Monkey app alternative: free, no video, no app

Monkey describes itself as a social discovery platform for random video and text chat, with one-tap matching and interest tags. Android users can download its app; on iOS and desktop it runs as a web version in the browser. Either way you log in first: its FAQ says it uses a one-tap social login so that every chat is between two people.

That is the right shape for some people. It is the wrong shape for anyone who wants a slower conversation without a camera, or does not want to make an account just 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 and no account to make: 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 asks you to create an account or log in; its privacy policy lists what it collects. 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 anonymous chat page has the full picture of what a guest session is and is not.

On HearMe there is nothing to install on any phone. 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.

HearMe is for people who want to find out over ten minutes whether a stranger is worth an hour. There is no clock on a call and no face to judge in the first second.

Any video app has to deal with what a camera can show, and Monkey describes its own approach on its site. 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.

The wants that lead people away from a video chat are mostly about the shape of the thing: a login before the first chat, and a camera. A person might simply prefer to talk for ten minutes by voice, or to stay a nickname instead of an account. None of that says anything about how Monkey is run. It is a list of wants, matched against what HearMe does.

If you want random video chat, Monkey offers it 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.

What this page says about other sites comes from these pages, read in October 2026. Sites change; check them for their current rules and prices.

• Monkey home page and FAQ — checked October 2026
• Monkey: talk to strangers — checked October 2026
• Monkey Safety Center — checked October 2026
• Monkey privacy policy — checked October 2026
• Monkey web app code (screen text) — checked October 2026