Random voice chat, camera off

Why voice is easier than video

Most people are more self-conscious about being seen than about being heard. On voice there is no worrying about the room behind you, what you are wearing or whether you are making a face while you think.

Conversations also tend to run longer. Without the visual information, people ask more and assume less.

It works where video does not

Voice uses a small fraction of the bandwidth. On a weak mobile connection, on hotel wifi or on a data plan you are rationing, voice holds a conversation that video would drop.

It is also the mode that works on old hardware. A laptop that cannot encode video smoothly has no trouble with audio.

What is different from video mode

There is no camera check, because there is no camera. The rules about harassment, hate and sexual content apply exactly as they do everywhere else, and reports work the same way.

You are matched only with other people in voice mode. The three modes are separate queues, so nobody is waiting for a camera you are not going to turn on.

Use headphones

This matters more on voice than anywhere else. Without them your speakers feed back into your microphone and the other person hears themselves half a second late, which is unbearable and which they will not tell you about before leaving.

When the audio is bad

They hear themselves echoing. Your speakers are going into your microphone. Headphones fix it completely, and nothing else really does.

They cannot hear you at all. Check which microphone is selected in Settings — browsers often default to the wrong one when a headset is plugged in. Check the operating system has not muted it too.

It cuts in and out. Almost always the network. Voice needs very little bandwidth but it does need it steadily; wifi at the far end of a house is worse than phone data.

Who voice chat suits

People who are self-conscious on camera, which is most people. The conversations tend to run longer because there is less to judge and more to ask.

People on a limited data plan. Voice uses a small fraction of what video does, so an hour of talking costs almost nothing.

People with old hardware. A machine that cannot encode video smoothly handles audio without noticing.

Frequently asked questions