Is Omegle back? What happened, the clone sites, and where people went

Published 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-09-22

Short answer: no. Omegle closed on 8 November 2023 and its founder said it would not come back. The sites using the name today are unrelated clones. Here is what happened, how to spot the fakes, and where the people who used Omegle for random video calls actually went.

What happened to Omegle

Omegle ran from 2009 to 2023 as a free, anonymous, no-account video chat: press Start, get a stranger. Its founder, Leif K-Brooks, closed it after a lawsuit over child abuse that took place through the platform, writing that the cost of fighting misuse was no longer sustainable. The domain now shows the farewell note. There has been no relaunch, no sale to a new owner, and no official app.

The "new Omegle" sites are clones

Because the name still gets millions of searches, dozens of sites now call themselves Omegle, Omegle 2, Omegle TV or similar. They share nothing with the original except the word. Some are ordinary roulette sites with a borrowed name; a few are worse — pages that ask for card details or push app downloads. A quick check: the original never asked you to install anything, never asked for a phone number, and had no coin store. If a "new Omegle" wants any of those before showing you a single person, close it.

Why Omegle failed, and why the alternatives work differently

Omegle's model — no accounts, no age check, no cost, minimal moderation — is exactly what made it unsafe and unsustainable. The services that survived it all changed at least one of those variables:

• Age gate and moderation. An 18+ confirmation, one-tap report and block during the call, and a team that removes reported accounts.
• A small cost per match. Coins are not a paywall so much as a spam filter: bots and flashers do not pay five coins to skip a hundred people. Text chat and filters can still be free.
• Profiles you can come back to. Omegle had no memory; a good conversation vanished when either side pressed Next.

Where Omegle users went

How to get an Omegle-style random video call today

1. Open web.golive.mobi in Safari or Chrome — phone or desktop, nothing to install.
2. Tap Start and confirm you are 18+. An account is created without email or password, with 200 coins and 10 free matches.
3. Leave the filter on Global (or pick a country — it's free) and tap Random Match. Average wait is about 30 seconds.
4. Skip, report or block with one tap. If you like someone, message them afterwards instead of losing them.

That is the Omegle loop with the two things Omegle lacked: a way to keep a good conversation, and a way to remove a bad one. Full comparison on the Omegle alternative page.

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