How ChitChat Random Chat Works

Four things, one after another: the match screen opens, your browser asks for the camera and microphone, ChitChat finds a person, and the two of you are connected on video. Nothing asks for a name or an email in between.

At random, from the people who are online at that moment. The Start button picks for you: whoever is available next is who you meet, which is exactly why two sessions never feel the same.

The pool changes with the clock. Evenings in one part of the world are mornings in another, so the faces you see at lunchtime are not the faces you see at midnight.

A video chat here is a live call between two people. Once you are connected you can talk, listen, and type in the message box that sits on the call. Typed lines are handy when the room is noisy or a name needs spelling.

Ending the call is open to both of you. There is also a second way into a video call that does not involve chance at all: open someone's profile, from Who's online or from your following list, and call them directly from there.

Less than you fear. Both of you have just been dropped in front of a stranger, and both of you know it. That shared awkwardness is the easiest thing in the world to talk about.

When you move on, the current call ends and ChitChat looks for the next person. You do not have to give a reason, and neither do they.

Two things are worth knowing. A new match is not weightless: it takes a free match, or coins when you have none left, so racing through people burns them for nothing. And the person on the other side is a human being who also just sat down. Give each chat a fair half-minute before you decide; a lot of good conversations start slowly.

Use the random match when you want to be surprised and you are ready to be on camera. It asks nothing of you except a hello, and it is the quickest way to find out what the place is like.

Use Who's online when you would rather choose. It is a live list of people who are on the site, which you can view by country. Tap a person and their profile opens; from there you can write to them or call them. It suits the evenings when you want one good conversation more than five short ones, and the days when you would rather type first. ChitChat chat room describes the list, and text chat with strangers has ideas for what to write.

You can use both: the Start button to meet new people, and the list and your following list to return to the ones they liked.

Follow them while you are still talking. A followed person is added to your following list, their profile stays one tap away, and from it you can send a message or start a video call. The home page walks through how that turns a stranger into a friend.

Nothing to begin with: ChitChat is free to start. A call that runs past its free time carries on with coins, and the call tells you before it reaches that point. The free matches, the Reward Center and coins are explained in one place, on is ChitChat free.

Give the search a little longer, then reload and try again. A slow match is normally down to the hour or to your connection, and ChitChat not working goes through both. While you wait, you can open Who's online and write to someone instead of sitting on the searching screen.

Here is the order a typical first visit goes in, so nothing catches you off guard.