SayHello

Anonymous Chat Apps, and the Alternative

5 min read

An app asks for storage, notifications, contacts and a place on your home screen. A browser tab asks for none of that.

"Anonymous chat app" covers two quite different things, and searching for it returns both mixed together. One is encrypted messengers for people you already know. The other is random chat with strangers. This page separates them, says when an app is genuinely the right tool, and then makes the case for doing the second one in a browser instead.

What the category actually contains

Six different kinds of thing get filed under the same search term, and they do not do the same job at all. Knowing which one you actually want saves the install:
  1. Encrypted messengers such as Signal — private conversations with people you already know, usually tied to a phone number.
  2. Identifier-free messengers such as SimpleX or Session — the same idea without a phone number, aimed at people who want no account at all.
  3. Random chat apps — strangers, matching, usually video, usually with paid extras.
  4. Confession and secret apps — posting anonymously to a crowd rather than talking to one person.
  5. Video roulette apps — OmeTV and similar, where the camera is the whole point.
  6. Browser chat sites — no install, no store listing, no permissions. SayHello is one of these.

What an install actually costs

Not a scare list. Just the things that are true of installing any app and not true of opening a tab.
An app appears in your store history, and on a shared device it appears on the home screen for everyone to see.
Permissions are asked for once and then kept — storage, notifications, sometimes contacts and the photo library.
Apps update themselves in the background, which means the code on your phone changes without you looking at it.
Uninstalling is a decision you have to make and remember. Closing a tab is not a decision at all.
A store listing ties whatever you use to the account that downloaded it, which is often a family account.

When an app is the right answer

Plenty of the time, honestly. Browser chat is not better at everything.
If you need end-to-end encryption for conversations with people you know, use a proper messenger. A random chat site is not that.
If you want notifications when someone replies hours later, a browser tab cannot help you.
If you want video, the apps do it better than any browser implementation.
If you need offline history, an app keeps it and a chat site deliberately does not.
If you want a stranger, once, right now, an install is a strange thing to do first. That is the case for a browser.

App or browser

A chat appSayHello in a browser
Install requiredYesNo
Device permissionsSeveralNone
Appears in store historyYesNo
Account or phone numberUsuallyNo
Works on any deviceIf supportedAny browser
Leaves nothing behindNoClose the tab

What browser chat gives you

The advantages are small individually and add up to the reason this site has no app:
  1. Nothing to install, so nothing to uninstall and nothing on the home screen.
  2. No permission prompts, because there is no camera, no microphone and no contacts access.
  3. It works the same on a phone, a tablet, a laptop and a work computer.
  4. Nothing appears in an app store account that belongs to someone else in your household.
  5. No background updates and no background activity between visits.
  6. Closing the tab ends it. There is no process still running.
  7. It works on a phone too old for the store listing to install anything at all.

What SayHello holds

Stated from the code, imperfections included:
  1. No email, no phone number, no name. Gender and age are optional, and your partner sees them.
  2. One signed cookie so the site can count your 5 daily conversations and apply blocks. It carries no personal data.
  3. Messages deleted 24 hours after the chat ends. A reported chat is kept until a person reads it, never past 30 days.
  4. No IP address and no raw browser string in the analytics. Age is stored as a bracket.
  5. No camera and no microphone, so there is no permission to grant and nothing to leak.
  6. What it cannot do: stop the other person screenshotting your words. No site can, app or browser.

Questions people ask

Does SayHello have an app?

No, and there is no plan for one. It runs in the browser on a phone or a computer, which is why it needs no permissions.

Is a browser site less private than an app?

Usually the opposite. An app asks for permissions and appears in a store account; a tab does neither.

Is it encrypted?

The connection uses HTTPS, like any site. It is not end-to-end encrypted — if that is what you need, use a proper messenger with the people you already know.

Do I need to register?

No. A guest gets 5 conversations a day; a free account removes the limit and asks for a login and a password only.

Will it work on an old phone?

It should. There is no video to decode and nothing to install, so the requirements are a browser and a connection.

Articles

No install needed

Open a tab, pick a room, press Search. Close the tab and it is over.