👋 Howdy - Real Time Chat Application 🚀

Welcome to the Howdy repository! Howdy is a real-time chat application built on React, Chakra UI, and Node.js. This application allows users to engage in one-to-one as well as group chats and also supports notification features to keep users informed of new messages. 🎉

This project is deployed and live at https://howdy-there.onrender.com/. 🚀

Features

• One-to-One Chat: Users can initiate one-to-one conversations with other registered users. Messages are delivered in real-time, providing a seamless chatting experience. 💬
• Group Chat: Howdy supports group chats, allowing users to create or join existing groups to chat with multiple participants simultaneously. 🗣️
• Real-Time Communication: The application utilizes WebSockets to enable real-time communication between users, ensuring instant message delivery. ⚡
• Notification Feature: Users receive notifications for new messages, ensuring they stay up-to-date with ongoing conversations. 📬
• Emoji Keyboard: Users can now use an emoji keyboard to express themselves better in chats. 😄🎉
• Reply to Messages: Users can reply to specific messages, improving the context of conversations. ↩️
• Audio Messages: Users can send audio messages to their contacts. 🎵🎤
• Image Messages: Users can send image messages to their contacts. 📷🖼️

Installation

To set up the Howdy application, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository to your local machine:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/Howdy.git

2. Change to the project directory:

cd Howdy

3. Install the dependencies for the React frontend:

cd client
npm install

4. Install the dependencies for the Node.js backend:

cd ../server
npm install

5. Configure the backend settings:
• Rename the .env.example file in the server directory to .env.
• Update the .env file with your preferred configurations, such as database settings and WebSocket settings.
6. Start the frontend and backend servers:

# In the client directory:
npm start
In the server directory:

npm start

7. Access the application in your web browser at http://localhost:3000.

Technologies Used

• React: A popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces. ⚛️
• Chakra UI: A simple and accessible component library for React. 🎨
• Node.js: A server-side JavaScript runtime environment. 🖥️
• WebSocket: Enables real-time communication between the server and clients. ⚡

Contributing

We welcome contributions to Howdy! If you find any bugs, have feature requests, or want to improve the code, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request. Please follow the guidelines provided in the CONTRIBUTING.md file. 🙌

License

Howdy is open-source software licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more information. 📄

Acknowledgments

We would like to extend our gratitude to the developers of the libraries and frameworks used in this project. Without their efforts, this application would not have been possible. 🙏

Happy chatting with Howdy! 🎉👋

Features coming soon..

• Video Calling 📹
• Friend Request 🤝
• User Profile 🧑‍🤝‍🧑
• Posts with like feature ❤️
• Timeline 📅
• Comment Section in post 💬
• Dark Theme 🌙