The ball will say yes about half the time, which tells you nothing about him and quite a lot about how you feel when it does.
It cannot see him. It draws a reply at random from 27 possibilities, so a yes here is not evidence. What it does do is give you a clean read on your own hope: notice whether a yes lands as relief or as pressure. That reaction is real information, and it is about you rather than him — which is fine, because you are the one making decisions.
Effort that costs him something. Anyone will reply to a message. Fewer people rearrange a schedule, remember a detail you mentioned once, start the conversation, or make a plan with a date attached to it. Interest shows up as initiation, not as politeness.
Ambiguity that persists is itself an answer. If you have been reading tea leaves for weeks, the situation is not unclear — it is clear and disappointing, and reading is easier than accepting that.
Fast replies from someone who replies fast to everyone. Long eye contact from someone who talks to everyone that way. Being nice. Liking your posts. Remembering your name. These are the cost-free behaviours, and they scale to everyone he knows.
Ask him, or make a specific plan and see what happens. “There's a thing on Thursday, want to come?” resolves in a day what signal-reading will not resolve in a month. The reason this feels worse than shaking a ball is that it produces an actual answer, and an actual answer can be no.
If you want something with more nuance than a verdict, try reading a single card, or draw one at Single Tarot. And if the real question is what to do next, the texting question is next door.
Ask the ball → Free, instant, no sign-up. 27 answers, one shake.No. It draws one of 27 replies at random and has no information about him. It is useful for noticing how you feel about the answer, not for predicting his feelings.
Effort that costs them something — initiating conversation, making plans with a date attached, remembering a detail you mentioned once. Cost-free politeness scales to everyone they know.
Reading signals is easier than asking, because signals never produce a definite no. If the situation has stayed ambiguous for weeks, the ambiguity is itself the answer.
Make one specific plan with a date on it and see what happens. That resolves in a day what signal-reading will not resolve in a month.