1 on 1 Video Chat, Just You and One Other Person

Put six strangers in one room and the loudest person decides the topic. Everyone else waits for a gap, makes a joke that lands late and quietly checks the time. It is hard to be curious about somebody when you are also performing for the others.

One-to-one removes all of that. You have one person to read, one voice to answer and nobody to impress except the face in front of you. Conversations that would take twenty minutes to warm up in a group can feel natural in two.

It means exactly what it sounds like. Each call is a private room with two participants. Nobody else can join, nobody can watch from the side and there is no public stream attached to it. When one of you taps Next, the room closes.

That is also why we describe it as "1v1" when we talk about matching. You are paired with one person at a time, and each pairing is its own conversation. If you want to understand how that pairing is made, random video chat explains the matching in more detail.

If you ever feel that a conversation is not what you signed up for, the format helps: there is nobody else to be embarrassed in front of, and leaving is as simple as tapping Next.

Private means nobody else is in the room and nothing is posted publicly. It does not mean the other person is bound to secrecy. Anyone can take a screenshot or record their own screen, so treat a call like a conversation in a cafe: say what you would be comfortable having repeated.

• Keep your surname, address, workplace and school to yourself.
• Check what is behind you: mail, framed photos and window views can give away more than you intend.
• If someone asks you to move to another app straight away, you are allowed to say no.

The rest of the habits are in our safety tips, and the community guidelines set out what behaviour gets someone removed.

A small room makes small things matter. Look at the lens now and then so they feel looked at. Let a pause breathe for a second before you fill it. Ask one question at a time. And if you are going to leave, say so: "I have to run, it was nice meeting you" takes four seconds and leaves a good impression of both of you.

Out of ideas for what to say? We wrote a set of openers that do not sound rehearsed in how to talk to girls on video chat, and most of them work for anyone.

People who find big rooms tiring. Shy people who open up with one listener. Anyone who has tried a group call and left feeling like they said nothing. And plenty of people who simply like the format, the way some prefer a table for two to a long communal bench.