Field guide · Mode 05
Jump scare links, sent properly.
A jump scare link is a page that opens as something calm and stops being calm while the person is still watching it. Making one takes about two minutes. Making one that actually lands — and that the recipient forgives you for — takes knowing four things.
Make a link now- 01
Pick the room, not the scare
Four calm scenes: a meadow after sunrise, a lake at blue hour, an empty corridor, rain on a window. Choose by what the person would plausibly open — someone who sends nature clips should send the meadow. The scene is the disguise; the scare is the same machinery underneath.
- 02
Set the intensity honestly
One to five, and you are choosing on somebody else's behalf. Three is the level most people mean. Four and five are loud, close, and in no hurry to leave. One touches nobody and is the right answer whenever you are unsure how the person will take it.
- 03
Seal a note if you want credit
A short message that stays hidden until after the interruption. This is the difference between a prank and an anonymous unpleasantness — they find out it was you at the moment it stops being frightening and starts being funny.
- 04
Send the link like any other link
Paste it into a chat. No app, no account on either end, nothing to install. Then watch your private report page, which tells you when it was opened and when the scare landed, and nothing else about them at all.
What makes a link look ordinary
The common request is a link that looks normal but is a jump scare once it opens. There is an honest version of that and a dishonest one, and only the honest version survives contact with a friend.
The dishonest version disguises the destination — a link that claims to be a video, a news story, somebody else's site. It works once, it makes the recipient trust you less afterwards, and every messaging app is steadily getting better at flagging it.
The version here disguises nothing. The preview says a calm scene and states that the page contains flashing images and sound. What makes it work is that the page then is calm — genuinely, for as long as it feels like being. The surprise is the timing, not the address bar. That is also why it survives being sent to someone who already knows what this site is.
Choosing the level for someone else
- 1 · Cozy
- Atmosphere only. Nothing will ever touch you.
- 2 · Flinch
- One small wrong thing. You'll doubt you saw it.
- 3 · Standard
- The lake. The wait. The face.
- 4 · Bad Idea
- Loud, close, and in no hurry to leave.
- 5 · Nightmare
- We'd rather you were sitting down.
Who not to send one to
This is the part most guides leave out, and it is the part that decides whether the joke works.
- Anyone photosensitive
- Sudden flashing images. This is the one absolute no.
- Anyone with a heart condition
- Loud, close, and without warning by design.
- Someone who is driving
- Obvious, and it still happens.
- A group chat
- You are choosing the intensity for people whose situation you do not know.
- Somewhere silent
- A library, a lecture, a meeting. The sound is half of it.
- Someone who asked you not to
- The Management finds this one clarifying.
Whoever receives the link can retire it themselves from the page it opens, without asking you and without needing anything from us. The Terms of Scare are mostly a joke; that clause is not.
Questions people ask first
How do I send a jump scare link to a friend?
Open Send It, choose one of the four calm scenes, set the intensity from one to five, and optionally seal a short note that stays hidden until after the scare. You get back one ordinary-looking link to paste into any chat. No account, no email address, and nothing to install on either end.
Will the link look suspicious when I send it?
The preview says a calm scene and warns that the page contains flashing images and sound. It never pretends to be a video, a news article or somebody else's website. The disguise is that the page genuinely is calm when it opens — not that the link lies about where it goes.
How do I know when they opened it?
You keep a private report page, linked only from your own browser. It shows when the link was opened and when the scare landed. It shows nothing about who opened it — no name, no location, no device. That is not restraint; none of it is collected, so there is nothing to display.
How long does a jump scare link last?
Thirty days, then it retires itself and shows a closed-case page instead. You can switch it off sooner from your report page, and so can the person who received it — the controls are on the link's own page and need nothing from you and nothing from us.
Can the person I send it to turn it off?
Yes, and that is deliberate. Sound and scares each have a switch at the top of the page before anything starts, Esc stops anything already running, and the recipient can retire the link permanently without asking you. Being able to stop something aimed at you should never require the sender's permission.
Does it work on phones?
Yes. The scenes fall back to a hand-built version on hardware that cannot run the live render, so a weak phone gets a complete scene rather than a blank frame. Sound needs a tap first on iOS, which the page handles as part of starting.
Is it safe to send to anyone?
Not to everyone. The scares include sudden flashing images and loud audio, so do not send one to someone who is photosensitive, has a heart condition, is driving, or is somewhere they cannot make a noise. Intensity one is atmosphere only and touches nobody, which is the level to use when you are not sure.
If you would rather not send one
The same machinery runs without a recipient. Pick a scene on Jump Scare and take it yourself, leave The Wait armed for up to four hours, or spend ten minutes in a corridor where nothing jumps out at all.
— The Management
Prepare a scare link