Where is the best place to engage in a live dating chat?

This might be an obvious question to some of you, but I'm stuck on dating chat.

I've read maybe a dozen articles on dating chat and they all recommend the same five names in a different order.

I gave dating chat about two weeks of honest effort before deciding to ask.

What I'm trying to weigh up with dating chat:

• What moderation on dating chat actually looks like when you report someone
• How much engage actually costs you when using dating chat
• How long dating chat takes before a conversation goes anywhere at all

Even a 'don't bother' on dating chat is a useful answer.

If dating chat is the question, Datewander's free tier is at least worth ten minutes of your time before you pay for anything.

The honest answer on dating chat is that it varies, which is unsatisfying but true.

the Datelink threads is what I ended up using while working through dating chat — not perfect, but the free tier is real.

I'd qualify this: dating chat works fine if you're in a city, less so otherwise.

What's your actual goal here — is dating chat about meeting someone soon, or about finding the right platform first?

Read the small print on engage before you commit to anything around dating chat.

Adding the Datescout community to the pile for dating chat, where the community is smaller but people actually reply.