Anonymous chat in the UK — free, voice or text

The UK sits in the useful time zone. A British evening is an Indian night, a Gulf night, a German evening, an American afternoon and a Brazilian afternoon all at once, so an evening from London can reach any of them. HearMe from the UK is text and voice with no camera and no sign-up, on the phone browser or a laptop.

The table shows the rest of the world at 9pm GMT: India and Pakistan are past 2am, Germany is an hour ahead, Brazil is at 6pm, the US East Coast is at 4pm and the West Coast at 1pm. The Philippines is asleep and Australia is just waking up. In summer, BST shifts everything an hour. How many people are here at your hour is the live count at the top of the page, and that is the only number we print.

Times are standard time; daylight saving shifts some of these by an hour for part of the year. 'Evening' is 6pm to midnight. This table is only about clocks: how many people are on HearMe right now is the live count at the top of the page, and we print no other number.

English, in every accent the UK has, and Welsh, Polish, Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali are all spoken there too. Voice is where accents become the conversation rather than a barrier.

A British evening is the Indian and Pakistani night and the Brazilian afternoon by the clock, so a native speaker with patience may meet someone practising English; that page explains how to be useful without turning it into a lesson.

Nobody can tell you what a stranger will say, but the interest tags people pick and the topics that recur in the General room give a fair idea. If you want a conversation on one of these, set the tag before you start; the matcher prefers someone who picked the same.

• Football, obviously, and the argument about it.
• Work, commutes, the cost of everything, and moving out of London or into it.
• University: freshers, dissertations, and what to do after.
• Telly, music, and whatever everyone is watching this week.
• The weather, sincerely.
• Things you would not say to a mate.

UK mobile networks handle voice calls comfortably; audio-only is a small fraction of a video call's data. On a train, text is the safer choice for the tunnels. On a laptop, use headphones or the built-in mic will echo. If two networks cannot connect directly, a relay server passes the audio through without storing it. Nothing is installed; the site runs in Safari on iPhone and Chrome on Android and can be added to the home screen.

From the UK you are one country filter away from almost everyone at a civilised hour. Germany and the rest of Europe share your evening. India and Pakistan are three and a half to five hours ahead, so their late night is your evening. Brazil and the US East Coast are three to five hours behind, so their afternoon is your night. If you want one country in particular, the 1:1 country filter comes with Premium; free users match worldwide.

HearMe is for adults only and enforces it. Guests give no email, phone number or name; the flag comes from the connection and shows the country, never the town. Text is kept for 24 hours only so a report can be reviewed; voice is never recorded and every 1:1 call is private; only a report sends a short clip from just before it for review. There is no camera on the site. A block stops you being matched with that person again; bans hold by account, device and network. If you are on a shared laptop, clearing the site's cookies removes the guest session and its nickname.