Ranking
Safest Teen Chat and Friend-Finding Apps 2026
Every app we cover whose main job is to put you in touch with people you do not know, and that at least one big app store rates for under-18s. That covers friend-finding and random chat apps such as Wizz, Yubo, Azar and Monkey, voice-room games such as Hago and WePlay, language-exchange apps, and anonymous question apps such as NGL and Sendit. Each score weighs data use, security, user controls, how the app protects young users from strangers and scams, and its record with regulators.
Updated · Scores update with each page
The ranking
Social media
Yubo
Yubo, once called "Tinder for teens", closed its teen community in 2025 and is now for adults only, with a face-based age check for every user. It runs no third-party ads and states clear deletion times. The risks left are those of live video and chat with strangers, and a past record of weak moderation.
Score 56, grade CSocial media
Tandem
Tandem is one of the more careful language-exchange apps. Every application is reviewed, members must be 16 or older and ads are personalised only with consent. But you are still chatting with strangers, messages are not end-to-end encrypted, and Tandem itself warns of romance, investment and sextortion scams.
Score 52, grade DSocial media
Azar
Azar connects adults with strangers on live video, and it checks ages harder than most rivals, with face scans before calls. The cost is privacy. Its moderation scans messages, audio and video, data flows across Match Group, it tracks you for ads, and random video chat stays a risky format.
Score 47, grade DSocial media
HelloTalk
HelloTalk is a useful way to practise a language with native speakers, and it keeps under-18s apart from adults. The weak points are data and strangers. Its policy lists 15 ad networks the store labels leave out, and the company itself warns of romance and investment scams.
Score 47, grade DSocial media
Wizz
Wizz now checks ages with a selfie, matches users by age group and pre-screens every message, which is far more than it did in 2024. But it is still an app for chatting with strangers, it runs on 13 ad networks, and Apple and Google both pulled it in 2024 after warnings that sextortion gangs were using it.
Score 47, grade DStreaming, music and games
WePlay
WePlay is a voice-chat party game app from WEJOY of Singapore, published abroad by China's Wepie Network. Its policy admits users from 13, its games put teens in voice rooms with adult strangers, and its Google Play label says no data is shared while the policy names ad vendors.
Score 46, grade DSocial media
Tellonym
Tellonym, the German anonymous Q&A app, filters messages and lets you approve answers before anything goes public, and no regulator has fined it. But it tracks location for ads, has no two-step login, runs on a privacy policy dated 2016 and has no real age check for an app rated 18+ by Apple.
Score 45, grade DStreaming, music and games
Hago
Hago is a party-game and voice-room app run from Singapore by JOYY, the owner of Bigo Live. Its policy says it is for adults while Google Play rates it Teen, it shares device and purchase data for ads, India blocked it in 2020, and a predator used it to reach children in Indonesia.
Score 43, grade DSocial media
Litmatch
Litmatch pairs strangers for text chats and short voice calls and sells diamonds for gifts and VIP perks. Its terms say users must be 18, yet Apple rates it 16+, nobody checks ages, location is used for ads, and sales are final under its terms.
Score 43, grade DSocial media
SUGO
SUGO is an adults-only voice-room app from Hong Kong's Newborn Town that makes its money from coins spent on gifts and calls. Turkey blocked it in February 2026, its privacy labels understate its own policy, coin purchases are non-refundable under its terms, and age checks rely on self-declaration.
Score 40, grade DSocial media
Chamet
Chamet is an 18+ app for paid one-to-one video calls, live streams and party rooms, published by Fuliao Hong Kong Limited. Google removed it in 2023 for objectionable user content before it returned, its Play data form lists far less than its privacy policy, and support and privacy requests go to Gmail addresses.
Score 39, grade FSocial media
Monkey
Monkey pairs you with strangers for live video chat. It now says it is strictly 18+ and uses AI to spot minors and nudity, but it is no longer in Apple's US App Store, its Google Play label says data is not encrypted in transit, and its privacy policy does not name the company behind it.
Score 38, grade FSocial media
NGL
NGL, the anonymous questions app, settled FTC and Los Angeles charges in 2024 over fake messages, a misleading paid "reveal" and false claims that AI stopped bullying, and is now banned for under-18s. Its privacy policy allows identity matching, ad offers and data-for-rewards sharing.
Score 38, grade FMessaging and calls
Kik
Kik lets anyone chat under a username with no phone number, which made it popular with teenagers and with people who target them. It is now adults-only on paper, but outside the UK it does not verify ages, reads chat content, shares location with advertisers and faces a Nevada lawsuit and a Connecticut probe.
Score 34, grade FSocial media
Sendit
Sendit, the anonymous Q&A app for Snapchat and Instagram stories, is being sued by the US Justice Department for the FTC over fake messages, a misleading paid "reveal" and data taken from children under 13. A judge refused to dismiss the case in April 2026, and the app is still rated 13+.
Score 34, grade F
Which apps are on this list
The rule has two parts. First, the app's main job is meeting or talking with people you do not know, one to one or in small groups: swipe or random matching for friends (Wizz, Yubo, Litmatch), live video chat with strangers (Azar, Monkey, Chamet), voice rooms and party games (Hago, WePlay, SUGO), language exchange (HelloTalk, Tandem) and anonymous messages (NGL, Sendit, Tellonym). Kik is here too, because you add people by username rather than phone number, which is why strangers use it to find teenagers. Second, the App Store or Google Play rates the app for users under 18, so a teenager can download it, whatever its own terms say.
Live-streaming apps such as Bigo Live, Poppo Live and Likee are left out, because most contact there runs through a broadcaster's room. So are messengers and social networks such as Snapchat and Discord, where strangers are a side risk rather than the point, and dating apps, which are for adults.
How the order is built
Each app is scored on five factors. Privacy and security count for 30% each: what the app collects and shares with advertisers, and how well it protects accounts and stored data. Transparency and control count for 15%. Scams and harmful content count for 15%, which here covers age checks, contact between adults and minors, moderation and paid features that push people to spend. The regulatory record counts for 10%. Full rubrics are on how we score apps.
The list is those scores sorted from the highest down. When we update a page, its place here moves too, so this text does not quote scores.
What the apps near the top have in common
They put a check between strangers and young users. HelloTalk keeps under-18s apart from adults, and Tandem reviews every application and sorts members into an under-18 or adult group from the birth date. Wizz now asks for a selfie age check, matches users by age group and screens each message before it arrives. Fewer ad networks help as well: Yubo runs no third-party ads at all.
Why some score lower
The weakest apps rely on a typed birth date, track users for advertising and earn money from gifts, coins or paid reveals. Several have a record with regulators. NGL settled charges over fake messages, Sendit faces a US Justice Department suit over the same tactic and data taken from children under 13, and Kik faces a Nevada lawsuit. Turkey blocked SUGO in February 2026, and Indonesian police said in 2019 that a man had used Hago chat to find ten victims under 15.
What the score does not tell you
A high score means the company has done more to protect users. It does not make a conversation with a stranger safe. No age check stops an adult from lying about intentions, and grooming often moves quickly to another app where nobody moderates. If your child uses any app on this list, talk about who they meet there, keep the phone's location sharing off for it, and agree that they will tell you when a new contact asks for photos or to switch apps.
Questions
Are random video chat apps safe for teenagers?
Not on their own. Azar and Monkey now say they are for adults only and use face checks or AI to spot minors, but a random call can still show a child something no filter caught in time. If a teenager wants to meet new people, a text-first app with age groups and pre-screened messages carries less risk than live video with a stranger.
What is sextortion, and how does it start on these apps?
Sextortion is blackmail with intimate images. Someone posing as a young person asks for a photo, then threatens to send it to friends and family unless the victim pays or sends more. Apple and Google pulled Wizz in 2024 after warnings that gangs were using it this way. Tell your child that if it happens, they should stop replying, keep the messages and tell an adult, and that paying rarely ends it.
Do these apps check how old users are?
Some do, many do not. Yubo and Wizz now ask for a face-based age check, and Azar scans faces before calls. Litmatch, Tellonym and SUGO rely on the birth date a user types in, and Kik verifies ages only in the UK. An app's terms saying 18+ means little without a real check.
Why do store age ratings differ from the apps' own rules?
Apple and Google rate apps from questionnaires the developer fills in, while the minimum age sits in the developer's own terms. That is how Hago can say 18+ in its privacy policy while Google Play rates it Teen. Go by the stricter of the two, and use Screen Time or Google Family Link to block apps above your child's age.
Are anonymous question apps like NGL and Sendit harmless fun?
They are built to make teenagers pay to see who sent a message. US regulators said both apps sent fake messages made to look as if they came from real people, then sold a paid "reveal" that regulators called misleading. NGL settled for $5 million in 2024 and now bars under-18s, and the US Justice Department's case against Sendit is still running.