Make friends online: one good chat, then keep in touch

In a text chat where at least one of you is a guest, the header shows Keep in touch, and you each tap it. Your tap stays private until they tap too. Once you both have, a link between you is saved for 24 hours. If you both have free accounts by then, whether you already had one or signed in inside that time, you become friends and can send direct messages, unless either of you has turned friend requests off. Until then Keep in touch shares nothing more about either of you.

When both of you are signed in you see Add friend instead, which sends a friend request. A voice call shows Add friend too and never Keep in touch. A filter blocks phone numbers, emails and social handles in text chat, so these buttons are how a chat continues.

The suggested chips on the start screen sort into two groups, and chips in the same group match each other. Music, Movies, Gaming and Sports (and the typed words Travel, Books and Food) are one group. Study, Late night, Vent, Life advice, Languages and Making friends (and the typed words Work and Relationships) are the other. A typed word that spells a chip counts as that chip, other tags match only the same word, and language names are ignored.

Add up to 5 tags. For the first 20 seconds we look for a shared tag or group, then match you with anyone. Tags are not ranked, so pick ones you could talk about for half an hour.

A photo shows in a chat only if the person has an account and put one on their profile. A guest's photo is never sent to the other side. There is no swiping and nothing is matched on looks. HearMe Chat is not a dating site.

If the other person never taps, or has no account when the 24 hours end, the link lapses and nobody is added. If someone pushes for photos or money, Report or Block them. To meet several people first, the General room is open; how to talk to strangers online safely covers the basics.