Why your browser blocks the camera, and what to do about it
A video chat that never shows anyone is almost always a permission problem rather than a broken site. The confusing part is that the browser does not always tell you which of the three states you are in.
There are three states, and the middle one is the one people miss
A browser tracks camera access as granted, denied, or not-yet-asked. Most people assume it is a yes/no switch, so when nothing happens they conclude the site is broken.
Granted means we can open the camera immediately. Not-yet-asked means we explain why the camera is needed, then the browser shows its own permission box. Denied is the awkward one: once you have refused, the browser will not ask again, so there is nothing for us to trigger — the only way out is through your browser or system settings.
iPhone Safari genuinely behaves differently
Safari on iOS does not implement the browser API that lets a page check what your permission state currently is. On every other browser we can look it up; on iPhone we cannot, so the page treats it as not-yet-asked and goes ahead.
The practical effect: on iPhone you may see our explanation of why the camera is needed even in situations where another browser would have skipped straight past it. That is not a bug, it is the only behaviour available when the state cannot be read.
If you have already denied it
On iPhone, open Settings, find Safari, then Camera and Microphone, and set the site to Ask or Allow. On desktop Chrome, click the icon at the left edge of the address bar and reset the permission, then reload.
Reloading alone does not undo a denial. The setting has to change first, which is why "it still does not work" is such a common follow-up.
You do not have to use the camera at all
Video, voice and text are three separate matching queues. If you would rather not turn on a camera, start in voice or text instead and nobody is waiting to see you.
Whoever you match with chose the same queue, so nobody is put in front of a camera they did not plan to turn on.