Review: Flingster Adult Chat

I don’t know about you, but one of my favourite things to do with friends when I was a teenager was spend time on the Omegle chat rooms. It was that perfect blend of cyber-safety violations and potentially adult content that I’m sure any teen looking to rebel would have been all over, and if anything I’m surprised I stuck to just using it as a joke during sleepovers. But now I’m older, and no longer do I have to cheekily wonder where the conversation might lead, because there are adults-only versions like Flingster that let you get straight to the point. Of course, as a sex toy reviewer, looking at websites like these isn’t exactly my expertise, so when I was first approached by their team about writing this post I was unsure. But after a closer look I realised this really is just another tool designed for adult fun, so why not check it out?

Flingster is a text and video chat platform designed as a 18+ space where strangers from all over the world can connect with each other. Advertised for casual online dating and sex, it is extremely easy to get started on and doesn’t require an account or subscription. Built to meet the need for an adult video chat with as few restrictions as possible and born out of the frustration of navigating regular dating profiles, Flingster aims to go above and beyond its competitors with increased anonymity for your privacy, allowing you to chat without inputting any personal information, and their industry-leading “AR face filter” technology, providing you with a variety of virtual masks that you can use to hide your identity during video chats. Plus, with an active community of thousands of people online at any given minute and over a billion connections served, you don’t need to worry about connecting with the same people over and over again. For those who want even more though, Flingster also offer a subscription service starting at $6.99 USD a week.

My Experience

Initial Impression

Going onto Flingster for the first time, the first thing I noticed was the lack of options in the gender menu, which is the only piece of information you need to provide prior to accessing the chat. As someone who identifies as non-binary, I was hoping this would be available to me, particularly as Flingster promote how “all genders are welcome” on their website. But at the very least transgender is an option, alongside male, female, and couples (which I feel like is a whole discussion on its own), so I suppose that’s better than nothing. In addition to this you also have the option of including some interests to tell users a little bit more about you. The list of available choices here is immense, with what I imagine is just about every type of kink possible, ranging from the more normal “boobs” and “big dick”, to things such as “humiliation” and “monster cock”. Once these selections are made you can then go straight into the chat, granted you first confirm that you are over 18. Now, considering one of the things Flingster says it does better than other chat sites is guaranteeing all its users are over 18, I was expecting something slightly more than just pressing a button to confirm my age. After all, even most alcohol retailers require me to at least enter my date of birth on their websites these days!

Once inside, the actual layout of the chat is incredibly straightforward and quick to get the hang of. On the left-hand side of the screen is the video area, with your partner’s feed taking up the majority of the space and your own in the bottom left-hand corner. Even if you only want to text chat this area will remain, and it is also where you’ll find the buttons to quickly toggle your video and mic on and off, as well as apply the AR filters. To the right you then have the text area, which has an easy bar at the bottom for typing out your messages and choosing emojis. Above this is where your partner’s information will be shown, which is typically just their gender and location, and then directly above that is the disconnect / reconnect button and filters. Next to your partner’s info is also their “like count”, which is a button users can press if they have enjoyed each other’s company (causing temporary love hearts to flood the chat box), with the number of those likes being displayed for all to see, so you can quickly tell if someone has a good reputation or not. Finally, and this was frustratingly a little tricky to find, is the button to report users for inappropriate behaviour, which shows up if you hover over their video screen.

Premium members have a range of extra features available to them, so much so that I hesitate to call Flingster a truly “free” site. This is because without premium access you cannot filter the people you connect with, with your chat instead always being set to all genders and locations, so it’s unlikely you’ll meet someone who matches your interests. The only filter you can apply for free is the local one, allowing you to change from connecting worldwide to just your within your own country, which may be good if you’re interested in dating. In addition, a subscription also allows you to hide your location, display a verified badge, reconnect with those who have disconnected from you, hide your like count, and display your Instagram, Snapchat or OnlyFans accounts in the chat. Plus, it allows you to set an intro message that will automatically appear at the start of the chat, which is a great way to get straight to the point if you have something particular you’re seeking. Unfortunately though I was not provided with a subscription for my review, and so all of my experiences with Flingster have been as a free member.

Text Chat

To kick things off and get a feel for Flingster I decided to start with text chat only. Going in, I had two questions that I wanted answered: can Flingster be used solely as a text chat, and can it be used for actual dating rather than just sex? I also decided to start off under the female gender category, as I figured this would get the most response.

Loading up the chat, I was immediately hit with the sorts of messages I use to get back during my sex work days: “can u help me cum”, “would you like to see me cum”, “pls show boobies”. So not off to a great start. Then I got my first verified member and I thought things were looking up until their automated intro message was “Would you let your dog lick your pussy?”. Too bad I didn’t know where the report button was then. After around two hours worth of connections, I only had a few people who actually spoke to me, but all of those conversations ultimately resulted in them asking me to either go on video or share my contact details so we could connect elsewhere. After awhile I just straight-up started asking people what the deal was, with one guy telling me that Flingster is really only for video chats, not text (answering question 1), and another saying that it’s only for sex, not dating (answering question 2). Occasionally I would connect with the same people, however it’s not always clear whether this was just premium users using the reconnect function or a lack of users. A few times the other user turned on their video chat (I was given the opportunity to accept or decline this) and I would see some vague body parts hiding off screen, but this was rare since I wouldn’t turn on mine. Out of everything, the most frustrating aspect of the experience for me though was that at no point did I connect with anyone other than a man. As a bisexual who is generally more sexually attracted to women, this was not what I was after, but with no way to set a preference for who I wanted to connect with I felt powerless, and couldn’t help but wonder if this was intentional due to my own gender setting…

To test my theory I decided to change my gender setting to transgender, and was eager to see if it would affect who I connected with. But if I thought being a “female” was bad enough, things were about to a lot get worse. Almost every user who connected with me now immediately disconnected. Of the few people who did stick around, I was asked things like “vag or cock?” and “guy or girl?”. One person who had their gender set to male greeted me and told me they were a trans man, but when they asked me how I identified and I said non-binary, they disconnected. Plus, even with this new setting I continued to be only connected with men.

Fed up with my inability to chat to anyone other than Flingster’s “males”, I decided to finally take matters into my own hands and set myself as a male. Then surely I would get some different options! But somehow things got worse again. I thought people were disconnecting to me fast when I was set to transgender, but apparently that didn’t even come close to using the platform as a man. With so many people now instantly disconnecting, Flingster would quickly time out, so that each session after around 10 seconds my connection would cut to advertising, telling me that I would need to purchase a subscription to speak to a woman. Having my gender set to male was the only time throughout all of my testing that I saw these ads and as far as I can tell there is no way around them, appearing every time regardless of whether I made a connection or not. Not only does this make the free version of the site essentially unusable if you’re a man, but it is also a disappointing heteronormative assumption from Flingster, that if my gender is set to male I must to be looking for a woman.

After hours of text chatting, I didn’t have one meaningful or sexy conversation, and I only spoke to men. I saw one transgender user and another that was set to a couple, but both of these disconnected immediately. As for women I also saw only one, when my own gender was set to male, but this was only for a brief microsecond as it was instantly cut off by advertising. Overall, I can say with confidence that Flingster’s users are not interested in using the platform for text chat or dating, and unless you’re looking to connect with men then don’t even bother with the free version.

Video Chat

I figured I would spend far more time video chatting than text chatting since that’s what the platform is primarily designed for, however it didn’t take long for me to realise how little variety there was between each of my connections. As soon as your video is turned on (the mic is optional), Flingster automatically starts connecting you to other people who are also video chatting. Once connected their video will be initially blurred, before slowly coming into focus, so you can get an idea if this is something you want to view prior to properly seeing their feed. After another couple hours of testing though, I can confirm that once again I only saw “males”, and 99% of them were already jerking their dicks off on camera before their feed even unblurred. I can’t really say I’m all that surprised, but considering Flingster does state it’s for adult dating as well as sex, I did expect at least a few people to not already be going for it. Of the very few that I saw that weren’t a just badly lit penis, they were mostly either people with something covering their camera or those showing another body part, such as their chest or face.

The other thing I found unique to video chatting, is that any idea of an actual “chat” goes out the window. Very few people would engage me in text conversation whilst the video was running (those that did I found impressive in their ability to type whilst jerking off), and even fewer actually had their mics turned on. If there was any communication at all, it was typically just them pointing with their hands to describe what they wanted from me, for instance pointing at their chest to try and get me to remove my bra, or putting their fingers into a V to try and get me to show them my vulva. If I then didn’t do what was requested, they would disconnect. Plus, the few I disconnected from myself very frequently forced me to reconnect (which cuts you off from whoever you’re currently with), which I found very frustrating as it was like they wouldn’t take no for an answer and I couldn’t stop them. Nothing about the experiences I had made me feel very engaged or special, just that I was there as jerk off fodder for the hundreds of anonymous men waiting to connect, and once they’d had enough of me or if I didn’t do that they wanted, they would disconnect.

Finally, one of the things I was most excited to try with the video chat was Flingster’s range of AR masks. Applying these is easy, with a button located right next to the video options, and the free version offers access to a whole range of different styles, from takes on masquerade-style masks and emojis, to even a Guy Fawkes mask. Unfortunately though this feature seems like it still has a lot of work to go, as while it functions fine when you are just looking straight towards the camera with nothing obscuring your face, things quickly start to go downhill the moment you move your head to the side or on an angle, as the mask will distort and ultimately turn off. Because of this I chose not to use the masks whilst on camera, and just opted for having my face out of the frame instead. Out of my connections I then only saw one person using a mask, although it might have been real, I just struggled to get a good look before disconnecting as I thought they looked potentially underage (and this was also before I located the report button).

Final Thoughts

A lot about my experiences with Flingster are subjective. While it is the sort of website I can imagine myself enjoying in the past, it is not somewhere I generally find myself these days. So considering I’m not the type of user Flingster are probably intending for, I do feel a little harsh complaining about people using a video sex platform for…. well, video sex. But I was approached for this review and can only judge from my own experience, and as a non-binary bisexual who is primarily interested in other trans folk or women, saying I am disappointed is an understatement. In a lot of ways it is also objective, because while my opposition to the amount of dicks I saw during my testing can be debated, it is a fact that, after hours of testing over multiple days, I was not able to chat with a single user other than those with their gender set to male. Not to mention that considering Flingster’s clear message that if you’re a man you must to be seeking a woman, alongside its “VIP” user’s automated introductions frequently stating things like “no gay”, it’s obvious that this is not a space meant for queer people. Overall, if what you are after is to connect with men for quick video sex in an anonymous setting, then Flingster is probably for you. But if you’re looking for anything more than that or just want to connect someone else, then I’m afraid you’re out of luck with the free version.

This post was sponsored by Flingster, but, as always, all opinions are my own.