Random Group Chat with Strangers

How random group chat works

A group starts when three people are waiting at the same time, and stays open for anyone else to join until it holds ten. If every group is full you wait a moment while the next one forms. When a group empties out to one person it closes, and you are offered a fresh one.

Everyone arrives at once rather than being introduced, so the first minute is usually several people saying hello over each other. That settles quickly. If a group is quiet, leaving and finding another costs nothing.

What makes it different from a chat room

A chat room is a fixed place that carries on whether or not you are in it, and its recent messages are waiting when you arrive. A group is made for you on the spot, has no history, and ends when people drift away. Rooms are for coming back to; groups are for right now.

Nothing in a group is stored. Someone who joins later does not see what was said before they arrived — the people already talking never agreed to a stranger reading back over them.

Text, photos and voice notes

You can send text, photos and voice notes to the whole group. Media from other people stays hidden until you allow that kind, and the choice is remembered on your own device. There is no video in group chat — for that, video chat is one-to-one.

Keeping a group civil

The same filter as the rest of the site runs on every message, so links, phone numbers and social handles are blocked, and so is flooding. You can report anybody in your group, and three separate reports within an hour block that person automatically. Pro members can also remove a disruptive free member from a group they are in.

Prefer one person at a time? Random chat is the same idea with a single stranger. There is more on group etiquette in group chat with strangers.