Panda Live streams: watch someone live, then say hi

They sit in the Live tab of the video feed. Open the feed, tap Live in the row of tabs along the top, and you get one room per screen with a "Tap to join live room" prompt. The Who's online page also carries a pink LIVE banner that jumps straight there.

Most of the video feed is short clips people have posted; the Live tab in the video feed is the part where the person on screen is broadcasting. If nobody is on when you look, the tab says so and points you to the online list instead, which beats staring at a spinner.

Nothing needs installing for any of this. A Panda Live stream plays in the same browser tab as everything else on PandaLive, on a phone or a laptop (the PandaLive app page shows how to pin it to your home screen), and you can be watching within a few seconds of opening the page.

If a friend sent you a Panda Live video clip and you want more of the same, the clips in the feed are the place for short posts, and the Live tab is the place for whoever is on stream at that moment.

Four things: watch, type in the room chat, send a gift, or press Start Video Chat to ask the person for a private call. Your camera stays off the whole time you are in the room. Others can see that you arrived, because a short “has joined” line shows your name, but never your face.

The layout is the same in every room. The name of whoever's live sits top left with a small plus button to follow them; a viewer count and a close button sit top right, with a report icon just below. Messages scroll up from the bottom left, and the bottom row holds the chat button, the big Start Video Chat button and the gift box.

Swipe up or down and you move to the next room. That swipe is the closest thing to channel surfing here: a few seconds in each room tells you whether the conversation is lively, whether the person is chatting with the room or busy, and whether you want to stay.

The pink Start Video Chat button at the bottom of every room sends a call request to the person you have been watching. If they pick up, you leave the crowd and it is just the two of you, camera to camera.

This works differently from a random match. On the match screen chance picks who you meet; here you have already watched someone for a while, heard how they talk and maybe traded a few lines in the room chat, so the call starts halfway through a conversation instead of at hello.

A private call runs on the same rules as any other call on the site, coins included, and those rules live on the page about how matches and calls work. If the person is already on another call, the button turns grey and reads In a Call until they are free.

Gifts are small animated stickers you buy with coins and send into the room. A quick bar of them runs along the bottom with each price shown in coins, and the gift box at the bottom right opens the full set. When a gift lands, everyone watching sees it pop up on screen with your name on it.

Two extras sit on the side of most rooms. The wish card shows something the person on stream has asked for, like a coffee, with its price in coins; the wheel in the top corner is a small game people can spin. Both are optional, and both use coins. What coins cost, how top-ups work and what VIP adds is covered on the coins and gifts page, so this page will not repeat it.

No. On PandaLive the people who stream are a separate group, and your account has no broadcast button. You are the one who watches, chats, sends gifts and starts calls. That also means your camera can never be put into a live room: it only turns on when you start a 1-on-1 call or a random match.

Some people find that a relief. You can sit in a busy room on your lunch break with your camera off; the room sees your name in the join line and the viewer list, and nothing more unless you start typing.

Tap the plus next to the name at the top left of a room and you follow that person. From then on they show up under Following on the Who's online list, and their profile is a tap away whenever you want to send a message or start a call from the video button there.

Following is the only reliable way to find a particular room again, because the Live tab shows whoever is on right now, not a schedule. Two or three follows are plenty to start with: when one of them is broadcasting, you will spot them faster than by swiping through every room.

Pick a stream when you want to ease in: you can watch with your camera off, read the room and decide later whether to talk. Pick a random match when you want a conversation right away and do not mind that chance chooses the person. Nothing stops you doing both in one evening.

A rough rule: if you are tired, shy or just curious, start in the Live tab. If you are bored and chatty, go to the match screen. If you want something in between, the Who's online list lets you choose a person yourself.

Each room opens with the same pinned notice: no spam, no harassment, no personal info and no external links. Read it as the whole etiquette guide. Messages in the room are public, so never post your number, your address or anything you would not say to a crowd.

If someone in the chat crosses a line, the report icon near the top right of the room is the quickest route. The longer list of what is not allowed, and what to do when a chat goes wrong, is in the PandaLive safety rules.