What happened to Omegle?
Omegle launched in 2009 with a simple idea: press a button and talk to a random stranger. For more than a decade it was the place people went to kill time, practise a language, or have a conversation with someone they'd never meet otherwise.
On 8 November 2023, Omegle's founder shut the site down, saying it was no longer sustainable to run — financially or psychologically — given the scale of misuse it had to fight. The idea of random chat didn't go away, though, and plenty of people are still looking for somewhere to do it.
What to look for in an Omegle alternative
Lots of sites call themselves “the new Omegle”. Before you pick one, check these things:
- Adults only, and actually enforced. A good site separates adults from minors and tells you how.
- Block and report in every chat. You should be able to leave and flag someone in one tap.
- Message filtering. Slurs, scams and spam links should be stopped before they reach you.
- Real moderators. Reports should go to people who can ban, not into a void.
- Clear privacy rules. The site should say plainly what it stores and for how long.
- No pressure to show your face. Text chat keeps you in control of what you share.
- No pay-to-talk. You shouldn't need to pay just to have a conversation.
How TextStrangers compares
TextStrangers is a free, text-only take on random chat. You press one button and you're matched with someone for a live one-on-one conversation. Here's what's different:
- Text only. No webcam and no microphone — ever. Just words.
- No sign-up. Confirm you're 18 or older and you get a free guest account with a random username straight away.
- Interest matching. Add a few interests and we'll try to pair you with someone who shares them — when you do, you'll both see it.
- Language matching. Choose your chat language and get matched with people who speak it.
- Games and conversation starters. Play tic-tac-toe, rock paper scissors, word guess, would you rather or two truths and a lie, or pick a starter question when you don't know what to say.
- Friends and DMs. If you click with someone, you can both add each other as friends and keep talking later.
- [Public chat rooms](/rooms) for group conversation by topic.
- Safety built in. Every message is checked before it's delivered, and block and report are always one tap away. See how safety works.
Getting started
- Open the chat page.
- Tick the boxes to confirm you're 18 or older and agree to the rules.
- Press Start chatting — you'll be matched in seconds when people are online.
- Say hi. If it isn't clicking, press Next to meet someone new.