Omegle Alternatives That Still Work
6 min read
Omegle shut down on 8 November 2023. This page lists what replaced it, what each site does, and who each one suits.
Omegle closed on 8 November 2023. Its founder said the cost of moderating it and the legal pressure around it had become more than he could carry. What he did not say was where several million people were supposed to go next — so a dozen sites started claiming the spot, and most of them are video.
Why people are still looking
Three years after the shutdown, "omegle alternatives" is still searched more than most chat sites get visitors. The reasons people give are fairly consistent:
- The format is gone, not the need. Talking to one person you will never meet again is a specific thing. Group chats, forums and social feeds are not that.
- Most replacements are video-first. Omegle had a text mode and plenty of people only ever used it. Almost nobody rebuilt that part.
- Registration keeps creeping in. Half the sites that call themselves alternatives want an email before the first message.
- Mobile is an afterthought. A lot of these sites were built for a desktop webcam and still feel that way on a phone.
- The adult side is muddled. Some sites ban adult talk everywhere, some allow it everywhere, and you find out which after you are already in a conversation.
- Nobody says what happens to the messages. "Anonymous" is printed on the homepage; retention is not printed anywhere.
- Bots. Being matched with a script that sells a cam site is the most common complaint in every thread about this.
What is actually out there
Plain descriptions, no ranking. Pick by what you want to do, not by what order a list puts things in.
SayHello — text only, no camera. Two rooms: Talk and 18+. No account needed to start; a guest gets 5 conversations a day.
Emerald Chat — video and text. An account is optional for some modes, and there is a paid tier that includes a gender filter.
OmeTV — video roulette with apps for phones and a web version. Camera access is the point of it; nudity is against its rules.
Chatroulette — the 2009 original, still running, still video-first. It opens by asking for your camera.
Chatrandom — video chat with topic and country rooms, plus paid extras. Text exists but is not the focus.
Discord servers — not random chat at all, but many people looking for Omegle ended up in group servers instead. Different thing, worth naming.
Reddit threads and Telegram groups — people do pair off there. There is no matching, no reporting and no rules beyond whoever runs the group.
What SayHello does differently
SayHello is a text chat for adults, and that is the whole product. Here is what that means in practice:
- Text, no video. There is no camera prompt because there is no camera feature. Your face and your room stay yours.
- Two rooms, kept apart. Talk and 18+ have separate queues. Choosing Talk will not drop you into an explicit conversation.
- No bots. The bot code was deleted from the project on 19 September 2026. There is nothing to switch back on.
- No account to start. A guest picks gender and age if they want to — that goes into matching and is shown to the partner.
- 5 conversations a day as a guest. They come back the next day. A free account removes the daily limit.
- Messages are deleted 24 hours after the chat ends. If someone reports the chat, it is kept until we read it, and no longer than 30 days.
- 15 languages. You can also tick "any language" and be matched with people who do not share yours.
Side by side
| Site | Format | Account to start | Paid gender filter | Mobile web | Separate 18+ area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SayHello | Text | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Emerald Chat | Video and text | Optional | Yes | Yes | Unknown |
| OmeTV | Video | No | Unknown | Yes | No |
| Chatroulette | Video | No | Unknown | Yes | Unknown |
| Omegle | Closed 2023 | Closed | Closed | Closed | Closed |
How the matching works
You set three things, the queue does the rest. Nothing here is a paid feature.
Pick a room first — Talk or 18+. They never mix.
Say your gender and age, and who you would like to talk to.
Language is a preference, not a wall — tick "any language" and the queue widens.
Waiting relaxes your preferences after about ten seconds, so an empty hour still ends in a conversation.
The same person will not come back for ten minutes after you leave a chat.
The online counter shows the real number, or the typical wait when the number is small.
Report sits next to the message box. Three different people reporting you within an hour closes search for an hour in that room.
What to avoid while you look
Most of the damage in this corner of the internet is done in the first two minutes of a conversation, not by the site itself:
- A "partner" who opens with a link. Real people do not lead with a URL.
- Anything asking you to verify your age on another site with a card. That is a card-harvesting page, not an age check.
- Requests to move to another app immediately. The pressure to move is the signal.
- Anyone asking for photos, money or your social accounts. Say no once and press Next.
- Downloads. A one-to-one text chat never needs software installed.
Where SayHello fits, and where it does not
If you want to type to a stranger without installing anything, without handing over an email, and without a camera, this is built for exactly that. If you want to see the other person, you want a video site — Emerald Chat, OmeTV and Chatroulette all do video and we do not. If you want a group to hang around in, a Discord server will serve you better than any one-to-one chat. And if the site is quiet when you arrive, it is quiet; the counter says so instead of inventing a number. To start: open sayhello.chat, choose a room, press Search.
Questions people ask
Is Omegle coming back?
There is no sign of it. The site has been a farewell letter from its founder since 8 November 2023, and nobody has announced a relaunch.
Which alternative is closest to Omegle's text mode?
A text-only site with random one-to-one matching and no signup. SayHello is that; most of the other names on this page are video-first.
Do I need to register anywhere?
Not on SayHello — a guest gets 5 conversations a day. Other sites vary; Emerald Chat, for example, asks for an account for some of its modes.
Are these sites free?
The basics usually are. Several video sites sell extras such as a gender filter. SayHello has no paid features at all; an account is free and removes the daily limit.
What happens to what I type?
On SayHello, messages are deleted 24 hours after the chat ends. A reported chat is kept until a person reads it, and never longer than 30 days. Other sites publish their own policies — read them.
Articles
Try the text one
No camera, no email, no bots. Pick a room and start talking.