Text Chat Online — Free Text Chat Rooms, No Video Needed
Free online text chat for adults. No camera, no video, no sign-up. Type in the chat rooms or send private messages. Voice and pictures only if you want them.
Just text, if that is what you want
Lots of chat sites push you onto camera. Chatw is text chat first. You never have to show your face or use your voice. Type, read and reply, like the old chat rooms.
Text has real upsides. You can chat on a bus or at work, you can think before you answer, and nobody sees your room or hears your voice.
How to start
Open chatw.org and confirm you are 18 or older. Type a display name of up to 24 characters, pick a gender tag and your country, and choose a room. Age is optional.
Before your first message, the site asks for a quick check: tap the emoji that matches a picture, then drag a ball into a circle. You only do it once, and it keeps spam scripts out of the room.
Rooms and private messages
Talk in the NSFW room, which is the main adult room, the SFW room or the Suggestions room. Click a name to start a private chat. Start a group chat when a few people want to keep talking.
Reply to a message, react with an emoji, and mention someone by name so they get a notice. A line under the messages shows who is typing.
Writing tools
A message can be up to 2,000 characters. Put two stars on each side of a word for bold, one star for italics, and backticks for code. Links turn into links you can click.
Made a typo? Edit your own message and it shows (edited). You can also delete your own messages. In the rooms, anyone can post a poll with 2 to 5 answers, and voting closes after 24 hours.
Search finds words in the messages a room still keeps. Inside a private chat, search finds something that was said earlier.
Keyboard shortcuts
On a computer you can chat without the mouse. Press / to jump to the message box, K to find people, D to open private messages, F to open friends, and Esc to close a panel. Press ? to see the full list.
Add more only when you want
When text is not enough, paste a picture or a GIF, record a voice note, or start a voice call from a private chat. None of it is required.
Easy to read
Choose dark or light mode, a high-contrast mode, and two larger chat text sizes in the settings.
Sounds are yours to set. Turn all chimes off, or keep them for private messages and mentions and switch off the soft tick for every room message. Mentions of your name stand out in the list. Your browser can also alert you to private messages and mentions while the tab is in the background.
Good text chat manners
Short first lines work best. If someone takes messages by request, you get one line until they accept, so make it a real one.
Do not flood the room. The site limits how fast one person can send, and repeated spam gets the sender muted for a while. A word filter replaces words on its list with stars.
No sign-up
There is no email, no phone number and no real name. An account is optional and only keeps your name on other devices.
Questions
Do I need a camera?
No. Chatw is text chat. Voice and camera are optional.
Is the text chat free?
Yes. There is no cost and no registration.
Can I make the chat text bigger?
Yes. Choose a larger chat text size in the settings.
How long can a message be?
Up to 2,000 characters.
Can I edit a message after I send it?
Yes. Edit or delete your own messages. Edited messages show (edited).
Can I use bold or italics?
Yes. Two stars on each side of a word make it bold, one star makes it italic, and backticks show it as code.