North America
Video Chat with People from the United States
Ask someone from the United States where they're from and you could hear about a walk-up in Brooklyn, a suburb outside Houston, a ranch town in Montana or a beach neighborhood in San Diego. English is the everyday language, Spanish is widely spoken too, especially in places like Miami, Texas and Los Angeles, and accents shift a lot between Boston, Chicago and the Deep South.
The mainland spans four time zones, Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific, plus separate ones for Alaska and Hawaii, so 9 PM in New York is still 6 PM in Los Angeles. For most of Europe, American evenings start after midnight; across East Asia they arrive the next morning. Conversation flows easily around sports (football Sundays, the NBA, baseball), regional food rivalries over barbecue or pizza, road trips and national parks like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, and whatever show everyone is watching. To meet only Americans, pick the United States in the country filter; if you're curious about the neighbors to the south, try Mexico too.
The United States at a glance
| Flag | 🇺🇸 |
|---|---|
| Official name | United States of America |
| Capital | Washington D.C. |
| Region | Americas · North America |
| Official language | English |
| Currency | United States dollar ($, USD) |
| Calling code | +1 |
| Time zones | Eastern Time (America/New_York); Central Time (America/Chicago); Mountain Time (America/Denver); Pacific Time (America/Los_Angeles) |
How to say hello
A friendly local greeting makes a great first impression.
| Language | Phrase | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Hey, how's it going? | hay, howz it GO-ing | Hi, how are you? (casual) |
| English | What's up? | wuts UP | Hi! What's new? ('Not much, you?' is a fine reply) |
| English (South) | Howdy! | HOW-dee | Hi! (heard especially in Texas and the South) |
| Spanish | ¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? | OH-lah, KOH-moh ehs-TAHS | Hi! How are you? |
Tips for chatting with people from the United States
- 'How are you?' is often part of the hello rather than a real question; 'Good, you?' is a perfectly normal answer.
- Ask which state and city they're in. It tells you their time zone and opens up regional topics like weather, food and local sports teams.
- 'So, what do you do?' tends to come up early, so have a one-line answer about your work, studies or hobbies ready to keep things moving.
- Dates are written month first (10/20 means October 20) and temperatures are in Fahrenheit, so if a number sounds strange, that's probably why.
- Still learning English? Our list of everyday English phrases for conversation covers the lines you'll hear most.
Only meet people from the United States
Omlet matches you Worldwide by default. To meet only people from the United States, use the country filter, the only filter Omlet has:
- Open Omlet and press Country on the control panel.
- Search for United States and select it.
- Press Start. Press Next to meet someone else from the United States, or switch back to Worldwide any time.
Your first day is free: you add a card through Stripe to start it, and nothing is charged that day. When the 24 hours end, the country filter costs $3 one time, charged to that card, unless you cancel before then in Settings (if you cancel, you can still pick a country until the day ends). It's not a subscription, and it stays unlocked on that device and browser. It doesn't carry over to other devices or browsers, and clearing your browser data removes it. There's one free day per device, home network and card. Payment goes through Stripe, so Omlet never sees your card number.
The filter works both ways, and matching can be slower when fewer people from the United States are online. Chatting itself is free, and Worldwide matching never costs anything.
Your own country is detected automatically and shown to the people you meet as a flag.
Neighboring countries
The United States borders 2 countries. Curious about the people next door? Meet them too: