If you used Omegle, you remember how it went: you pressed start, a face appeared, and one of you pressed Next about three seconds later, usually before anybody had said a word.
Here you choose who to call from a list of women, so that lottery is gone. The first ten seconds are not. She still sees your face before she hears anything you say, and most of what happens in those seconds comes down to your light, your camera and your first sentence. Each takes a minute to fix.
Before you press call
Fix the light
Face a window or a lamp. With the light behind you, you turn into a dark shape on her screen, and a dark shape looks like either nobody or somebody hiding. A desk lamp pointed at the wall in front of you is enough.
Camera at eye level
Prop the phone up. Lying flat on a table it films your chin and the ceiling fan, which is not the view anyone signed up for; on a laptop, a book or two under it does the job.
Look at the room
Thirty seconds. Move the laundry, and check that nothing personal is in shot: letters with your address, a work badge, the street sign outside your window.
The first line
“Hi” on its own puts all the work on her. You already know a few things from her profile, a name, a country, maybe something in the photo, and a first line built on one of those gives her something to answer straight away.
- “Hi! Your profile says Peru. What time is it there right now?”
Easy to answer. - “I like the painting behind you. Did you make it?”
It shows you noticed something besides her face, and it is about a thing she chose to put on her wall. - “I am trying to practise my Spanish. Is it OK if I am terrible at it?”
Now she gets to be the teacher. - “First call of my evening. How is yours going?”
She can answer with a story instead of a yes or no.
None of these mention her body or ask her for anything.
Keeping it going
When she answers, pick one thing she said and ask about that. Studying? Ask what. Raining? Ask whether it always rains there in October. She can tell whether you listened.
Share something back. Where you are, what your day was like, why you are on a video chat on a Tuesday night. If you only ask questions, it feels like an interview, so tell her a bit about your day too.
For every question you ask, offer one small thing about yourself.
Questions that open up
- What is something people get wrong about where you live?
- What did you do today that you would do again tomorrow?
- What are you listening to lately?
- If I visited your city for one day, where should I eat?
The habits that get you skipped
- Asking for photos, socials or a phone number early. It tells her the call is a means to something else.
- Anything explicit. The call ends, it breaks our guidelines, and those accounts get reported.
- Leading with her looks. Save the compliment until you have talked for a bit.
- Asking where exactly she lives. Her country is on the profile. Her street is none of your business.
- Staring in silence. Lost for words? Say so. It usually gets a laugh, and then you are talking again.
If she has to go, let her go. “Nice talking to you, have a good night” is a polite way to end it.
Language and time zones
Many women on the list are in Latin America, so a few words of Spanish help, even badly pronounced ones; a few are in Asia. Look at the country on the profile and think about the clock there before you call, because seven in the morning her time and nine at night her time are two very different conversations.
Not much language in common? Slow down. Short sentences, a translation app, a lot of pointing. Plenty of good calls happen that way.
Questions people ask
What should I say first when I call a girl on video chat?
Something specific she can answer in one breath. Her country, a detail in the background or the time where she is all beat a plain "hi".
How do I keep a video chat with a girl from going quiet?
Ask questions that start with what, how or why, then follow up on one detail from her answer instead of moving on to a new topic, and tell her something about your own day every so often so it never turns into an interview.
Why do girls skip me on video chat?
Mostly for things you can fix in a minute: a dark or badly angled camera, no greeting, or asking for something personal or explicit too early. Fix the light first.
Want the bigger picture on how the list works and what it costs? It is all on the OmegleGirls.tv home page. And if you are comparing sites, we wrote up the Omegle alternatives for talking to girls.