A Chatib replacement: which part of it you're actually looking for
Written because the search brings people here and most of them want two different things at once.
What the name usually stands for
A room-based text chat with optional video, no great ceremony about joining, and a population you could come back to. That final item carries nearly all the weight, and it explains why people hunt for a replacement instead of simply opening whatever is nearest.
So the search is two searches wearing one name: «somewhere to talk without signing up» and «somewhere I might recognise a face tomorrow». The two want opposite things, and no service manages both of them well.
Worth working out which of the two brought you here: what follows is a fork, and the right answer changes completely by branch.
Which half a random service replaces
| What you wanted | Random video | Room-based chat |
|---|---|---|
| Start without an account | Yes, immediately | Usually yes |
| Meet somebody new | Constantly | Slowly |
| Find them again tomorrow | No | Often |
| Group conversation | No | Yes |
The column on the left is the honest answer. A no signup video chat replaces the first two rows completely and the last two not at all, and anybody promising otherwise is selling something.
What to do with that
If the part you miss is recognising somebody, a random service will frustrate you and no amount of persistence changes it. Look for a forum or a room instead, accept the sign-up, and get what you actually came for.
If the part you miss is opening something and being in a conversation ten seconds later, this format does that better than anything built since. Know which half you are buying before you spend an evening finding out.
There is a third possibility worth naming, since it catches people who search for old names: that what you miss is not the service at all but the year, the age you were, and the people who happened to be online then. No replacement exists for that one and it is better to know it early.