Igbo Chat Room: Meet Ndi Igbo on Free Video Chat

What is an Igbo chat room today?

Search for an Igbo chat room and you mostly find the memory of one. In the early internet, people found each other in public group rooms, typing to whoever happened to be there. Since then, the conversation has moved house a few times:

• Public group rooms: open to anyone, lively, often chaotic, and mostly closed now.
• BlackBerry Messenger, then WhatsApp groups: warm and familiar, but you only meet people someone has already added.
• Facebook groups and forums: good for long arguments about home, slow for actually talking to someone.
• Live video: one person, one face, one conversation, starting in seconds.

IgboChat belongs to that last group. It is not a room where twenty people type at once. It is a free random video chat: you are paired with one stranger, you see and hear each other, and a text box with emoji reactions sits next to the video for anything you would rather type. If the gist is sweet, you stay. If it is not, Next finds someone new.

For the wider picture, including how matching works and how to go easy on your data, read our guide to random chat in Nigeria.

Will everyone I meet on IgboChat be Igbo?

No, and it is better to know that from the start. The name is a nod to Ndi Igbo and the South-East, but the door is open to everybody in Nigeria and beyond: Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Pidgin speakers, everyone. The lobby you are matched from is also shared with a wider network of sites, so people join from many countries.

What that means in practice:

• Your next match could be in Owerri, in Ibadan or on another continent.
• There is no Igbo-only button. Nobody's language, state of origin or hometown is recorded, and nobody should be asked to prove it.
• A country filter can narrow your matches to people in Nigeria. You unlock it with karma, which you earn by chatting and by coming back, never with money.
• Even with the Nigeria filter on, you meet people from every corner of the country. That is half the fun.

Some people come precisely for the international side. If that is you, our guide on how to chat with foreigners online explains how the shared lobby works and which offers to ignore.

How do you find Igbo speakers in a random video chat?

Since there is no Igbo filter, language does the sorting for you. A greeting in Igbo is a friendly signal: people who understand it light up, and people who do not usually smile and ask what it means. Either way, the chat has started.

1. Set the country filter to Nigeria once you have enough karma, so more of your matches are at home.
2. Open with Ndewo, a respectful hello, or a relaxed Kedu? (How are you?).
3. If they answer Ọ dị mma, you have found an Igbo speaker. Ask Kedu aha gị? (What is your name?) and give yours with Aha m bụ ...
4. If they reply in English or Pidgin, switch with them. How far? works almost anywhere in Nigeria.
5. Ask where home is. Enugu, Onitsha, Nsukka, Umuahia and Asaba all come with stories, and so do the people who left them.
6. Use the text box for names and places. Most people type without tone marks, and spelling varies between dialects, so Kedu ka ị mere? and Kedu ka i mere? are the same question.

Six phrases that open an Igbo chat

Want more before your first chat? Our list of Igbo greetings and phrases covers good morning, good night, thank you and a few more.

How do you keep an Igbo chat respectful?

Good manners travel well on camera. A few habits that make people stay rather than skip:

• Greet first. A hello before any question is basic courtesy at home, and it works on video too.
• Mind age. If the person looks older than you, slow down and choose Ndewo over a casual How far? Respect for elders matters in many Nigerian families, online and off.
• Laugh easily. A shared joke about light going off just as the chat got interesting does more than a long introduction.
• Do not quiz people about their village, their people or their religion. Let them share what they want to share.
• Mix languages freely. Plenty of Igbo speakers move between Igbo, English and Pidgin in one sentence, and nobody is grading you.
• Keep the camera on your face and on what you would happily show any stranger.

Calling someone Nwanne m (my brother, my sister) is a warm touch once the chat is going well. Save it for when it is earned, not as a first line.

Can Ndi Igbo in the diaspora use IgboChat?

Yes. IgboChat runs in any modern browser, so a nurse in Manchester, a student in Dublin or an engineer in Johannesburg opens the same page as someone in Aba. The lobby is already international, so being abroad does not put you in a separate queue.

Some reasons someone abroad might log on:

• Hearing Igbo spoken casually, not only at family gatherings or on the weekly call home.
• Practising the language with patient strangers before a trip back.
• Getting the real gist on what is happening in Nigeria from someone who is there today.
• Talking to somebody who gets the jokes without needing them explained.

Mind the clock. Evening in Toronto, Houston or New York is the small hours in Nigeria. If you want to use the Nigeria filter from North America, a weekend morning on your side lines up with a Nigerian afternoon. From the UK and Ireland the difference is an hour at most, so any time works.

Can you find Igbo singles on IgboChat?

People do search for an Igbo singles chat, so here is the honest answer. IgboChat is not a dating app. There are no profiles, no relationship status and no photos to browse. The start form asks your gender, your age and whether you want to chat with women or men, and that is all the matching knows about you.

What it does offer is a real first impression: a live face and a live voice tell you more in two minutes than a week of messages. If you click with someone, take it slowly:

• Chat a few times before swapping numbers. There is no rush.
• Never send money, airtime or gift cards to someone you met online, however touching the story.
• Be careful with anyone who wants to move to another app at once, or who asks for photos you would not want shared.
• Tell a friend or sibling before you meet anyone in person, and meet somewhere public.

Our online chat safety guide explains how romance scams and sextortion work, and what to do if one ever comes your way.

What does IgboChat cost, and what do you need?

If someone is rude, tap the flag above their video to open Block or report. Block and next skips them and makes sure you are never paired again. A report (you choose one of five reasons) ends the chat, sends a still frame to human moderators and blocks them too; repeat offenders are banned. IgboChat does not record or store chats, video or messages. The honest limits: on a direct connection the other person may be able to see your IP address, and anyone could record their own screen. When you are ready, open the chat and say Ndewo.