Talk to strangers online, and actually have a conversation

The first ten seconds decide it

Most conversations with a stranger die immediately, and almost always the same way: both people say "hi", then wait. Two people waiting is silence, and silence gets skipped.

Say something that is not a greeting. "What are you supposed to be doing right now instead of this?" gets an answer. "Hi" does not. Anything that cannot be answered with one word is doing its job.

Ask about the room, not the person

On video you can see where someone is. A guitar, a poster, a window with real weather behind it, a kitchen at two in the morning. Asking about a thing is easier to answer than asking about a person, and it tells you something real.

"Where are you from" is the most asked and least interesting question on every one of these sites. People answer it on autopilot and the conversation is no further along.

Leaving is normal

You do not owe a stranger a conversation. If it is not working, press Next — that is what the button is for, and the other person will do the same to you several times tonight. Nobody takes it personally.

The reverse is also true. Being skipped is not a verdict on you. It usually means the other person was looking for something specific and you were not it.

What not to do

Do not ask for someone's gender before speaking to them, do not ask for photos, and do not ask people to move to another app in the first minute. These are the three things that make people leave fastest, and the first two will get you reported.

Never send money or personal details. Someone who becomes charming very quickly and then has an emergency is running a script that has worked on other people before you.

Where people go to talk with strangers now

Before 2023 this question had one answer and it was Omegle. It closed in November that year after a lawsuit about child safety, and the audience scattered across a dozen sites — OmeTV, Chatroulette, Emerald Chat, Monkey and newer ones including this one.

They differ mainly in how seriously they take the problem that closed Omegle. Most still ask you to tick a box saying you are 18 and check nothing. Kismaro asks for a date of birth once, on its own screen, and never lets you change it — and in video chat your camera has to show your face.

If you only want to chat with strangers by text, that is a separate queue here, not a fallback when the camera fails.

When nobody wants to talk

If every conversation ends in two seconds, it is almost never about you personally. Check the obvious things first: is your room dark, is your camera pointing at the ceiling, is there loud noise behind you. Those get skipped before anyone has decided anything about you.

Try a different hour. The same site at nine in the evening and four in the morning has a completely different population, and the late one is usually more willing to talk.

Try voice or text instead. Some people are much better company without a camera, and the queues are separate.

Talking to someone in another language

Set the country filter and you have a language partner in about ten seconds. It works because a stranger has no reason to be encouraging — a friend will tell you your accent is fine, and a stranger will simply not understand you, which is more useful.

Say at the start that you are learning. Almost everyone slows down, and a surprising number will correct you, which is the whole point.

Frequently asked questions