One hello at a time

The flow, step by step

1. Confirm you’re an adult. The first time you visit we ask you to confirm you are at least 18 and agree to the community guidelines and terms. This is a self-declaration — we don’t check IDs — and we keep a small record that you agreed (which version, and when).
2. Pick how you want to talk. Choose text, voice or video. For voice or video your browser will ask for microphone or camera access; nothing is sent to anyone until you are matched.
3. Add preferences, if you like. Everything here is optional and self-declared. You can share a display name, a few interests, and your language, country, gender. You can also set filters — for example “only people who speak Spanish”. Filters are strict and mutual: you’ll only be matched with someone who fits your filters and whose filters you fit. Interests are softer: they nudge the matcher towards people with something in common but never block a match.
4. Get matched. We look for someone else who is waiting in the same mode and compatible with you. If nobody turns up after a while, we’ll suggest loosening your filters — the narrower they are, the longer it can take.
5. Say hello. The other person sees only a random alias for this one chat plus whatever you chose to share. They don’t see your account name (if you have one), your email (we never ask for one) or your location beyond any country you chose to show.

During a chat

You’re always one tap away from leaving. The controls are the same in every mode:

• Next ends this chat and starts looking for someone new straight away.
• Stop ends the chat and takes you out of the queue entirely.
• Report ends the chat and sends a report to the moderators. You decide which recent messages, if any, go with it. You can still report for a short while after a chat ends (about 15 minutes).
• Block ends the chat and makes sure the matcher never pairs the two of you again.

Skipping is normal and nobody is told why. Ending a chat is never rude here — it’s how the place works. In text chats you can also send short voice notes; they arrive hidden, and the recipient decides whether to open them.

Private invite rooms

Want to talk with someone specific instead of a stranger? Create a private room and share its invite link. Only people with the link can join, there is no matching involved, and the room expires after about 24 hours. You can revoke the link at any time. Treat the link like a key — anyone who has it can use it.

Optional accounts

You never need an account to chat. If you’d like your preferences and block list to follow you between devices, you can create one with just a username and password — no email, no phone number.

Because there’s no email, there’s no “forgot password” link. Instead you get a set of one-time recovery codes when you sign up. Save them somewhere safe: if you lose both your password and your codes, nobody — including the operator — can get the account back for you.

What travels where

Text messages go from your browser to this site’s server and on to your partner. They are held only briefly in memory so they can be attached to a report if needed, then discarded — see the privacy notice for the details.

Voice and video use WebRTC, which encrypts the audio and video between the two browsers. By default, calls are routed through this site’s own relay server (a “TURN” server) rather than connecting your devices directly. That means your partner doesn’t learn your IP address from the call.

Keyboard shortcuts

For quick hands on a keyboard, there are two-step shortcuts during a chat:

• Esc then N — Next
• Esc then S — Stop

They never fire while you’re typing in the message box, so you won’t skip someone mid-sentence by accident. Press Esc first to step out of the text field.