What happened to Omegle?

Omegle shut down on 8 November 2023. Its founder, Leif K-Brooks, replaced the site with a letter explaining that running it was no longer sustainable, financially or psychologically, given the constant fight against misuse and the legal pressure that came with it. The site had been online for more than 14 years.

A short history

• 2009: launch. Leif K-Brooks, then 18, launched Omegle as a text chat that paired two anonymous strangers at random. Users were simply “You” and “Stranger”.
• 2010: video. A video mode followed. Interest matching came later, so strangers who shared a topic could find each other.
• The 2010s. Omegle became one of the best-known random chat sites in the world, and a staple of YouTube and streaming culture. It also became known for nudity, harassment and the exploitation of young users, problems that its light moderation and easily-bypassed age rules couldn’t contain.
• 2020–2021: pandemic peak. Lockdowns brought a surge of new users, along with more news coverage of minors being targeted on the site.
• 2021–2023: lawsuits. Omegle faced a number of lawsuits, including a US case (A.M. v. Omegle) in which a court allowed claims about the site’s design to go ahead, rather than treating Omegle as just a neutral platform.
• November 2023: shutdown. K-Brooks closed the site, writing that the stress and expense of operating it, and of fighting its misuse, were no longer sustainable.

You can read more in the Omegle article on Wikipedia.

Why did Omegle shut down?

In short: cost, misuse and legal risk. The founder’s letter described a never-ending battle against people using the site to harm others, especially children, and the financial and personal toll of defending the site against attacks and lawsuits. Omegle had no account system and a weak age check, so bad actors could come back as often as they liked.

Is Omegle coming back?

There’s no sign of it. When it closed, the original omegle.com was replaced by the founder’s farewell letter. Many sites now use the Omegle name; none of them is the original, and none is run by its founder.

Where people chat now

Random chat didn’t disappear with Omegle. Dozens of sites now offer random video and text chat. They vary a lot in how they handle safety and privacy, so it’s worth checking a few things before you use one: who runs it, whether it’s adults-only and moderated, whether your IP address is exposed, and what it records. We go through these in our guide to choosing an Omegle alternative.

OmegleNet

OmegleNet is an independent random chat site for adults, built with the lessons of Omegle in mind:

• Adults only (18+), with moderation: random safety snapshots in video chats, checked automatically and reviewed by people.
• Your IP address stays hidden: every call goes through our own relay server.
• Video, voice or text, free, with no sign-up.
• Report and block anyone in one tap.

OmegleNet isn’t affiliated with Omegle or its founder. Start chatting or read about safety and moderation.