Random video chat with strangers

Most video chat sites make you hand over an email before you see a single face. Here you press one button and you’re live. There’s no account to create, no profile to fill in and no app to install. It runs in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge, on a laptop or a phone.

Free means free. Every chat, every skip and every match costs nothing, and there’s no timer that cuts you off halfway through a good conversation. You don’t need a subscription to be matched quickly, and nobody gets to skip the line by paying.

Every chat is a 1v1 video call between you and one other person. No group rooms and no audience. Your video goes straight from your device to theirs whenever the network allows it, and the call ends the moment either of you moves on.

It’s the closest thing online to striking up a conversation with someone new: people from across the US and around the world, at every hour, each one a click away. Night owl in California, early riser in New York, someone on the other side of the planet having lunch: there’s always somebody to talk to.

No feeds, no followers, no profiles to perfect and no swiping. Random video chat skips everything social apps make you do before a real conversation and puts you straight into one: a live face, a real voice and a few seconds to say hi.

If it clicks, keep talking for as long as you like. If it doesn’t, the next person is one tap away, and nobody takes it personally. That’s the whole idea.

Tell us who you’d like to meet and we’ll take it into account. Choose women, men or everyone, and the matching gives your preference priority whenever someone who fits is free. It’s a preference, not a filter that leaves you staring at a loading screen: if nobody who fits is around, you can keep waiting or meet whoever’s next.

You can also set a country preference. Want to talk to other Americans? Turn it on and we’ll look for people in the US first. Leave it off for the widest mix of people from everywhere.

And because a conversation is easier when you understand each other, we give priority to people who speak your language. Switch it off any time you feel like practicing another one.

Add a few interests (music, gaming, anime, fitness, whatever you’re into) and we’ll try to pair you with people who share them. When you match on something, you both see it, so the first question writes itself. Random cam chat is more fun when you’ve got something to talk about.

Random shouldn’t mean waiting. Our matching is the most advanced and the fairest we know of: it balances everyone’s preferences and keeps the line moving so nobody waits long. You spend your time talking, not watching a spinner.

A random video chat is only as good as the people in it, so we take the rules seriously. RandomVideoChat is for adults only, and it’s actively moderated around the clock. People who break the rules are removed, and every chat has a report button that takes a second to use.

• 18+ only. Minors are not allowed, without exception.
• Camera on. It’s a video chat: everyone is on camera, which keeps conversations real.
• Report in one tap. If someone crosses a line, report them and skip. We take it from there.
• No spam. Bots, ads and link-droppers don’t last here.

Read the full rules on our Safety page →

You don’t need an account, an email or a phone number to start, and we never ask for your name. We don’t record or store your video calls, and there’s no chat history to leak: when a chat ends, it’s over.

Your preferences stay in your browser, on your device. In some cases we ask you to sign in with Google before you can chat; when that happens, we keep only an account ID, nothing else. Our privacy policy spells it all out in plain English.

Stuck for words? Start a quick icebreaker game together, right next to the video. It’s an easy way to get past “hey, where are you from?” and find out what someone’s actually like.

The first ten seconds decide most chats. You don’t need a script, but it helps to have a few openers that aren’t “where are you from?”. Try one of these:

• What’s the best thing that happened to you this week?
• What have you been listening to lately?
• If you could be anywhere right now, where would it be?
• What’s something you’re weirdly good at?
• Settle a debate for me: is a hot dog a sandwich?

A few small things make a big difference to how your chats go. None of them take more than a minute.

• Face the light. A window or a lamp in front of you beats one behind you. People stay longer when they can see who they’re talking to.
• Use headphones. They stop echo and keep your conversation between the two of you.
• Say hi first. A smile and a question (“what are you up to tonight?”) gets most chats going faster than waiting for the other person.
• Skip kindly. Not a match? Hit Next. Nobody needs a reason, and nobody is owed a conversation.
• Keep personal details to yourself. Your full name, address, school, workplace and passwords are never part of a good first chat.

RandomVideoChat runs in your browser on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebook. There’s nothing to install or update, and your settings stay with your browser.