Synthetic video calls: how to spot a fake face
By Honne Trust & Safety · reviewed by Honne Safety Reviewer · 2026-06-21
Deepfakes have reached dating video calls. They're convincing — but still beatable with a few live tests.
Ask them to turn their head fully sideways, or pass a hand in front of their face. Real-time fakes still warp at the edges and struggle with occlusion.
Watch the eyes and blinking — unnatural rhythm, mismatched reflections, or lag between speech and lips are tells.
Request a spontaneous action: 'wave with your left hand', 'hold up three fingers'. Pre-rendered or puppeteered fakes hesitate.
On Honne, identity verification and liveness checks happen before contact in gated flows, which reduces anonymity without replacing your own call judgment.