Review
ChatiW is a desktop and mobile chat service that provides its users with maximum functionality on their custom-built chat interface. The brand simplifies the search process for new friends and creates discussion amongst two individuals in private chat room settings.
The ChatiW Brand
ChatiW is a chat service and platform for you to ‘find your soul mate and build relationships quickly with single women and men’ as the site says for itself. The brand sells itself as a unique opportunity to get to know people quickly and easily. You can chat to singles from all over the world, including a range of different religious and age groups.
Their platform is relatively easy to handle with advanced features that all gel together really nicely. The brand is currently testing a BETA version of their site, which users are given the option to try out once they have signed in. Maybe this will be one we re-visit very soon and review again once the BETA is fully live!
Registration
No official registration required – meaning you don’t have to supply an email address or any contact information. But to be able to chat, you must first fill out a simple form that asks for:
- A nickname
- Your date of birth
- Your gender
- Country and state that you live in
This form is slightly frustrating though as it regularly responds with the same feedback, asking you to ‘choose a polite nickname’. This is despite a nickname being seemingly innocent and following standard practice – we tried just using our first name followed by 4 numbers. The following prompt still highlighted that our nickname wasn’t polite enough – whatever that means!
You only get 5 attempts at this. There are no obvious instructions telling you what a ‘polite name’ is. Once you finally find one that is acceptable, a simple tick-box captcha process follows before you can start chatting.
Desktop/Mobile Capability
To use this chat service on your mobile you can download an app available on both iOS and Android. This functionality shows that the brand has taken great care and consideration to facilitate a mobile audience properly, rather than provide a less-modern and less-intuitive mobile version of their site.
User Experience
The site is relatively easy to use, there is no question about that. The aesthetic is clean, and everything seems to be really slick and seamless. Loading times can be a bit slow though and if you try to refresh the page it can stutter at times too.
It is not immediately obvious whether you can chat to more than just one person in a room or not. Neither is it made clear that this is just a place to speak to people one-on-one. Users have to figure this out for themselves – which doesn’t lead to a fantastic journey flow.
Ultimately, the site is easy to navigate, and the chat interface is very well designed. It’s neither here nor there really, when it comes to deciding if we like it or not.
Safety and Security
Safety tips, an FAQ section and a privacy policy are three very big ticks in the safety aspect! Tips on how to stay vigilant and safe in chat rooms is something you would expect of any chat service, but you would be surprised at how many don’t have this information. It’s a big plus that it’s here!
Customer Service
It’s also great that there are so many ways to get in touch or reach out to the brand. You can use the online contact form or reach out to ChatiW using one of their many social channels. Full marks here!
Conclusion
To conclude, ChatiW is a highly safe, rather simple and sometimes awkward place to chat online! The website is ridiculously easy to use, even if the user journey itself is not signposted enough for the user to know what to do at first. The design of the site rescues this slightly, as it is very easy-on-the-eye.
There are numerous ways you can interact with the brand, which is always a good thing too. This reinforces the idea that the site owners take site safety and the enjoyment of its members very seriously. The one thing that does let ChatiW down though is the lack of additional features. There are no games, profile-builds, entertainment channels, etc. With some more bells and whistles, the brand may attract a bigger band!
As you can see, we feel ChatiW is a fairly middle-of-the road type chat service, deserved of a middle-of-the-road type score. We give it a promising 6.5!
