahjong 4 Friends – Board Game Review
Mahjong 4 Friends is a Board/Family/Lifestyle game from Tucker Willenborg, first launched in 12th February 2021.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 10,744+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Mahjong 4 Friends Stand Out
Mahjong 4 Friends allows you to play mahjong with your friends and/or bots! American, Chinese, Hong Kong, and British Mahjong are supported. Can't play your way? Send us an email!
If you can't install Mahjong 4 Friends app, you can also play at https://mahjong4friends.com. The iOS app brings increased performance and additional features, so using it is recommended.
Mahjong 4 Friends provides instructions in little yellow bubbles while in the game. If you want to learn more about rules and strategies, a comprehensive tutorial is linked to from the app. Summaries of rules are provided below:
American Mahjong Rules (from NMJL card):
- One right, across, left charleston round (0-3 tiles left)
- If all 4 players agree, One left, across, right charleston round (0-3 tiles right)
- One charleston pass across (0-3 tiles)
- Mahjong when matching a combination on the card.
- Jokers can only be used in matches of 3 or more tiles.
- Any player can swap a matching tile for exposed jokers
Chinese/British/Hong Kong Rules:
- 4 pongs/kongs and a pair are mahjong
- Sequences can be used to replace a pong/kong
- An optional charleston is provided
- Mahjong and sequence limitations can be overridden (to help you play by your rules!)
You can play with your friends on any American Mahjong card by selecting "Other Card" – scoring is supported on the National Mahjongg League cards from 2020 to 2025, as well as the Marvelous Mah Jongg cards from 2021 to 2025.
You can purchase a National Mahjongg League card at https://www.nationalmahjonggleague.org/store.aspx#
You can purchase a Marvelous Mah-Jongg Card at https://marvelousmahjongg.com/
Playing a Game:
- Open the App
- Select either Single Player or Multiplayer mode
If Single Player, click "New Game", configure your game, and start!
If Multiplayer, create a room and send the link to invite other players, then configure your game and start!
Bug reports, feature requests, or other feedback? Email [email protected]
It can be difficult to diagnose issues from the limited information in reviews! Please contact [email protected] if you encounter issues or need assistance. Response times vary heavily, but we usually respond within 24 hours.
Happy Mahjong!
Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
This Board game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Mahjong 4 Friends is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 7th July 2025
Recent improvements include:
Fixed a bug with the update prompt that caused it to incorrectly appear
Fixed an issue that could cause the 2025 card to occasionally not appear
Clarified several error messages to help reduce confusion regarding rules on allowable joker usage, on-turn placements, and more
Framework updates (iOS 14 now required)
Download & Availability
Mahjong 4 Friends is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Mahjong 4 Friends on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
This is really helping us practice what hands to pursue and we have learned to value the Charleston.
Great game, ads are not long or intrusive. Our only complaint is that the bots are not very good players. This game builds your confidence perhaps too much as a result. You cannot alter the skill of the bots.
This is such a fun game. It fills the gap between face to face games with friends. There are very few ads which is helpful and doesnt interfere with the concentration of the game. Thank you.
We are a beginner MahJong player, and practicing on this app has allowed us to Play with the big girls.
Just downloaded the app at the recommendation of a friend with whom we play. Fun app and it is improving our game! We used to find ourselves stuck on Consecutive Run, and the app is teaching us to now look through the card for more hands. We asked a question on the FB group and it was answered quickly. The FB group shares many great tips to improve your game. Thank you Ruth and Tucker.
Its great because its easy to learn to play but it is hard to win that makes it exciting.
This app has improved our MahJong game tremendously. It provides hand suggestions which helps to learn the card hands. The only downside side of the app is that the button to end the game is right next to the button to proceed. Would be great if that was changed by the developer. Otherwise absolutely the best app we have found.
We love being able to select suggested hands. So often we would have no idea what hand to try for, and would get totally frustrated. Mahjong 4 Friends has been a real blessing. Thank you, thank you thank you.
Great for us as a newbie and then later to practice with the new yearly card. Minimal ads so far. Would love confetti when we win, if your developers can swing it, thanks.
This app plays exactly the way we were taught recently at a girls' night lesson. We play American Mahjong (although you can play with other cards/styles) and although we haven't tried playing live, practicing with the bots has been helpful. Highly recommend.
Good way to practice the new card.
Love this app. We just started playing the game n this app helped us understand the game. Im thrilled when we mahjong.
The 2025 National Mah Jong League card is NOT available on our ipad but it is available when playing on our iPhone.
Ive played on real mahjong and 2 others and we prefer this app. Especially for practice and learning the new card. And it moves very quicklyexcellent Option.
This app helps us learn the hands on the card.
An awesome app, really helpful for beginners, it will show suggestions to assist you in play during all phases of each game. Highly recommend.
Free an excellent learning tool for new players. We recommend it regularly to new players.
The only Mahjong that is like the real game. We have learned so much playing on this app.
Great way to learn to play. Gives directions,helps you see which hands are best with tiles you have.
This is a real mahjong game . No annoying adds popping up constantly. Very much like playing with friends. Great to teach someone how to play.
The words below describe our experience perfectly. We couldnt have said it better! We also want to say the we get a speedy respectful response from the developer each time we email with a comment or question. This free site allows the player to look at possible hands during the Charleston and throughout the game. If another player (or bot) has exposed tiles you can also click on their hand and see what hands they are going for. These features alone have helped us become familiar with the card very quickly. We also like that we can make so many adjustments such as the voices of the bots and how the tiles are arranged at the beginning of the game.
A great way to play and gain facility with the game. Fun to try new lines. Im looking forward to using to familiarize ourselves with the 2025 card.
This game has really helped us get much better at playing the real thing. It works very well and is fun to play. Thank you.
Im new to playing Mahjong with a group that meets once per week to play. This online app is great for practicing and learning at home.
We just learned the basics of American mahjong, and this app is a very fun, pleasant way to practice! We watched a tutorial video on YouTube and was navigating the app and playing in no time. Thank you for creating such a well-designed game.
We love that you can choose the card year as well as the style of play! Not just a silly matching game called mahjong.
We love playing this solo against the 3 bots. The games go quickly and it is a wonderful learning tool. We play on our iPad and it is easy to see what is happening. We use our actual Mah Jong card for easy reference during the game. We cant think of a single thing that would improve this already great app.
Great for learning or just playing. Easy to follow the apps logic. Grab your card and get started. Highly recommend.
We have seen people playing Mahjong at coffee shops and restaurants and we were intrigued. So we did some research then got a Mahjong set for our hubby for Christmas. After reading the instructions we watched a few videos. This app was highly recommended. AMAZING app with settings to choose many different types of Mahjong games. We chose American Majong. Our hubby and we are learning and practicing together at home before playing with others. This app has decreased that time tremendously! We feel confident to start playing with friends very soon.
Thank you for providing this wonderful site for all of us players. Your efforts are very much appreciated.
Us and our friends were playing up until 2 AM because this is so addicting! The box may have busted us, but we had fun playing mah-jongg 4 friends. We would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys mah-jongg the way we do.
Quick moving, never the same.engaging.
Excellent way to learn and practice Mahjong. Ive just started playing and the more you practice, the better you understand how to make the most of each game. Playing against bots permits us to go at our own pace without the guilt of making real players wait. Each play is monitored by the program so you dont just learn from mistakes, it is clearly explained in the most succinct comment. Highly recommended.
Recently was introduced to this ancient game, and the play through this app is reinforcing what Im learning at the table and we think making us a much better player. +++++.
Ive new to American Mahjong- only been playing for 2 months – but this game has helped us learn and improve our game. We like that we can click on suggested hands and see how it compares to what we thought we would do. Not to mention this is addictive! We play daily :).
Would be amazing if it was 3d and had visual cues for throwing and whos turn it is. Also random multiplayer lobbies.
Fun and what a great way to learn.
Great for keeping up our skills when our regular group cant get together. Recommend: Function to allow suggested hands to exclude closed hands and other hands the player doesnt want to consider (a hide function) Change programming such that tiles added to the players rack (e.g, after drawing or at the end of the Charleston) always insert at the far right for the player to rearrange as desired rather than the sequencing/hierarchy currently used.
We recently learned how to play Mahjong and this is a great way to practice. The only thing we found hard is when we try to play with friends and it couldve been somebodys connection and not necessarily the game.
This is a great free app to practice playing Mahjong. We recommend trying it.
Like but dont think it deals enough winds.
Just disappointed same yikes keep repeating.
Im loving this app and learning to choose our own hands, but we like having the option to check our decisions. The issue Im having is with the pop up indicating that someone went mahjong, but they didnt. Then the game proceeds. Im still playing with bots, and it seems that this just started recently. We dont see an option to update the version. We have closed and done a hard reboot, but it didnt fix the issue.
After several weeks of use with no problems, Im starting to see all sorts of glitches with this app. Mid, game, we will try to swap with a bot for a joker, and the system will give it to someone else. Thats one example. Or, you try placing a pong or kong and those cards go to a bot. So frustrating.
Unfortunately, the software makes it difficult to change orientation or exit to other apps. Cards a bit small to play on an iPhones.
Very good app enjoying it a lot thank you very much.
Free, can xchange 0-3 in blind swap which is different than our group plays, tiles difficult to read at first so enlarge them.
Love playing this app but it has glitches quite often! The screen will flicker or go blank during your play or a tile appears off to the side.
We enjoy playing Mah Jongg it is a great strategy game.
Great game and challenging at same time.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 10.0.5
- Size: 51.23 MB
- iOS: 14.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
- Developer: Tucker Willenborg
Last updated: 7th July 2025 | Genre: Board, Family | Developer: Tucker Willenborg