Video chat with strangers

What happens in the first ten seconds

You confirm your age, allow your camera, and press Start. Mulaqat looks for someone who matches what you asked for. When it finds them, both browsers exchange a short technical handshake and the two video streams appear. On a normal home connection this takes a couple of seconds.

You see them large, yourself small in the corner. Above their video is a bar with their name, their country, and — if they are signed in — how many followers they have. If you both picked the same interests, those are shown too, which is usually the easiest place to start.

What they can see about you

• Your camera and microphone, live.
• Your display name, or simply "Guest" if you have not signed in.
• Your country.
• Interests you both chose.

That is the complete list. Not your email, not your IP address, not your city, not how long you have been on Mulaqat, not who else you have spoken to.

Leaving is the easiest thing on the screen

The largest control on the page is Next. Pressing it ends the call at once, tells the other person you moved on, and puts you straight back into the queue. There is no confirmation step, no "are you sure", and no penalty. End stops entirely and takes you out of the queue.

This is deliberate. A platform where leaving is awkward is a platform where people stay in conversations they want to leave.

Text alongside video

Some things are easier typed — a place name, a band, a spelling. The chat panel sits beside the video and is relayed live between the two browsers. It is never written to a database, and it disappears when the conversation ends. It is also never indexed or used for anything else.

Free, and what "free" means

Guests get ten minutes of video chat per day, measured on the server while you are actually connected to someone. Waiting in the queue does not consume it. Signing in with Google removes the limit entirely. There is nothing to buy.

Nothing is recorded

Your video and audio go directly between the two browsers using WebRTC. Mulaqat's servers carry the introduction — a few small messages that let the browsers find each other — and then step out of the path entirely. There is no recording because there is nothing in the path capable of making one.

The other person's phone, of course, is outside our control. Assume anything on camera could be captured, and read the safety guide before you start.

Video chat on a phone

Mulaqat runs in a mobile browser with nothing to install. The stage gives each person an equal half of the screen, stacked one above the other in portrait and side by side when you turn the phone, and the View control switches to a single large view with your own camera as a small inset if you prefer that. Flip swaps between your front and rear cameras and appears automatically when your device has more than one.

One thing worth knowing before you start: if you opened this link from inside Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook or a messaging app, you are in that app's built-in browser, and many of them cannot reach the camera at all. Use the menu to open the page in Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Edge. It is the single most common reason video chat appears broken on a phone.

Video is the bulk of the data, so a long call over mobile data is not free in that sense. On a metered connection, Wi-Fi is the better choice.

When the video will not connect

Three things account for nearly all of it: the camera permission was dismissed, another application is already holding the camera, or a restrictive network is blocking the direct connection between the two browsers.

The first two are yours to fix, and our guide to eight reasons a camera will not start goes through each with the exact settings for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. The third is a consequence of how peer-to-peer video works: on some office, campus and public networks two browsers cannot reach each other directly, and Mulaqat does not route your call through a relay server. When that happens we say so plainly and offer you the next person, rather than showing you a black rectangle and hoping. The reasoning is in what peer to peer actually means for your privacy.

What to say once you are connected

Most conversations that fail do so in the first fifteen seconds, and almost never because either person was uninteresting — it is because neither had anything ready. If you both chose the same interest, that is your opener. If not, the country in the bar above their video is one: asking what the weather or the time is where somebody lives sounds trivial and works almost every time.

We wrote a longer guide to what to actually talk about with a stranger, including what to do when answers land flat and how to leave a conversation without it being awkward.

Questions people ask

Is Mulaqat video chat free?

Yes. Guests get ten minutes of video chat per day, measured on the server only while you are actually connected to someone, so waiting in the queue costs you nothing. Signing in with Google removes the limit entirely. There is nothing to buy.

Do I need to download an app?

No. Mulaqat runs entirely in your browser using WebRTC. There is nothing to install on a computer or a phone. You confirm your age, allow camera access, and press Start.

Do I need an account to video chat with strangers?

No. You can start as a guest after confirming you are 18 or older. Signing in with Google gives you unlimited chat time, a display name, a profile and the ability to follow people you enjoyed talking to.

Are Mulaqat video calls recorded?

No. Video and audio travel directly between the two browsers using WebRTC. Our servers carry only the introduction that lets the two browsers find each other, then step out of the path entirely. There is no recording because nothing in the path is capable of making one. Text chat is relayed live and never written to a database.

What happens when I press Next?

The call ends immediately, the other person is told you moved on, and you go straight back into the queue to meet someone else. There is no confirmation step, no penalty, and no waiting period. End stops entirely and takes you out of the queue.

How long does it take to connect to someone?

On a normal home connection, a couple of seconds. You confirm your age, allow your camera, and press Start; Mulaqat looks for someone matching what you asked for, the two browsers exchange a short technical handshake, and both video streams appear.