Practice talking to people, at your own pace

Small talk is work. Maybe you are autistic, maybe anxiety gets there before you do, maybe you have simply been out of practice for a while. Phone calls and video are the hardest modes. Being recorded would be worse. And you would rather not do this in front of people you will see again.

Start in text or audio with the camera off, leave any time, and nothing is kept.

Lumi pairs you with one real person at a time. You pick the mode, you pick the pace, and you decide when it ends. There is no score, no streak, and no one watching how you did. The person you are talking to is a stranger who will not be at work on Monday.

How it works

1. Pick text or audio. Video works too, and starts with the cameras off: they open only when you both tap Show my camera. You can also choose a ten-minute chat, which ends gently on its own, so there is a natural finish line.
2. Pass the selfie age check, once. A moment at your camera; software on Lumi's own servers estimates your age group and a person checks its decisions. The photo is deleted the moment a person has reviewed the check, and after 90 days at the latest whatever happens.
3. Talk for as long as it feels fine. If you both go quiet for twenty seconds, a card with a plain question appears for both of you; one tap dismisses it. Skip is a button, not an apology.

The safety facts

• Every person you meet has passed the selfie age check. Users aged 13 to 17 are matched only with other teens; adults (18 and over) only with adults.
• The person you meet never sees your IP address: audio and video are relayed through Lumi's own servers.
• Lumi does not record your conversations. Automated screening on Lumi's own servers may sample camera frames and check text to catch abuse; what gets flagged is kept as evidence for 90 days and reviewed by a person, the rest is discarded.
• Skip or leave at any time. Report is one tap, and a person reads every report. Bans stick to the device and the connection, and a ban is never lifted for money.
• No account, no ads, no trackers, no data sale, and no third-party vendors.

What Lumi is not

Lumi is not therapy and not a social-skills course. It is practice with real people, which is the part a course cannot give you.

What the research says

In a 2022 study, people who were asked to talk to at least one stranger a day for a week became less afraid of being rejected and more confident that they could start a conversation (Sandstrom, Boothby, and Cooney 2022). Commuters told to talk to a stranger enjoyed their trip more than those told to keep to themselves, and had predicted the reverse (Epley and Schroeder 2014). People also consistently underestimate how much a new conversation partner liked them, the "liking gap" (Boothby, Cooney, Sandstrom, and Clark 2018).

Sources: Sandstrom, Boothby, and Cooney, 2022; Epley and Schroeder, 2014; Boothby, Cooney, Sandstrom, and Clark, 2018.

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