Best apps to chat with foreigners and practice a language
The best apps to chat with foreigners depend on your goal: language partners, public rooms, or friends abroad. Here is what each does well and its limits.
The best app to chat with foreigners depends on what you want from it. If you want to practise a language with a patient partner, a language exchange app is the right tool. If you want to talk with a lot of people at once about a topic, public chat rooms work better. If you just want to talk to one friend abroad who speaks another language, a translation feature does the job. I built Hashti, so I will tell you where it fits, and where I would send you somewhere else.
Why this is harder than it sounds
I am Armenian-Iranian and I live in Los Angeles. My family speaks Armenian, Persian and English, and I grew up translating for people in the middle of a conversation. So I know two feelings well: wanting to talk to someone and not having the words, and wanting to find your own people far from home.
Most apps promise to connect you with "people from all over the world." In practice, three things go wrong. The conversation dies after "hi, where are you from?" The other person is not who they say they are. Or you cannot understand each other and nobody helps. Here is how I would choose.
Type 1: language exchange apps
These apps pair you with someone who speaks the language you want to learn, and who wants to learn yours. You trade time. Half in their language, half in yours.
What they do well. The partner is motivated, because they get something from it too. You get real speech, real slang and real corrections, which no textbook gives you. Some also have built-in correction tools.
Where they fall short. You depend on one person. If they stop replying, the practice stops. Time zones can be painful. Some people on these apps are there for dating, not learning, and you may have to say no a few times.
Tandem and HelloTalk are the two names most people mention. I have not tested either enough to rate them for you, so I will not pretend to. Try each for a week and see which partners reply.
My advice for any exchange partner: agree on a routine. Twenty minutes, twice a week, with a topic you both pick beforehand, beats an open-ended chat every time.
Type 2: public chat rooms by topic or language
Rooms are the opposite of one-to-one. A room has a name and a topic, and a crowd drops in and out. That has real advantages for talking to foreigners.
- Less pressure. You can listen first, then speak when you are ready.
- More variety. You hear different accents and different ways of saying the same thing.
- Easier to leave. If a conversation goes nowhere, you move to another room.
- Community. A room about Persian poetry or Armenian cooking gathers people who already share something with you.
The trade-off is moderation. A crowd without rules turns into noise. Whether an app checks who is entering is the thing I would look at first. You can see how this works for Hashti on the rooms page.
Type 3: chat with translation built in
This is for when you do not share a language. Instead of learning first, you talk now and the app translates each message.
What it is good for. Friends and relatives abroad. Meeting someone whose language you have not studied. Getting through a conversation that would otherwise be impossible.
What it is bad for. Learning. If the app does the work, you do not build the skill. Translation also loses jokes, tone and politeness levels. In Persian, for example, the difference between formal and friendly speech can change the meaning of a sentence. Machine translation is a bridge, not a replacement for understanding.
I treat it as a tool for connection, and I use real conversation to learn.
Where Hashti fits
Hashti is a free chat app for adults, 18+, out now on the App Store. Android is in its closed test. It has public rooms with names and topics, private chats, calls and a walkie-talkie.
For people trying to talk across languages, the useful parts are these:
- Live translation covers 29 languages. It is part of Hashti Plus, which costs $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Everything else in the app is free. You can read how it works on the translation page.
- Rooms are built around topics. Looking for people who share your language or your interests is a matter of finding the room.
- Identity is checked once against a government document. The photo is deleted, and a fingerprint stays, so the same document cannot open a second account. Unverified accounts cannot host rooms, speak in voice rooms or message strangers.
- Twelve verified reports close an account permanently.
Honest limits
- The app's own interface is English today. A Farsi interface is being built, but I will not claim it exists yet.
- It is newer than the big names, so some rooms are quiet.
- Translation is paid. If you only want free tools, you can still use rooms without it.
- It is not a dating app, and I do not want it to feel like one.
How to get a real conversation going
Whatever app you pick, a few habits decide whether you make a friend or just collect contacts.
1. Ask about something specific. "What is the food you miss most?" beats "where are you from?" 2. Say what you are looking for. "I am learning Armenian and I can help with English" tells the other person how to be useful. 3. Keep messages short. Long paragraphs are hard to read in a second language. 4. Move to voice when you both want to. Typing teaches reading. Speaking teaches speaking. 5. Be patient with mistakes, yours and theirs. Nobody at this stage is fluent. 6. Learn a few polite phrases first. Hello, thank you and sorry in their language go a long way.
Staying safe while you do it
Talking with people from other countries is great, and the same common sense applies as anywhere online.
- Do not share your address, workplace or daily routine with someone new.
- Do not send money to anyone you met in a chat, whatever the reason.
- Be careful with links. If someone you just met sends one, do not open it.
- Report and block anyone who makes you uncomfortable. A good app makes that easy.
There is more on how Hashti approaches this on the safety page.
So which should you use?
- To learn a language with one dedicated partner: a language exchange app.
- To meet many people around a topic or a language: public rooms, in an app that checks who is in them.
- To talk with someone you do not share a language with: an app with built-in translation.
I use all three kinds. If you want to try the rooms and translation together, open Hashti, pick a room that matches something you care about, and say hello in the language you are learning.
Hashti is free, and it is 18+. Hashti Plus — live translation, writing help and catch-ups — is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, and nothing else costs anything. How rooms work is on the rooms page, and how reports and the ID check work is on the safety page.