📢New update, new pricing (annually 2.5$/mo, monthly $5/mo) and the future
Added 2025-04-03 12:40:38 +0000 UTCHi everyone,
We're excited to reveal that a huge new update was released silently last Friday! This update took over 150 hours to complete and paves the way for both new and old features to come very soon. It also introduces a refreshed unified UI, enhanced monitoring capabilities, and a rock-solid core.
There is also a new way to support Videochat Extension! You can now choose to pay for your Patreon membership on an annual basis. Here’s what that means for you:
Annual subscribers get SIX months free—that’s a 50% discount compared to our monthly plan.
The 'Browser Mode' monthly tier increases from $2 to $5.
If you pay annually, that's still just $2.5/mo.
Old members renewals will stay at $2 for the next 31 days.
By the time the new price applies to existing members, most new Omegle-focused features will likely be live.
NOTE: $2/mo was a temporary 50% discount while the annual option was unavailable for us to enable.
Browser Mode (legacy) tier stays the same.
If you are still on the legacy $4/mo plan, your price will never change.
How to switch to annual?
If you are serious about supporting Videochat Extension, annual membership is the way to go. It saves you a lot of money and reduces processing fees a lot.
For existing members, the following steps will help you switch over your membership to annual.
Log in, hover over your profile icon in the top right corner, and select Manage memberships
From your Active Memberships page, click Edit next to the membership you want to change
Select the Annual option (if available) on the checkout page
Click the Update button. You’ll be charged upfront for the discounted price.
New members, visit the join page, where you’ll have an annual option below your chosen tier’s “Join” button.
Why are we making this change?
The $2 per month price isn't sustainable due to high processing fees on small pledges.
It was meant as a temporary discount while we waited for Patreon to grant us access to the annual option, and now that we're here, the price is changing.
If you're serious about using the extension long-term, consider switching to the annual plan—you’re unlikely to notice the pricing change that way.
The $2 plan was also intended to attract users from countries with lower wages, but it turns out such users prefer not to pay at all. But still, paying annually will be just $2.5 per month.
The only change from the originally planned $4 price is that we're now using $5 as the monthly price on Patreon. This is what Patreon recommends and it's likely more future-proof given the current global situation.
What is the project status?
The product is in much better shape now. Since the original extension was terminated 4 months ago, we've invested over 450 hours in developing and testing the new extension and working on related projects.
The recent release finally resolved the critical core challenges, paving the way for new features in the future. Most of them are already built, just need integrating and polishing.
Last Friday, we silently released an update with over 150 hours worth of changes. Changelog for this huge update is a huge task on its own and will be coming later.
The recent update brings a new unified UI bringing numerous improvements for monitoring video calls, a stable core functionality, and a platform for further features, effectively removing key blockers to merging Omegle-focused things like autoskip automation, arrow hotkeys, gender recognition, video recording, and local databases for notes and connection history.
And yes, since the latest update, Browser Mode and Website Mode are fully compatible and share the same codebase. This means you will be able to leverage all features for free on neutral Omegle alternatives or any webrtc-based sites.
Many of the new/old features already exist in prototype form, but they still need additional polishing and integration. By the time pricing changes affect active members, most of these Omegle-related features will likely be live, so the product's overall value will increase.
The automation-related issues were basically solved over a month ago with a better implementation than the one demonstrated above. However, it could not be integrated until now because of the blocking UI-related core issues, which were finally resolved in the recent update.
It will function as a separate Windows-only AutoHotkey-based application that requires one-time manual start for chrome to recognize it, after which it will automatically launch every time you start the extension. You will also be able to use this program without the extension if you only want to automate your skips using the arrow keys.
Automation will initially be used for the blacklist functionality, which depends on a functional local database. The database already works in prototype form and only needs to be integrated.
Automation/blacklist expected to be released in April 2025.
Gender filter depends on the monitoring, automation, blacklist, and video recorder features, but it should not be too hard to implement once all the other parts are in place. The only unknown factor right now is whether our video recorder can work safely on blacklisted sites.
Why not keep the price the same?
Without changes in pricing, all this work ends up being like earning below minimum wage.
When easier ways to earn money exist, it's very challenging to stay motivated to work on a tough project that delivers lower reward.
If you're serious about using the extension long-term, consider switching to the annual plan—you’re unlikely to notice the pricing change that way.
The old pricing policy was temporary, unfair to the OG patrons who still pay $4/mo and wasn't sufficient to cover the intense workload, especially when many hours are spent overcoming technical challenges and learning new skills.
We are working on improving this balance so that I (the one who codes) can dedicate more time and ultimately create more value for both the product and you, the user.
When one-time payment?
We're currently using Patreon to fund the early development of the Videochat Extension as it's the most easy method right now. While a one-time payment option might generate more short-term revenue and avoid fees to intermediaries, it's MUCH MORE complex to implement it the right way and may not be worth the effort given the fact that this product is very niche.
When niche FOSS projects suddenly get killed, they can't just be relaunched as paid fully-featured products overnight. What once took an hour to develop now takes a day. It is a very challenging project to rebuild from scratch, and many potential buyers for such a product have already moved on with their lives.
The product is only 20–30% complete (counting things that are mostly done but not merged in the store version yet) and further development is time consuming. Offering early access licenses now—even at a discount—would not provide sufficient motivation to finish the product; much like early access games on Steam.
Full product readiness will better justify a paid one-time model, but the closest thing to a lifetime license we can offer now is an annual membership with a maximum possible discount. It was not an option before (Patreon has its own requirements), but now it is.
If you're an active member, you can switch to annual here. As a reminder, you'll save 50%. And it will significantly reduce the amount of processing fees.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
-qrlk
