Light up a conversation
Free, anonymous video, audio and text chat. Meet someone new one to one, or open a room and bring your friends.
Safe by design
No account needed
Your IP stays hidden
Report anytime
By tapping Ready to Chat you confirm you are at least 13 years old and agree to
be paired with a stranger. Be kind. Anything you show on camera could be recorded
by the other person, so never share anything you would not want seen. Nudity,
harassment, and any content involving minors are forbidden and reported. Under-18
users are only matched with other under-18 users.
How Lumi works
- Choose your vibe. Pick video, audio, or text chat, add an optional name and interests, and confirm your birth year.
- Pass a quick age check. A private selfie check sorts adults and teens into separate lanes: under-18 users are only ever matched with other under-18 users. The photo is deleted the moment a person has reviewed the check, and after 90 days at the latest.
- Light up a conversation. You are paired with a random person. Chat as long as you like, and skip anytime to meet someone new.
Why people choose Lumi
Anonymous by design
No account, no profile, and no sign-up required. Your IP address stays hidden behind Lumi's own relay servers, so the person you meet never sees it.
Age-safe matching
Everyone passes an age check before their first chat, and teens are matched only with other teens. Safety features are never paywalled.
Free and ad-free
No ads, no trackers, and no data brokers. Lumi is funded by optional extras like Lumi Plus, never by selling your attention or your data.
Video, audio, or text
Camera-on is never required. Choose full video, voice-only audio, or plain text chat, whatever feels comfortable today.
Group rooms
Start a small room and invite friends with a link, or hang out with a few new people at once instead of one-on-one.
Talk across languages
Type in your own language and the other person reads it in theirs, translated on Lumi's own servers in nine languages, with the original one tap away.
Real moderation
Self-hosted AI moderation and a human review team work together, and you can report anyone in one tap. Abusive behavior leads to bans.
Watch together
Pin a video or a track and everyone watches or listens in sync while you talk, with nothing to install. For adults, and for 13-17 when Lumi switches it on for them.
Rooms that stay open
Practice a language, keep a night owl company, or work alongside others in the quiet room. Each has a rules card at the top and no owner.
Who Lumi is for
One place, many reasons to be here. Each page is the honest answer to one situation, in plain words.
What is here, and why to trust it
The rest of it: what you can do once you are in, and how the safety side works.
Put something on, and watch it together
18+, and 13-17 when switched on
Shared video and music are for adults, and for teens only when Lumi switches it on for them, with YouTube only. In an adult chat, whether a
room somebody opened or a one-to-one, anyone can pin a video or a track, and everyone
watches it at the same moment while you carry on talking. Turn up late and you land where
everyone else is, not at the beginning.
The same moment
Where a service allows it the whole room sits on the same second of the same video; where it does not, the room tells you before you start.
Turn up late, join where everyone is
Arrive halfway through and you start halfway through, at the point the room has reached, rather than watching the first half on your own.
The host holds the remote
Whoever is hosting can pause, rewind the bit everyone missed, skip an ad or jump ahead for the whole room.
Nothing loads until you agree
Your browser does not contact the video site at all until you say yes: no player, no thumbnail, no quiet request in the background.
Music counts too
It is not only films. Put a playlist, a mix, a podcast episode or a talk on and go through it together while you talk over it.
Nothing to install
An ordinary browser tab on a laptop, a tablet or a phone. No extension, no app store, and no account unless you want one.
More about watching together, including which services stay in
step and which play separately.
Hosting a room? You can put it on the front page for a day, a
weekend, a week, or a month, from $3, and it stays open the whole time.
Rooms that are always open
Some rooms never close. The quiet room is for working, reading, or studying alongside other
people with your microphone off and nobody expecting you to talk. Language rooms are for
practicing with other learners. Each has its own short rules card pinned above the chat, and
you can sit and listen before you say anything. Teens and adults never share a room; each band has its own.
More about the rooms that are always open, including
the quiet room.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Lumi really free?
- Yes. Matching, chatting, and every safety feature are free, with no ads. Optional cosmetics and Lumi Plus fund the service.
- Do I need an account?
- No. You can chat without creating an account. An optional account, for adults only, unlocks extras like Lumi Plus.
- How does the age check work?
- Lumi's own servers estimate your age group from a few camera frames. No third-party vendors are involved. A person checks the software's decision, and the photo is deleted the moment they have, or after 90 days at the latest. It is used only to keep adults and minors apart, and no face template is ever stored.
- Who can use Lumi?
- Lumi is for ages 13 and up. Users aged 13 to 17 are matched only with other teens and are never monetized.
- Can I chat with someone who speaks another language?
- Yes. Pick the language you read in from the Translate to menu at the top of the chat, and a message written in another language arrives in yours, with Show original underneath. Translation runs on Lumi's own servers, so nothing you type leaves them, and it covers English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Persian, Turkish, and Bulgarian. It works one to one and in rooms.
- Can we watch a video together on Lumi?
- Yes, in an adult chat. Anyone in a group room somebody opened, or in a one-to-one, can pin a video or a track, and everyone watches or listens to it while you carry on talking. People who join partway through land at the point the room has already reached. The host controls the timeline and can skip an ad or jump ahead for the whole room. It runs in the browser with nothing to install. In teen rooms it is available only when Lumi has switched it on for them, with YouTube links only, every link recorded, and anyone in the room able to report the video, which stops it at once.
- Which services stay in sync when we watch together?
- It depends what each service allows. YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud keep the whole room on the same moment. Some others follow along more loosely. A few, including Spotify, OK.ru, Mixcloud and TED, play separately for each person, so you press play yourselves. The room says which of these applies before you start, so nobody is left guessing.
- What is Lumi Plus?
- An optional membership for adults: priority matching, a higher video-quality ceiling, and cosmetic flair. It never changes who you meet. Learn about Lumi Plus.