Item: Chat Avenue
Rating: 3.5
Author: The Big Fling

Last Update: July 31, 2018

What’s Great

Simple and Intuitive – The site and service as a whole is ridiculously easy to use and navigate. Everything is well signposted so there is no reason to get lost.
Numerous Topics – There is a tendency for many chat sites like this to focus too much on sex and sex related chat. Where there certainly is the option on Chat Avenue, you can also talk about other things, such as sport and college studies.
Connection Speed – Everything runs without a glitch on Chat Avenue. This is perhaps the reason why the developers keep things so simple. If you introduce bells and whistles, things may begin to slow down. We certainly don’t want that!

What’s Not-So-Great

Outdated Appearance – The site really could do with a facelift as it is way behind the times. The layout is clean and simple, but the use of graphics needs modernising badly. This goes for the actual chat interface too – which is outdated and clunky.
Annoying Noises – This chat service does contain quite an annoying noise every time a message is received. This can be turned off, of course, but it can catch you by surprise the first time you visit, and your speakers are turned up! We almost wet ourselves!
Too Much to Read – Too much content on a site can be overwhelming, repetitive and boring. This is certainly the case here, as each chat room has its own individual list of rules. Even the way the text is set-out (centralised) is a bit hard-on-the-eye.

Simple and Intuitive – The site and service as a whole is ridiculously easy to use and navigate. Everything is well signposted so there is no reason to get lost.
Numerous Topics – There is a tendency for many chat sites like this to focus too much on sex and sex related chat. Where there certainly is the option on Chat Avenue, you can also talk about other things, such as sport and college studies.
Connection Speed – Everything runs without a glitch on Chat Avenue. This is perhaps the reason why the developers keep things so simple. If you introduce bells and whistles, things may begin to slow down. We certainly don’t want that!

Outdated Appearance – The site really could do with a facelift as it is way behind the times. The layout is clean and simple, but the use of graphics needs modernising badly. This goes for the actual chat interface too – which is outdated and clunky.
Annoying Noises – This chat service does contain quite an annoying noise every time a message is received. This can be turned off, of course, but it can catch you by surprise the first time you visit, and your speakers are turned up! We almost wet ourselves!
Too Much to Read – Too much content on a site can be overwhelming, repetitive and boring. This is certainly the case here, as each chat room has its own individual list of rules. Even the way the text is set-out (centralised) is a bit hard-on-the-eye.

Review

Chat Avenue began its journey back in 1999 and has since become one of the largest chat communities online today. Users are mostly based in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia – but there are Chat Avenue members all over the world! You can join in the fun with no registration today!

The Chat Avenue Brand

The Chat Avenue brand makes a very bold statement on their ‘About’ page. They claim to be the ‘current leader in free online chat rooms’. This is a very courageous statement to make indeed! They also claim to be powered by ‘the latest in video and audio software’. To be fair, the site does have an extremely large and loyal fan base – so they must definitely be doing something right.

Chat Avenue is targeted to all demographics – from teens and singles to gay and lesbian audiences. What is interesting is the brand’s strict English language only policy, despite the fact that international users are welcome. How does that work, we wonder?

Registration

No registration is required with Chat Avenue – all you need to do is choose a nickname and push start in your chosen chat room. There is no need to provide any contact details, or any form of identifiable information.

Desktop/Mobile Capability

Chat Avenue is primarily a desktop channel and does not offer a downloadable or mobile version of the site. However, it does have a specific mobile-user targeted chat room. You can access this on both a desktop and mobile device using an internet browser for each.

User Experience

It has to be said, that the interface of the chat service itself is outdated and in dire need of a facelift. Some of the colour choices are questionable at best too, including this sickly yellow used for the General Chat channel. There are 20 channels to choose from, all of which have their own distinct off-colour and similar clunky design.

This is a chat service from the late 90s and it still looks as though it still belongs there! The functionality of the service itself, and the navigation through it, are both spotless. It’s just a shame the design lets it down so much. It’s almost like using a Swiss army knife, dressed up as a kitchen table knife. Chat Avenue – it is time to upgrade!

Safety and Security

You must over the age of 13 to use this website, as the content clearly highlights. There are rules listed at the bottom of each individual chatroom, as well as a comprehensive list of FAQs made available through the site too.

This website values the safety of members seriously, but there are some reports online relating to suspicious behaviour and acts of grooming within the chatrooms. Chat Avenue does try to provide as many live and active moderators as possible, helping to create a safe place to chat for everyone. Younger members are also encouraged to enjoy the site under the supervision of an adult, especially if using the video feature.

Customer Service

The Chat Avenue team claims to be at your service 24 hours a day. They are apparently always open and contactable via their online contact form, or through their social media channels. As well as the contact form you can access the detailed member forum, with various topics and guidance available to you.

The support network also allows you to contact site administrators directly if you have a serious issues or complaint. So all-in-all, customer service seems pretty good at Chat Avenue!

Conclusion

Due to the simple layout and basic build, Chat Avenue is one of the easiest chat websites you are ever likely to visit. Everything is really well signposted and it’s not difficult at all to find where you want to be. Even if you do get stuck, the mountains upon mountains of forum material should provide an answer to your question; or contact site administrators directly to find a solution to your problem.

All of these factors combined lead to great customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, this is almost reversed by the sheer sight of the service. This is not the most attractive chat interface you’ve ever experienced in your life – not by a country mile! The icons, the colours and the design themes are all very outdated – looking they still belong back in the 90s!

User experience suffers slightly because of this, and there are some safety issue reports in the news surrounding this site. Which is all a shame, because otherwise Chat Avenue is a solid service. This is why we’re giving it a magnificent 7!

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