ChatDuo Guides
Plain-language guides about talking to strangers online: what happened to Omegle, how to start a conversation with someone you have never met, and how to stay safer in a random video chat. Written by the ChatDuo team and dated.
Last reviewed: 12 November 2026
Guides to random chat
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What Happened to Omegle (and Is It Coming Back)?
Omegle closed on 8 November 2023 after fourteen years. What the site was, why its founder shut it down, whether it is back, what the omegle.com domain does today, and a checklist for judging any replacement, with an honest note on where ChatDuo fits as an Omegle alternative.
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How to Talk to Strangers Online
A practical guide to the awkward first minute: openers that work in a random chat, how to keep a conversation going, what to share and what to keep private, when to press Next, and whether to start with text or video. Useful whether you are practising a language or simply curious who is out there.
What these guides are for
People come to a random chat with the questions they would have before any first conversation: what do I say, what should I keep to myself, and what do I do if it goes wrong. The guides answer them for the online version, where the stranger is behind a screen and the Next button is always within reach.
They are not a substitute for the two pages that describe the product itself. How ChatDuo works explains the three steps, what your browser needs, and what is and is not stored. Safety on ChatDuo covers the 18+ rule, the Report and Block buttons in every chat, automatic bans for repeat offenders, and tips for talking to strangers more safely.
How we write them
- Dated and reviewed. Every guide is dated, carries a last-reviewed line, and has its facts checked again when something changes.
- Sources over opinions. A claim about another site comes from that site or a public record, checked on the day of writing. We do not invent numbers.
- Straight about ChatDuo. A guide says what ChatDuo does not have as readily as what it does: no gender or country filters today, no app, no accounts.
- Slow by design. There is no blog here. A new guide appears only when it answers a real question people ask, roughly one per quarter at most. Topics under consideration: camera and lighting for video chat, conversation starters by interest, practising a language with strangers.
Spotted an error? Tell us through the contact form. Corrections are made on the page itself and the review date is updated.
Ready to try it?
The chat is free, needs no account and runs in your browser on a phone or a desktop. Pick text chat with strangers or video, press Start, and you are matched with one random stranger at a time.