About MiniChat: a small site for meeting one stranger at a time

MiniChat on minichat.me is a random video chat site that does a single thing: it puts two adults who have never met into a live, private conversation, quickly. You press Start and a stranger appears on your screen. You talk over camera, voice or typed messages. When the conversation has run its course, one tap brings someone new. That is the product, and most of the work we do is aimed at keeping it that simple.

The name suits it. A chat here is small by nature. Some are over almost at once, some turn into a long call and a follow, and nobody needs to plan which kind they are about to have.

Adults from many countries, one at a time. Some are visitors like you who pressed Start out of curiosity, some are regulars, and all of them are real people on a live camera. Who comes up is decided by whoever else happens to be on the site just then, which is most of the charm.

When you get on with someone, you are not relying on luck to see them again. Follow them, and they stay in your list. Their profile then carries two buttons, one for a message and one for a direct video call. And if you would rather choose than be surprised, Who's online is a list, with photos, of the people on the site right now.

Five kinds of people tend to get the most out of it.

Anyone under 18, first of all. minichat.me is for adults, and that rule is not negotiable.

It is also the wrong address if what you want is a crowd. Every conversation here is between two people, and there is no feed to scroll while you wait. Our page on choosing a MiniChat alternative lists the criteria worth checking, and says plainly which ones this site does not meet.

Because every extra layer puts something between you and a conversation. Social products tend to grow sideways. A chat tool gains a feed, the feed gains followers, followers bring rankings, and before long the original idea is three menus deep. We went the other way. There is no timeline here, no public follower count and no profile you must complete before you can speak to anyone.

Leaving things out has a cost and we would rather name it than hide it: some people will look for a feature and not find it. What they get in exchange is a fast video chat with a stranger that starts with one button, and a screen-by-screen account of how MiniChat works that fits on a single page.

A short list on each side. What we stand behind: you can try the site as a guest before you pay for anything; a price is on screen before any purchase or paid call; Next, block and report are on the call screen; the rules are written down; and there is an address that reaches us.

What we do not promise is just as worth knowing. We do not promise that every stranger will be good company, because no site can. We do not promise that the person you hoped for will be online when you are. And we do not promise fixed amounts of free matches, since those change and the current offer is whatever the site shows you today. A site that promised all three would be telling you what you want to hear.

It is free to start and paid with coins after that; coins are the main way anything on the site is paid for. Running live video costs real money, so we would rather say where it comes from than leave you guessing. The cost is put in front of you ahead of any payment. The whole arrangement, including what the Reward Center is, lives on the page that answers whether MiniChat is free.

To three rules. First, we describe what is on the screen, not what we wish were there. If a button exists, we say where; if we cannot stand behind a claim, we leave it out.

Second, we do not print numbers that change. How many free matches, how long a wait, what a call costs: those are shown inside the site, where they are current, and a figure on a page like this would soon be wrong.

Third, one topic has one page. Costs are on one page, the step-by-step on another, the safety checks on a third, so you are not asked to read the same thing five times in different words. Policy pages carry the date they were last updated.

The community guidelines are the rules: adults only, no harassment, no selling, no pressure. Every call screen carries Next, block and report, and accounts that break the rules can lose access.

You carry part of the load as well, as on any site of this kind. Two pages help with that. One shows how to judge the site for yourself, is MiniChat safe; the other is a practical list of safety tips for before, during and after a call.

Questions, complaints and deletion requests go to [email protected]. The contact page spells out the details to put in, so a single email does the job. If you are brand new, the page on a MiniChat video call will help with your first hello.