Chatingly Live: look around before you say hi.

Random matching is a coin toss by design: you press start and a face appears. Chatingly Live works the other way round. Somebody is already streaming, you see them before they see you, and you decide whether to say anything at all.

Live also shows you more of a person than a random match can: their humour, how they cope with a busy chat, what they talk about when nobody is steering.

That makes Live a gentle starting point for people who find random video a bit much, and a pleasant change of pace for regulars who want to hang around one conversation rather than roll the dice again.

On Chatingly, head to the online list and tap its Live tab. Each tile is a room someone has open right now. Tap one to enter, and flick vertically to hop to the next, much like scrolling short videos.

Inside, the room chat runs alongside the stream. Everyone can read it, and anything typed there has the same translate button you get in random matches, so the person streaming from Brazil and the viewer from Texas can follow each other.

• Type in the room chat, with translation on every message.
• Send a gift. Gifts cost coins, need a confirmation tap, and now and then a free gift is on offer.
• Spin the prize wheel when the room has it running.
• Follow the person streaming so you can find them again.
• Ring them privately on video without leaving the room.
• Report the room if something breaks the rules.

Live rooms reward a little patience. Read the chat for a moment before typing so you know what is being talked about, and greet the person streaming by their nickname. A question about their day lands far better than a demand.

• Keep comments friendly and on topic; everyone in the room shares the same chat.
• Lean on the translate button rather than guessing at a language you cannot read.
• Want a private call? Ask once, and take the answer gracefully.
• Swipe on quietly when a room is not your thing. Nobody minds.

Most rooms are open to anyone browsing. A few ask for something first: a ticket, a follow, or an account that has made a purchase before. The room tells you what it needs before you commit, and tickets are paid in coins like everything else on Chatingly. The Chatingly free guide explains how coins and the Reward Center fit together.

If the conversation in a room has turned into a real connection, you can ask for a private call from inside the room. It becomes a one-to-one video call, just the two of you, paid with coins. Chatingly checks your balance before the call begins and asks you to top up first if it is short, so there are no charges after the fact.

A private call started from a room follows the same house rules as everything else on Chatingly, and either of you can hang up whenever you choose.

On a phone, rooms fill the whole screen and the vertical swipe feels like any short-video app. On a laptop the room chat sits beside the stream, which is handy when you want to type something longer than a quick hello.

A live room is still Chatingly, so the same 18+ rule and the same conduct rules apply to the person streaming and to everyone in the chat. Report anything that crosses the line; the Chatingly safety rules spell out what moderators act on. And if the room is too busy tonight, the night chat guide has quieter ideas.