The PandaLive app, without the app store

Yes, and you are on it. PandaLive on the web lives at pandalive.chat, and the site is the whole app: random matches by video, voice or text, the Live tab with its rooms, messages, follows and the coin wallet. Nothing is held back for a download, so the browser version is the complete one.

That surprises people who arrive from an app store search, because the Panda Live app they heard about came from a store listing. Here the same idea runs in Safari, Chrome or whatever browser you already use. Open the address once, pin it if you want an icon, and the next visit is a single tap. Not sure yet whether you want a stream or a conversation? How PandaLive works walks through each screen first.

On Apple devices there is nothing to fetch from the store. Owners of an iPhone or iPad who expected a PandaLive app for iOS get the same web app in Safari, and the steps below put its icon on the home screen.

There is no separate download for iPhone. Instead, Safari can save the site as a full-screen icon that sits next to your other apps. It takes three taps and works on any recent iOS version.

Android works through Chrome rather than a store, and the two-tap install, camera permissions and the question of downloaded files all have their own page: PandaLive on Android without an APK.

Yes, and a laptop or desktop is arguably the nicest way to do it. Open the site in a current browser, go to the Live tab in the video feed and join a room. The stream gets a big screen, the room chat is easy to follow, and you type replies on a real keyboard.

Desktop Chrome and Edge can also install the site as a window of its own from the icon at the right end of the address bar. That keeps PandaLive out of your pile of tabs: one window with a room playing, the rest of your work in the others. Close the window and the room is gone; reopen it from your dock or start menu and you are back on the site.

Watching never needs the camera. The first time you start a match with Video selected, or press Start Video Chat in a room, the browser asks for the camera and microphone; choose Allow. If you clicked Block by accident, click the small icon at the left of the address bar, switch Camera and Microphone back to Allow, and reload.

A laptop webcam sits higher than a phone held in your hand, so before your first call tilt the screen until your eyes sit near the top third of the picture, and put a lamp in front of you rather than a window behind you.

Everything the site offers is reachable from four screens, and none of it needs a download. Here is what you can do once PandaLive is open on your phone, tablet or computer, with a pointer to the page that covers each part in depth.

You open the current version every time, so there is no update screen, and the camera and microphone are only requested when a feature needs them. Some details depend on your browser rather than on PandaLive: certain phones put pinned sites in the app drawer while others keep them only on the home screen, so a friend’s phone may look slightly different from yours.

Once pinned, the icon behaves like any other. Press and hold it to move it into a folder, drag it to your dock, or remove it. Removing the icon does not delete an account and does not touch your coins; it only takes away the shortcut. To bring it back, open pandalive.chat in the same browser and add it again.

Sharing a tablet with someone? Each browser keeps its own session, so a second person can pin PandaLive in a different browser and keep their follows and messages separate from yours. On a shared laptop, a separate browser profile does the same job and saves either of you from signing the other out by accident.

Running out of home-screen space is no reason to skip the icon either. A pinned site is a shortcut plus some cached data, not a full install, which is why it fits on phones that are nearly full.

No. Open the app and you start as a guest straight away, with no form, email or password standing between you and the first match. You can watch rooms, browse the Online list and match by video, voice or text in that guest session. Making an account is optional and can come later.

When an account becomes worth it, and how to get back in on a second device, is covered on the PandaLive login page.

Most problems come down to the browser, not the site. Work through this list before anything else: