The short version is genuinely simple: leave the conversation, then report it. You don't need a strategy beyond that. The rest of this page is about what those two actions actually do, and a few honest things worth knowing while you're in the moment.
There's no benefit to staying in a conversation that's gone bad, and no reason to try to talk someone out of being unpleasant. Tap Skip and the session ends immediately — there's no keyboard shortcut to remember, just the on-screen button, and it works the same way every time. You're not required to say anything on your way out.
A natural instinct is to want to say something first — call the person out, tell them you're reporting them, get the last word. It's understandable, but it doesn't change anything about how the report gets handled, and it just keeps you in the conversation longer than you need to be. Leaving quietly and reporting afterward accomplishes the same thing with less of your time spent on it.
Once you're out of the conversation, use the Report button and pick the category that best matches what happened. This sends the session details to a real person on our moderation team, with a target of review within 2 hours. There's no automated system scanning the video itself to decide anything — a person looks at the report and the context around it.
You don't need to write an essay or gather "proof" first. The categories in the report tool exist for exactly this reason — pick the one that fits, and that's enough to get it looked at. If you want to add detail because something specific stood out to you, that helps, but it's optional.
The category you selected, the approximate session details, and anything you choose to add. Not a recording — Chatzyo doesn't keep one, since video runs directly between the two devices and never touches our servers.
Depending on what's reported, outcomes range from a warning to a permanent restriction. Serious violations — explicit content, threats, anything involving a minor — are treated as serious immediately, not worked up to gradually.
For the fuller breakdown of how reports are reviewed and what the realistic timeline looks like, see our guide to reporting someone.
Most harassment that escalates badly does so after it moves somewhere else — a phone number, a Snapchat handle, another app. If someone pushes hard to get you to continue the conversation outside Chatzyo, that's worth treating as a signal on its own, separate from whatever else they've said. There's rarely a good reason for a stranger in a random chat to need you specifically on another platform.
Chatzyo's chat filter already blocks most attempts to share phone numbers or email addresses automatically, which helps, but it's not the same as a guarantee — if you'd rather just not engage with that kind of request at all, that's a reasonable instinct to trust.
A couple of pieces of advice that sound protective but don't actually do much, worth ruling out directly: covering your camera after something's already happened doesn't undo anything — whatever was shown was already shown, in the moment it happened, over a direct connection between the two devices. The useful action is leaving and reporting, not anything physical with the camera after the fact.
It's also fine, and common, to feel rattled after an encounter like this even once you've left and reported it. That's a normal reaction to an unpleasant interaction with a stranger, not something you need to manage on your own if it's sitting with you. Talking to someone you trust about it is a reasonable next step if you want one.
For anything involving a minor, or content that's been shared somewhere outside the platform without your consent, email support@chatzyo.in directly in addition to reporting in-chat — we treat these as priority and they sometimes need more context than the in-chat tool is built to carry. For credible threats or other serious illegal activity, Chatzyo cooperates with law enforcement where the situation calls for it.