How Safe Is SalaChat? What to Know Before Your First Call

Whatever your camera shows, and whatever you say. On a video match the other person sees your face and the room behind you; on an audio match they only hear you; on a text match they only read what you type. They don’t get your phone number, your email or your real name unless you hand them over.

If you have a profile, people can see what you’ve put on it: a nickname, a photo, your country and the languages you’ve picked. Keep the nickname something that isn’t your full name, and keep the photo to something you’d be happy for a stranger to see.

To start, nothing at all. You can walk in as a guest and match with someone without a form or an email address, which the no sign-up guide explains in detail. You’re asked to sign in later, when you want to message people or keep the ones you follow.

SalaChat never needs your real name, your address or your workplace, and nobody from the team will ask for your password or card number in a chat. Your browser asks for the camera and microphone only when a mode needs them, and you can switch those permissions off at any time.

From their profile. Open the profile of the person you’ve talked to and you’ll find Report and Block there. Report lets you choose a reason and send it to SalaChat; Block makes it harder for that person to contact you.

You don’t need to explain yourself or wait for anything before leaving a chat. Ending a call and moving on is always allowed. If something serious happened, report first and block second, so your report goes in while the details are fresh.

Anything that lets someone find you offline or get into your accounts. That means your home address, your school or workplace, your full name, your phone number, and any codes or passwords. Also keep your ID, bank cards and anything with a barcode out of shot; it’s surprisingly easy to read a card number from a webcam.

It’s fine to say which country you’re in, or that you’re a student, or what you do at the weekend. Those details make a conversation, and they don’t lead anyone to your door.

Say no, and treat it as a warning sign. A story about a sick relative, a ticket they can’t afford, or a “quick favour” is a script, not a friendship. Nobody on SalaChat needs your money to keep talking to you, and a new friend who pushes for your number after five minutes is moving faster than you need to.

If you’d like to keep talking to someone, follow them and use SalaChat’s own messages for a while. The guide to making friends online shows how that works, and it means you can stop the conversation any time without having to change your number.

A minute before your first match saves a lot of awkwardness. Sit facing a plain wall or a tidy corner rather than a window or a door. Check what’s in the background: post with your address on it, family photos, a view that someone could recognise. Put on whatever you’d wear to answer the door.

Lighting matters for comfort as much as looks. A lamp in front of you means people see your face, not a silhouette, and you’ll find it easier to read their reactions too. If you’d rather not show your face at all, start with Audio or Text on the match screen.

For anything on the site, from a problem with a chat to a question about your data, write to [email protected]. The contact page explains what to include so they can help quickly. For anything that puts you in danger offline, contact your local emergency services first.

How SalaChat handles your information is set out in the privacy policy, including how to ask for your data to be deleted. And for a calmer look at the whole site, start from the SalaChat home page.