If you grew up on random video chat sites, you've probably noticed some of the biggest names from that era are gone. The most well-known one, Omegle, shut down for good in late 2023.
Omegle shut down in November 2023, citing the impossibility of moderating anonymous, unverified random chat at scale after facing multiple legal challenges.
TechCrunch ↗
The shutdown followed years of lawsuits alleging the platform exposed minors to predators — a direct consequence of matching completely anonymous strangers with no verification and minimal moderation.
News coverage of the shutdown detailed the legal pressure and safety concerns that had been building around unmoderated random chat platforms for years.
CBS News ↗
What that shift actually means
It's not that people stopped wanting to talk to strangers online — the demand never went away. What changed is the expectation: platforms that added real verification and accountability held up, while pure anonymous roulette models increasingly haven't.
That's the gap Hiyoo is built to close — the same instant, no-friction feeling of the old random chat era, but with a live-photo check behind every host instead of a completely anonymous free-for-all.