Video chat for streamers, without broadcasting someone who never agreed

Random video chat works because it puts a stranger in front of you with no setup. Streaming that chat changes the deal for the stranger, and nobody told them. Their face goes out live to your audience, and until something stops it, they have no way to know, let alone object.

Most streamers do not think about this the first time they try the format. They think about their own risk: getting banned, getting reported, losing the stream. The other person's risk comes second, if it comes up at all. That order is backwards. The stranger is the one with the least control in this exchange, and the one taking the actual exposure.

For the streamer, the cost is straightforward: platforms sanction broadcasting people who did not agree to it. What exactly gets sanctioned, and how, is set by each platform and changes over time, so checking your own platform's current rules is on you. What we can say is that this format has a bad reputation, and it has earned it: it is the one built on broadcasting people without asking first.

For the person on the other end, the cost is less visible and lasts longer. Their face is now attached to a clip they did not agree to, on a platform they do not control, and a clip can resurface long after the stream ends. There is no undo for that. Asking first is not a formality, it is the only point at which they still have a choice.

decal streamer mode is a switch in the interface. It is free, it carries no subscription, and turning it on does not unlock anything else: it exists to protect the other person, not to reward the streamer.

• Turn it on before you go live. The switch stays off by default, so nothing changes until you decide to stream.
• The other person is told, first thing. Their very first message in the chat states that the conversation is being broadcast live to an audience. Nothing else happens before that message is sent.
• They accept, or they pass. It is a real choice, not a formality: accept to continue on stream, or skip and move to someone else, no explanation required.
• Until they accept, they are not on stream. Their camera stays blurred and their microphone stays muted on your screen. Nothing of them can reach your broadcast before their agreement.
• Silence counts as no. Twenty seconds without an answer is treated as a refusal, and you move on automatically.
• If you are both streaming, you both ask. Each of you is notified that the other is live, and each of you needs the other's agreement before either broadcast shows the two of you together.

Every answer is logged: both accounts, the room, the date, and whether the answer was yes or no. Refusals are recorded too, which is what makes the record mean anything. A log that only kept the yeses would prove nothing about the times someone said no. The record is kept for 180 days.

This protects in both directions. A streamer wrongly accused of broadcasting someone without agreement can point to a logged acceptance. Someone who says they never consented, and did not, has a logged refusal, or no record of an acceptance at all, to back that up. Neither side has to take the other's word for it.

Broadcasting someone without their agreement remains grounds for account closure, consent record or not. It is already part of our community rules.

Streamer mode handles one thing: getting a clear yes or no before someone is broadcast, and keeping proof of the answer. It is honest to be clear about what it leaves out.

• It does not know your platform’s rules for you. Checking what your platform allows for this kind of content stays your responsibility.
• It does not make the conversation recordable. Video runs peer to peer between the two of you and never passes through our servers, streamer mode or not.
• It does not protect you if you leave it off. The switch only works when it is on, and forgetting to turn it on is not a defense.

For the wider picture on how decal handles video and safety outside of streaming, see video chat safety. If you are comparing decal to other random video chat sites first, start with our Omegle alternatives page.