Type first. Show your face when you are ready.

Plenty of people open Chatingly, see the camera prompt and freeze. That is normal. Being looked at by a stranger is a bigger step than typing to one, and Chatingly does not force you to take it straight away.

Think of the three Chatingly modes as a ladder. Text is the bottom rung: words only, no face, no voice. Voice is the middle rung, where your laugh and accent come through but your room stays private. Video is the top, the full face-to-face random chat. You choose a rung before each match, and you can climb whenever you want.

Pick text before pressing start and Chatingly pairs you with somebody for a typed conversation. You still see their card (nickname, age, country, language and level), so you know who you are talking to. Nobody sees your face or hears your voice.

Text is also where the translate button shines. Tap it on any message and Chatingly shows it in your language, which makes a chat with someone in Colombia or Ukraine as easy as one with your neighbour.

• Good for noisy places, shared rooms and nights when you look like you feel.
• Gives you time to think before replying, which helps if you are shy.
• Uses very little data, handy on a weak phone signal.

Voice is the rung most people skip, and they miss out. You get tone, humour and the tiny pauses that make a conversation feel real, without the pressure of a camera. It works beautifully late at night when you are lying down with the lights off.

Your microphone switches on only after the browser asks and you allow it. The report and next buttons work exactly as they do in video.

At some point typing starts to feel slow. That is your cue. Go back to the mode picker, choose video and press start; Chatingly will find you a new stranger on camera. The Chatingly video chat guide explains what to expect from that first face-to-face round.

Nobody expects you to stay on camera once you get there. Plenty of regulars move up and down the ladder in a single evening, typing when they are tired and switching to camera when the mood lifts.

Each rung asks for a little more. Text needs no permissions at all. Voice asks the browser for your microphone, and video asks for the camera on top. Allow them once and Chatingly remembers, so moving up the ladder later does not bring a string of pop-ups.

A pair of earphones makes voice and video noticeably nicer: less echo, clearer speech, and nobody else in the room overhears your stranger.

• Open with something more than "hi". A question about their country or their night gets a far better reply.
• If your match is on text, do not demand they switch to camera. Respect the rung they chose.
• Skipping is fine in every mode. Nobody needs a goodbye speech.
• The same rules apply whether you type or talk. The community guidelines are short and worth a skim.

After midnight the energy on Chatingly changes. People are quieter, more honest, sometimes a little lonely. Text and voice fit that mood perfectly, which is why so many late sessions start with typing and end on camera. The guide to talking to strangers at night has more on that crowd.