ChitChat Text Chat
Some hellos are easier to type than to say. On ChitChat you can message one person from their profile, type during a video call, and have what you write translated for the person reading it.
How does text chat work here?
Two ways, both one on one: a message thread opened from a person's profile, or the message box during a video call. Typed messages are translated automatically.
What it is here
A typed conversation between you and one other person. It lives in two places: a message thread you open from someone's profile, and the message box on a video call. This page explains how each of those works, how translation fits in and where your threads are kept. If what you need is someone to write to and a good first line, that is a different job, and text chat with strangers does it.
The choice
Start with whichever makes it easier for you to say the first word. Neither is the "proper" way to use the site. Here is how they differ in practice.
you are shy, you are somewhere you cannot speak freely, your connection is weak, or you simply like to get a feel for someone before they see you.
you get bored typing, you want to know in ten seconds whether you click, or you are here to practise speaking a language and not just reading it.
Open a video match and type in the call. It is the middle path, and for a lot of people it is the most comfortable one.
| Text chat | Video chat | |
|---|---|---|
| Good for | Easing in, thinking before you answer, chatting where you cannot talk out loud | Getting past small talk quickly, reading a face, laughing together |
| Pace | Relaxed; a reply can take a minute | Immediate; it is a live call |
| How it starts | You open a profile and write | Tap Start for a random match, or call from a profile |
| What they see | Your display name and your words | You, and whatever is behind you |
| Different languages | Messages are translated automatically | You rely on shared words, with the message box as backup |
| Hard part | Tone is easy to misread | The first five seconds |
From a profile
Every person on ChitChat has a profile, and every profile has a message button next to the one for a video call. Press it and a thread opens between the two of you. What you write goes to that person; it is not posted anywhere public.
A thread is not a live call, so it does not need the other person to be free at that second. If they are in the middle of a video chat or have just closed the tab, your message waits in the thread and they find it when they are next around. That makes messaging the natural thing to do when a call to someone goes unanswered: leave a line instead of trying again five times.
You reach a profile from two places: the Who's online list and your following list. The second is the one that matters most over time, because it is how a single good conversation turns into a running one.
Both at once
Yes. The call screen has a message box, and anything you type appears for the other person while the video carries on. It is one of the most useful small things on the site.
People use it to spell a name, to share the title of a song, to say something when a flatmate walks in, or to rescue a sentence that got lost in a bad connection. For two people who do not share a language well, it is close to essential: speak what you can, type what you cannot.
Typing in a call is live in a way a profile thread is not. The other person is looking at the same screen at the same moment, so a typed line gets an answer, or a laugh, straight away.
Languages
Typed messages on ChitChat are translated automatically. You write in the language you think in, the other person reads it in theirs, and their reply comes back to you the same way. Nothing needs copying into another tab.
Three things are worth knowing about it. First, it works on what is typed and only on that. A voice on a video call is not translated, which is exactly why the message box on the call matters when the two of you are short of shared words. Second, it is automatic translation, so it is at its best with complete, ordinary sentences. One thought per message, names spelled out, no abbreviations: "what are you doing today?" survives the trip and "wyd" does not. Third, it carries meaning better than it carries jokes. Wordplay tends to arrive flat, while a kind question arrives intact.
If a translated line reads oddly, assume the machine before you assume the person. Ask again in simpler words. Most misunderstandings in a translated chat are one rephrasing away from being cleared up.
Learning the other person's language? Type your attempt, then say it out loud on the call. They get the meaning from the text and you get the practice from the speaking.
Your threads
In the messages area of the site, where your threads are listed. Each thread is tied to one person, so opening it puts you back where the two of you left off, with the earlier lines still there to read.
There is a second way back, and it is often quicker: go to the person. Open their profile from your following list and press the message button, and you land in the same thread. This is the main reason to follow someone you have enjoyed writing to. A thread with a person you never followed is easy to lose track of among newer ones; a followed person is always one tap from your list.
One caution for guests. A guest session belongs to the browser it began in, so a thread you started on your phone is not waiting for you on a laptop. If there are conversations you want to carry between devices, sign in first; ChitChat login explains what an account is for.
Privacy
It is as private as you keep it. You begin as a guest, with no sign-up form and no request for your real name, and in a text chat nobody sees your face or hears your voice. The other person knows your display name, what is on your profile and what you decide to write.
It is not anonymous in the technical sense, and no website is. Like every site, ChitChat handles some data in order to work, and the privacy policy says what. The practical version is simple: you control what the person on the other side learns about you. Keep your surname, your address and your accounts out of the conversation, and a typed chat stays between two display names.
Text also leaves you in charge of the pace of what you reveal. On video a room, an accent or a uniform can say things before you do. In writing, nothing is known until you type it, which is why people who are cautious by nature tend to start here.
Know the limits
Tone, mostly. A short reply that would sound friendly out loud can read as cold on a screen, and a joke without a face behind it can land as an insult. When a thread starts to feel tense for no clear reason, that is usually the medium and not the person, and it is a good moment to suggest a call.
It is also slower. Ten minutes on video can cover what an evening of messages does. Neither of those is a reason to avoid text; they are reasons to treat it as the opening of a conversation and to move to the video call button on the profile once you are both curious enough. Until then, there is one person on the other side of the thread, and every line you send is addressed to them.
Yes, in two forms: a message thread you open from a person's profile, and the message box on a video call. A thread is between you and that person and is not shown to other users.
You can chat as a guest without giving a real name, and nobody sees or hears you in a text chat. What the other person learns is up to you.
Yes. The video call has a message box, so you can talk and type together.
No. Translation covers typed messages. On a video call, type the part you cannot say and the other person can read it in their language.
The message waits in the thread. They see it when they are next around, and you can pick the conversation up from there.
In the messages area of the site, or one tap from the person's profile. Following someone keeps their profile in your following list, which is the quickest way back.
You go in as a guest and can look through Who's online straight away. If an action needs an account, the site shows a sign-in prompt at that point.
Typing in a video call is live: the other person sees your message as you send it while the call continues. Profile messages are read when the person is next around.
Type it or say it, just start
Open a profile and write, or tap Start and type inside the call. Either way there is one person on the other side.