Anonymous chat: say it to someone who will never know your name

A lot of apps call themselves anonymous and then ask for your phone number on the first screen. Here is exactly what the other person can and cannot see when you chat on HearMe.

The only thing that persists is the nickname, and even that is your choice. If you register a free account later, your friends list and DMs are tied to that account, but a random match still only sees the nickname.

Anonymous does not mean unmoderated, so HearMe keeps a small, time-limited amount of data for safety and nothing for advertising profiles.

• Text messages from a chat are held for 24 hours so that a report can be reviewed by a person, then deleted.
• Voice calls are never recorded. Only if someone taps Report is a short clip from just before the report sent for review, and it is deleted after review.
• A guest session cookie keeps your nickname and settings. It does not contain your name because you never gave one.
• Reports and bans are tied to an account, a device fingerprint and an IP range, so a banned user cannot simply open a new tab.

That is the whole list. There is no chat history page, no 'people you talked to' feed for strangers, and no camera permission prompt anywhere on the site.

1. Open text chat or voice chat. There is no sign-up screen in the way.
2. Pick a nickname, or keep the one HearMe generates for you. Add a few interest tags if you want to be matched with people who like the same things.
3. Tap Start talking. You are put in the queue and matched with the next available person. It is usually under a minute when people are online.
4. Talk. Leave whenever you want with the Leave button, or tap Next to be matched again. Every match is a fresh page, so nothing from the last person carries over.

There is no daily limit. Guests get unlimited text chats and voice calls. A free account is never required to keep chatting; it adds friends, DMs and a history of who you liked, and nothing that lets you talk is behind a paywall.

Text is the most anonymous option in the plain sense: the other person gets words and a nickname, nothing else. It is the right choice if you are typing from a shared room, a workplace, or a phone on the bus.

Voice reveals your voice and nothing more. There is no camera to turn on by accident, the call is not recorded, and every call is private: nobody else can join it or listen to it. If someone taps Report, a short clip from just before the report is reviewed by a person; otherwise nothing leaves your device.

If your worry is being identified, text is safer. If your worry is being misunderstood, voice is better. Plenty of people start in text and move to a voice call once the conversation is going.

Most people come here for one of a few reasons. Some want to vent to a stranger about something they cannot say to people who know them. Some are practising a language and would rather make mistakes in front of someone they will never meet. Some are awake at 2am and want a late-night conversation with anyone at all. And some simply like meeting people from other countries without the theatre of a video call.

What they have in common is that the anonymity is the point, not a side effect. Nobody here is building a follower count. The best conversations on HearMe are the ones where both people forget to be careful.

• Keep it anonymous on your side too. Do not share your full name, workplace, school, or social handles in the first few minutes. You can always share later, in a DM, if the person turns out to be worth it.
• Use Report and Block. Report is one tap from any chat, call or room. Block, once you are signed in, ends the chat and you are never matched with that person again.
• Every message passes an under-18 safety check and rate limits; a message that trips the check is stopped before it reaches you. Reported chats and calls go to a review queue read by a person.
• HearMe is for adults. Signs of an under-18 user block the message, warn, and then ban.
• If someone pushes you to move to another app straight away, that is usually the moment to tap Next.

One-to-one is not the only way to be anonymous here. Chat rooms put you in a group with people who are already talking: the General room is always open to everyone. It is text, anonymous in the same way as a 1:1 chat: a nickname and a flag, nothing else, and the count on the room is the real one.

The request board is the other option: post the topic you want to talk about, pick voice or text, and wait for the stranger who wants exactly that conversation. Cards stay up for two hours and posting is free.