Azar alternative: no gems to spend on finding someone
On Google Play a single in-app item on Azar runs anywhere from $0.49 to $399.99, on a listing flagged for ads. In the App Store all eleven items are the same thing — a Gem Package, $0.99 to $37.99 (both checked 26 August 2026). Gems are the meter you run down while you look for someone. Veilr's video chat sits at the top of this page: sign in, press Start, and no balance runs down while you wait for a match.
Where the money goes on Azar
Two layers, plus advertising. Gems are the consumable layer, spent a swipe at a time; above them sit subscription tiers — Azar Plus, Azar Premium and Azar Supreme, named in the title of Azar's own help-centre article. On Android those tiers renew by default, and users complain the cancellation is not where they look for it. What each costs is another matter: the prices you will find quoted for them come from third-party reviews.
The complaint that runs through store reviews is the meter itself: gems charged for matches that never really happened, because the other person skipped instantly or the call dropped. Attractive strangers who message first, steer you towards spending gems on gifts and then vanish are a complaint of their own. Bans, users report, arrive with no reason given — and the gems already bought stay locked inside an account nobody can get back into.
What the subscription is actually gating
Not the chatting. Google Play's own description says the base features are free and then puts setting who you meet, by gender and by region, behind a subscription; the App Store text says it in its own words — optional premiums unlock additional gender and country filters. The one control everybody wants in a random video chat is the one Azar puts a price on — and users say they pay and still wait.
Advertising has a second price. The App Store privacy card for Azar says identifiers and usage data may be used to track you across other companies' apps and websites, and that purchases, financial information, location and contact details may be linked to your identity; Google Play's data-safety card says the app may share your location, personal information and four more categories of data with third parties. The room Veilr matches you into carries no outside advertising network, so nothing in it is paid to learn who you are.
A year of things being taken away
Match Group's quarterly filing for the period ended 30 June 2026 records that Apple removed Azar from the App Store on 22 February 2026, after a 6 February update to Apple's review guidelines; the app was changed to comply and a new version reinstated. The same filing puts a number on the year: revenue down $19 million in the second quarter, and a $25.2 million write-down of the Azar trademark in the first, when the company stopped treating the brand as an asset of unlimited life. Turkey blocked access by court order in late August 2025, alongside LivU, Tango, Camsurf and about fifteen other chat apps, and on its third-quarter 2025 call Match Group put the lost direct revenue at about $3 million and said it was still working to get the block lifted; Azar Live, the streaming feature, was switched off in November 2025; and iOS subscriptions ended on 6 April 2026, leaving gems as the only thing sold on iPhone.
The rework left the two listings describing different products. The App Store text mentions no random matching, no swiping, no strangers and no translation at all: it describes meeting people through shared interests, moving on only when both agree. Google Play, updated 24 August 2026, still sells the original idea — speech turned into subtitles as it is spoken, Pick&Match, sliding your way to new people. If you came looking for Azar for the swipe and the live translation, the iPhone listing no longer promises you either. Huawei's AppGallery had already dropped the app on 7 February 2023; installed copies kept running, but the updates stopped.
What Veilr does not charge for
Choosing your partner. Set your gender in your profile and you can choose who to talk to: free, tried first whenever someone you asked for is online, and if nobody is, you are connected to someone else rather than left waiting. The other person’s choice is always respected. With Boost your choice is a hard filter and you go first in line; people who registered as non-binary are matched by those who chose ‘Any’. Age and country sit on top of it as preferences: honoured first, then widened when nobody fits, so you are not left waiting; with Boost they stay fixed too. No tier opens it, no counter ends it.
Time in the conversation. Nothing is deducted when a match opens, when someone skips you instantly, or when a call drops, and no third-party ad network runs inside a match, a chat or a call. Only two things are sold on Veilr: Boost, which puts you first in the queue, and extra minutes of subtitles — bought once, never as a renewing subscription.
Two languages in one conversation. Write in yours and your message can reach the other person in theirs, the original one tap away; a new account starts with a run of free translations, earns more, and Boost lifts the ceiling. On a call where you have each declared a different language, subtitles can start on their own — in your own language, out of the 34 Veilr supports — five free minutes at first, then Boost or a top-up.
Knowing where you stand. Nobody searches without signing in first, with a social account they already have — there is no guest mode. Your partner sees your gender, your age band and, when it is known, a country flag; in text and voice also a blurred version of your photo, any Verified or Boost badge, and your native language once you set it — that one you can switch off. Someone with an active Boost can open that photo unblurred for the one chat, and you are not told. Only someone searching with an age filter sees your exact age, and a stranger you are matched with is never shown your real name, email address or city. Veilr is adults only, 18+: our servers refuse a match to an account recorded as under 18.
The two of them, honestly
| Azar | Veilr | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting in | Phone, Google, Facebook or Apple, according to Zift's parent guide | A social account you already have |
| Choosing by gender and country | A paid tier, according to its own store listings | Gender a free preference, hard only with Boost; country a free preference too |
| Cost of looking | Gems run down as you swipe, ads alongside | Nothing metered while you search |
| Speech translated live | Its signature feature, and free at its basic level | Subtitles in 34 languages, five free minutes to start |
| Where it runs | Two app stores and a simpler web version | Any modern browser, plus an Android app; not in the United Kingdom |
| What is sold | Gems, plus subscription tiers on Android | Boost and subtitle minutes, bought once |
Azar takes the first row and the fourth, and the fourth is the one worth stopping on: live speech translation is Azar's own signature feature, not a gap somebody found in it. Two things are missing from the table because Veilr cannot answer them. Scale: 100 million-plus installs and 1.96 million ratings on Google Play; in the App Store, 4.3 out of 5 from 102,000. And engineering: Hyperconnect's early commercial work on mobile WebRTC, the thing Match Group paid $1.725 billion for. Azar's safety work is not a slogan either — matches that fail a safety check are cancelled automatically, an In-Match Blur covers the screen when something inappropriate is detected, a reputation badge rewards long spells without complaints, and the company says people and automation both run around the clock. Nothing in the Veilr column is priced in gems, and nothing in it runs down while you look.
Starting a video chat on Veilr
- 1. Sign in with a social account you already have; the sign-in screen shows which ones are open to you.
- 2. Choose video. On a first visit, opening the page does not by itself ask for the camera — the browser asks when you switch it on or press Start.
- 3. Set the partner filter if you want one, and add age or country as preferences.
- 4. Press Start search. Nothing is deducted while you wait, and nothing is deducted if the first person skips you.
Related
- The comparison index
- Monkey — its filter sits behind a subscription too.
- Chitchat — subscription in text, coins in video.
- Thundr — free to chat, priority costs coins.
- Video chat — the same video room as at the top of this page.
- Voice chat — same matching, no camera.
Questions people ask about Azar
Is Azar free?
The chatting is; the choosing is not. Gems are bought and spent, ads run alongside, and its own store descriptions put gender and region preferences behind a paid tier. On Veilr text, voice and video all cost nothing, and so does the partner filter; only Boost and extra subtitle minutes are sold.
Why did Azar disappear from the App Store?
Apple removed it on 22 February 2026, sixteen days after updating its review guidelines; Match Group's filing records a reworked version being reinstated.
Does Veilr translate speech in a call, like Azar?
Yes, on a call where you and your partner have declared different languages: subtitles of what they say can start on their own, in your language, as they speak — five free minutes to start, then Boost or a top-up.
What happened to Azar Live?
Azar switched the streaming feature off on 24 November 2025, announced it that October, and let people claim the last Stars rewards until 24 January 2026. Match Group said afterwards that without leaving live streaming its Asian segment revenue would have been level with the year before instead of down 4 per cent. Veilr has no broadcast side at all: every match is one-on-one, and there is no audience to perform for.
What if I am banned by mistake?
No automated decision on Veilr bans anyone permanently: automatic penalties are capped at 30 days, a permanent block takes a person, and the notice says which of the two it was. You can appeal by email.
All trademarks and service names on this page belong to their respective owners. Veilr is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any of them.