I came across a list of sites that claimed to allow you chat with strangers (girls and guys)- video / audio / text chat. I visited the sites to check if these sites were legitimate and if they did work at all.
**Warning**:
All those who plan to visit any of these sites
“Do not visit these sites if you are at work, school, or any public place where you can be humiliated. You’ll bump into strangers who almost always are wearing nothin !!”
Here’s my list according to my preferance (My main criteria were: ease of use, number of ads, unique features and server speed):
1> Omegle by far is the simplest of these type of sites. It’s very interesting, simple and clean.
2> Chatroulette.com : I had problems loading this site. I’m not sure if it was the browser or the flash version installed or server load at the time when I tried logging in.
They also flash this message targetted at Google Chrome users:
Chrome users:
If your Flash Player crashes often, please upgrade your Chrome or try a different browser.
I was on Chrome and was lazy to fire up another browser and test it, so I’m just going by what MakeUseOf.com has to say.
3> FaceBuzz – Looks decent enough. They have an integrated Facebook connect option. It is a social network, allowing unknown people to meet randomly, via voice or video chat. On FaceBuzz it’s mandatory that you need to have a webcam, as it is meant for strangers with webcams only. You have an otion to avoid obscene not safe videos, though I’m not sure what stops people from surpassing this.
Some other interesting features are that you can auto reconnect if connection is lost. Clean the chatlog, clear the chat messages if you hit on with a new stranger and a report button that lets you voice your concerns.
Though it is fairly good, I feel that there are a lot of ads, which is a bit irritating and also the slow servers don’t help much !
I guess it’s a french owned company, and you can find their blog (available only in french) here.
They do have a contact form / page:
Please contact info@facebuzz.com for any question or bug report.
Everything supplied by the user, is not property of FaceBuzz and therefore FaceBuzz is not responsible for what you will find.
You should be 18 years old to use this service.
Thank you for using FaceBuzz !
4> Rounds : Fairly good, interactive Video Chat, you can take snapshots, play real-time games, watch youtube together, share pictures, listen to music, funny web cam effects and much more while you are online !
They have a Facebook application, Social community, wave gadget and they have a chrome extension too !
5> Lolichat : The only website which has an explicit warning :
If you expose your genitals or show porn video to someone…
We must report you to the Interpol’s cyber center right away, without any warnings!
Then we will capture your video.
And we will get your IP information.
Do you agree?
One of the most interesting feature is that this website has a translator, now just in case you stumble across someone who chats in a language you don’t know, isn’t that interesting ?
Though their unprofessional Feedback email id put me off : lollichat@gmail.com . GMail, a free email service really ??
Some other regular options are you can change video position, auto reconnect, clean chat log and turn off / on chat sound. This website too is only for those users who have a webcam. Without a cam there is no way you can go ahead and chat..
6> Tinychat – You can create your own or join an existing channel !!
In each channel, all those who are subscribed to that channel and are online currently will show up. To report someone you have to hover your mouse on video and option to hide / report will pop -up. Advantage of TinyChat is that they have facilities for group chat. However, make sure you are on a very fast connection when you login to TinyChat. So many windows open simultaneously might alter and reduce your browsers performance.
Even when you are in a group, you have the option to send messages to individual and if the stranger and you want to move to a private room, you can do so.
To view who’s online and chat with them you don’t need to be logged in, however, if you want to leave a comment on any channel then you need to be logged in.
A few other ‘Chat with stranger’ sites that did not impress me much, however the users probably can find something good out of them :
7> CamZap – It’s available in English, Dutch, Espanol, French, Portugese and few other languages. Click on “start / zap” if you want to chat with a new stranger.
8> Spin the cam – This one doesn’t look genuine at all. It shows a lot of girls in the members last logged in, which is really hard to believe. It’s not just a cam chat site, it is a more like a social forum. They have informatin about people who have registered with them, for ex: http://spinthecam.com/diamond2881/
You can connect with them via Facebook, twitter, google, yahoo etcs, or create an account. If you want to get hold of more information about other members on the site, sign in required. I did not bother to create an account, as the site looks fake !
9> ShufflePeople – Have to click on Start Playing once you open that webpage. When you try to start chatting initially it tries to send your information to a Facebook app and requests your permission to do so. Those who do not pay attention to these pop-up messages, might just end up becoming a member of it on FaceBook, and your friends might get to know which site you’ve been visiting ;), which is not what you want ! To avoid such situation, when the facebook option pops up, deny it.
Once you are done with it, it flashes a message: “Sit tight we are finding a random person for you”. The slow servers force you to wait for longer than you expect.
Among other features, they have group chat option, an option to report as well. It is ad supported and you can select to stop playing once you are bugged with it.
10> Another website is CamStuble: First look, I did not like it and the reason is their title “For the attention deprived”. Assumption ! Who said only attention deprived people go online to chat with strangers !! ?
They have a forum here http://forum.camstumble.com/ and a store http://camstumble.spreadshirt.com/. You have group chat option as well http://camstumble.com/GroupChat.
You can either stumble anonymously or with an identity. You can get your own identity by creating an account: http://camstumble.com/SignUp.php
However, the site doesn’t seem to be very popular. So I’m not sure if it’s really worth the time you spend on that site.
11> College Only is another site : Even after two repeated attempts to load the website, it did not come up. May be I visited it on a wrong day !
All the services we have discussed above are browser based and they do not require you to download any software prior to start chatting with strangers. There are various adantages and disadvantages, without getting into let, lets see other different kind of services:
12> Cam frog – another service that lets you chat with strangers. However you need to download and install a software before you can start chatting with strangers.
For windows mac mobile: http://download.camfrog.com/
For iphone and ipad: http://download.camfrog.com/iphone/
User directory: http://profiles.camfrog.com/
They have pro version available and with the pro version you can
Open multiple video windows.
Resize video windows to large sizes.
Locate what room a user is in.
Add text and cool effects to your video window.
Send files to your friends.
Remotely access your webcam from another computer to see what’s going on at your home.
IM and Room History. Keep a history of your IM conversions and rooms you joined.
Drag your contacts to the desktop to see their status when then Camfrog is closed.
You can download the pro version from : http://www.cleverbridge.com/225/purl-VideoChatPro?
It’s available for Windows XP, Vista, 7, Mac OS X. All software come with a one year subsrciption.
Another very unique service that deserves mention is :
Anybodyoutthere : AnybodyOutThere is a chat platform which helps users find the right people to talk with about what interests them.
Once you sign uphttp://www.anybodyoutthere.com/signup/nav you can filter results / refresh results based on your search criteria (either username and / or keyword).
The search result will list all popular topics on which the user can post, find, orgainze and personalize. One of the best platforms to catch up with strangers based on your interest !
You can see another list compiled here on FreeNuts.
