Examples of online chat rooms that people still use
Real examples of online chat rooms in 2026, from IRC and Discord servers to Reddit, Telegram groups and Hashti, with what each one is good for and bad at.
The best-known examples of online chat rooms today are IRC channels, Discord servers, Telegram and WhatsApp groups, Reddit's community chats, Slack communities, Twitch stream chats, and newer room-based apps like Hashti. They all do the same basic thing: many people talk in one shared space, in real time, about a topic. Where they differ is who can join, whether you can talk by voice, how strangers are kept in check, and whether the room is still there tomorrow. Old-style "click a link and type" chat sites from the 2000s mostly disappeared, and Omegle shut down in 2023, so most chat rooms now live inside apps. Below are the main examples, what each is good for, and where each falls short.
What counts as a chat room
I built Hashti, a chat room app, so I think about this question more than most people. My working definition is simple. A chat room is a place where you can talk with people you did not invite one by one. A group chat with your cousins is not a chat room. A public room about Persian music, where anyone who cares about Persian music can walk in, is.
That definition matters, because it tells you what to look for. A real chat room needs three things:
- A topic or name, so you know why people are there.
- A way in for strangers, so the room can grow.
- Some kind of rule keeping, so the room does not get ruined by the worst person in it.
Every example below handles those three things differently.
Classic examples that still exist
IRC channels
IRC, Internet Relay Chat, is the grandparent of every chat room. It has been around since 1988 and it is still running. You connect to a network such as Libera.Chat with an IRC client, then join channels that start with a hash sign, like #python.
It is good for technical communities. A lot of open source projects still have IRC channels, and the people in them tend to know their stuff.
It is bad for almost everyone else. There is no built-in voice, no photos in the normal sense, and the setup feels old because it is old. Most people under forty have never used it.
Web forums with live chat
Some long-running forums and fan sites added a live chat box next to their message boards. These are usually small, friendly, and very niche. They are worth finding if you have a narrow hobby. They are also the most likely to quietly shut down one day, because one person is often paying for the server.
The big modern examples
Discord servers
Discord is the most common answer when someone under thirty says "chat room" today. A Discord server is really a group of chat rooms, called channels, with text and voice. Gaming started it, but now there are servers for study groups, artists, crypto, language learning and almost everything else.
What it does well: voice rooms you can drop into, good tools for moderators, and a huge number of communities.
Where it is weaker: you usually need an invite link to find a server, so discovery happens elsewhere, on Reddit or on websites that list servers. Every server has its own rules and moderators, so quality varies a lot. A great server and a terrible one look the same from the outside.
Telegram and WhatsApp groups
In much of the world, including Iran, Armenia and a lot of the Middle East, the real chat rooms are Telegram groups. Telegram groups can be very large and public, with a link anyone can open. WhatsApp groups are usually smaller and tied to phone numbers, so they feel more like extended family or neighborhood groups.
The good part is that people already have these apps. The hard part is that a phone number is your identity, which some people do not want to share with strangers, and large public groups can fill with spam fast.
Reddit community chat
Reddit is mostly a forum, with posts and comment threads. It has also had chat features tied to communities. In my experience, the threads are where the real conversation happens on Reddit, and the chat is a side room. If you want depth on a topic, Reddit is excellent. If you want a live conversation with the same people every night, it is not really built for that.
Slack communities
Slack is a work tool, but many professional groups run free public Slack spaces: designers, developers, founders, marketers. These are good for networking and asking questions in your field. They are not where you go to make casual friends, and free plans can limit how much old message history you can see.
Twitch and YouTube live chat
Every live stream has a chat room attached. Thousands of people type at the same time while watching the same thing. It is fun and fast. It is also not really a conversation. Messages fly past in seconds, and the streamer is the center of the room, not the people in it.
Random chat sites
People searching for chat room examples often mean the random video chat sites, where you are paired with a stranger. Omegle was the famous one, and it closed in 2023. Others still exist.
I want to be honest about these, because I wrote about them in more detail in other posts. Random one-on-one chat is not really a chat room. There is no topic, no regulars and nobody keeping rules. That is why so many people describe bad experiences on them. If what you actually want is to meet new people, a topic room is usually a better place to start than a random match.
Room-based apps like Hashti
This is the category I work in, so read this section knowing I am not neutral.
Hashti is a free app for adults, 18 and over, built around public rooms with names and topics. You can browse public chat rooms by topic, join one, and talk by text or voice. When you meet someone you get along with, you can move to private chats and calls, and there is a walkie-talkie feature for quick voice messages.
The thing I care about most is the stranger problem. Everyone on Hashti verifies their identity once against a government document. The photo is deleted after the check, but a fingerprint of the document is kept, so the same document cannot open a second account. Unverified accounts cannot host rooms, speak in voice rooms or message strangers. Twelve verified reports closes an account for good. You can read the details on our safety page.
The other thing I care about is language. I am Armenian-Iranian and I live in Los Angeles. A lot of the people I grew up with switch between Farsi, Armenian and English in one sentence. Hashti has live translation in 29 languages, so people in one room do not need to share a language. That feature is part of Hashti Plus, which is paid. Everything else in the app is free.
Now the limits, because they are real:
- Hashti is on the iPhone App Store today. Android is still in closed testing.
- It is newer and smaller than Discord or Telegram. Some topics will have busy rooms. Others will be quiet until more people arrive.
- The app interface is in English right now. A Farsi version is being built.
- The verification step is a real step. Some people do not want to show an ID to any app, and that is a fair choice. If that is you, Discord or IRC will suit you better.
How to pick the right example for you
Here is how I would choose, in my opinion:
- You are a programmer or into open source. Try the project's IRC or Discord channel first.
- You want a big gaming or hobby community. Discord.
- Your community already lives there. Telegram or WhatsApp. Do not fight where your people are.
- You want deep answers more than live chat. Reddit.
- You want professional networking. A Slack community in your field.
- You want to hang out with a streamer's audience. Twitch chat.
- You want to meet adult strangers by topic, with voice, and you want to know they are real people. That is what I built Hashti for.
Questions to ask before you join any chat room
Whatever app you pick, a few questions save a lot of trouble:
- Who keeps the rules? Look for named moderators, pinned rules, or a report button that actually does something.
- Can strangers message you directly? On some apps they can by default. Check your privacy settings on day one.
- What do you have to share to join? A phone number, an email, an ID, or nothing. Each choice has a trade-off between privacy and safety.
- Is the room alive? Look at the last few hours of messages. A room with no activity for a week is not a room yet.
- Does it feel good after ten minutes? If a room makes you feel worse, leave. There are many others.
The short answer
Chat rooms did not die. They moved. The old chat sites became Discord servers, Telegram groups, Slack spaces, stream chats and room-based apps. IRC is still there for the people who love it. Pick the one where the people you want to talk to already are, check how it handles strangers, and give it a few honest tries before you decide.
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.