Monkey app alternative: free, no video, no app

Monkey is fast. The call starts at fifteen seconds, you decide inside that window, and if you both add time it continues. It is designed for a phone held vertically, for swiping, and for a specific kind of energy. It is also a walled app: you download it, create an account, verify a phone number, and everything happens inside.

That is the right shape for some people. It is the wrong shape for anyone who wants a slower conversation, does not want to install anything, or does not want to hand over a phone number to talk to strangers.

HearMe is the slow version. A voice call has no timer; it lasts as long as the two of you want. There is no camera, so the first fifteen seconds are a voice, not a face. Nothing is installed: the site runs in the phone's browser and can be pinned to the home screen. And there is no phone number, no email, no account: a nickname is the sign-up.

• Whisper: a short text line inside the call that shows for ten seconds and disappears. For a song name, a handle, or a first sentence when you are shy.
• Auto-next: when the other person leaves, you are back in the queue without tapping.
• Reconnect: for 60 seconds after a call ends, either person can ask to reconnect.
• Private, always: nobody can join or listen to a 1:1 call. Public voice lives in room channels, if you want an audience.

Monkey ties your account to a phone number. That is a reasonable anti-abuse choice for a video app, and it also means the app knows exactly who you are. HearMe takes the other route: no identifiers at all for guests, no daily limit, rate limits and a check on suspicious traffic on the server, and bans by device fingerprint and network so a banned person cannot simply reload. The no sign-up chat page has the full picture of what a guest session is and is not.

The one thing Monkey users notice first on HearMe is that there is nothing to open. You go to hearme.chat in the phone's browser and you are on the site. If you want an icon, add it to the home screen from the browser menu; it opens full-screen like an app from then on, with no store, no updates and no permissions beyond the microphone when you make a voice call.

Notifications for friend requests and DMs are optional and browser-based; you are asked once and can say no. Nothing runs in the background when the tab is closed. For a lot of people that is the appeal: a chat site that is there when you open it and gone when you do not.

Monkey is for people who want the decision made fast. HearMe is for people who want to find out over ten minutes whether a stranger is worth an hour. Both are legitimate. They are not the same product.

Monkey moderates a video stream and, like every video app, deals with what a camera can show. HearMe has no camera to moderate. Messages pass an under-18 safety check and rate limits, and any chat can be reported. Voice is not recorded and every call is private; only a report sends a short clip to be read by a person, then deleted. Bans hold by account, device and network. The site is 18+ and enforces it with a check that stops the message, warns and then bans.

If you want a video app with a timer, Monkey does that well and HearMe does not do it at all. If you want random strangers by voice or text, no install, no number and no clock, start a voice call or a text chat here. The other video sites are compared on the hub page.