The initial burst of popularity for anonymous video chat site Omegle happened almost immediately after its launch in the spring of 2009. Over the course of several years, the site actively grew its audience, while in the meantime, third-party developers created a large number of alternatives to Omegle. Some of them turned out to have interesting and useful features

After 2011-2012, Omegle began to lose popularity, albeit slowly. This was firstly due to the appearance of a huge number of alternatives, and secondly, due to the fact that the chat roulette format became boring to users. But then 2020 arrived and the situation changed with lightning speed.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent quarantine had a major effect. Millions of people around the world suddenly lost the opportunity to communicate in person. Internet messenger apps, social networks, dating sites and, of course, video chat sites came to their aid. From that moment on, Omegle experienced another surge in popularity, and it’s now in no hurry to lose its position among other chat roulettes. Visit the site at any time, and you’ll likely see 25-30,000 users online. Before the pandemic, their number was more like 15-1,000 — half that.

The popularity of Omegle in the USA

As you probably know, Omegle allows you to choose your language when searching for chat partners. This doesn’t go as far as filtering other users by location, but at least it partially helps people find other users from their own country. But how can you understand how active the audience is in different countries? To do this, you can use the Google Trends service, which allows you to track the dynamics of the popularity of search queries. In this case, we will use the keyword "Omegle" and look at the results.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Omegle's popularity in the United States was about 30-35 points out of 100 possible, and remained around those numbers for a long time. By the end of the year, the trend grew rapidly and reached 100 points at its peak in December 2020. Although there was some drop in mid-January 2021, Omegle continues to be very popular.

Popular Omegle alternatives worthy of consideration

Despite its leading position, Omegle is far from a perfect service and is not without its disadvantages. There are no gender and geographic filters, there are no chat rooms, streams, or anything like that. This is not enough for many users, and the site’s design looks a little outdated today. Therefore, more functional and modern alternatives to Omegle are becoming more and more popular. Let's look at the most interesting of them.

СhatRoulette

Perhaps the closest site in spirit alternative to Omegle, and additionally the sites were launched only six months apart. СhatRoulette is a classic chat roulette without any special additional features. Like Omegle, there are no gender or geographic filters, and on top of that, the site had serious problems with moderation for several years. But in 2020, the developers significantly improved it, paying attention to security and moderation. Since then, ChatRoulette has started taking off again.

Bazoocam

The site, although it has a rather outdated design, is very popular among users. Mainly due to the function of being able to make video broadcasts, which several viewers can connect to simultaneously. However it’s worth mentioning that a significant number of these broadcasts are quite explicit. You can also use Bazoocam like a regular chat roulette for one-on-one communication. 

Dirtyroulette

This is a popular sex chat site that people use for explicit communication on adult topics. Before starting the search for a partner, you can indicate who you are: a man, a woman or a couple. The system will then try to select the most suitable people for you to chat with. Note that not all Dirtyroulette users want explicit conversations. Many people just want to talk about diverse subjects and find like-minded people. But you shouldn't forget about the main focus of Dirtyroulette. 

OmegleAlternative

OmegleAlternative.com is probably the best alternative Omegle video chat for men looking to meet fun and entertaining girls. Each girl goes through identity verification when registering, meaning there are no fakes, bots or advertising broadcasts on the website. Also there are more than a thousand girls online at any time of the day, ready to chat with you. OmegleAlternative is a real find for those who want to flirt or even have a romantic relationship.

Flingster

The site is more like Dirtyroulette than Omegle. It’s a video chat for adults with some quite explicit content. People here are mainly looking to chat about intimate topics, flirting or even sex. Flingster's developers focus on anonymity and privacy, use new encryption technologies, and other security features. And there are also masks that allow you to hide your face from your chat partner during your conversation. 

ChatRandom

A simple yet functional alternative to Omegle. Here you can access gender and geographic filters, as well as chat rooms for interests. You can choose the specific room you’re interested in: "Dating", "Love", "Role-playing games", "Films", "Music" and so on. In addition, ChatRandom has a separate chat with girls feature, but access to it is paid. 

ChatAlternative

A convenient and practical alternative to Omegle, which also has a gender and country filter. ChatAlternative’s developers place special emphasis on the absence of ads — no banners and other ad types will appear during a conversation or text chat. This means your experience will be free of distractions. 

Let’s summarize

Video chat apps are experiencing another burst of popularity, created by the unusual current state of the world. Perhaps when the pandemic finally subsides, the number of active users of Omegle and its alternatives will also drop. But millions of people will continue to use them, because they are convenient and help infinitely expand your circle of communication.

Use video chat sites, look for interesting alternatives to Omegle, find new friends and communicate with joy. Now you have everything you need to do this!