Real-time Chat

What you'll build

A chat room where messages appear instantly for all connected users, without needing to refresh the page. You'll implement real-time connections with Firebase Realtime Database, automatic message synchronization between clients, a "typing..." indicator, and automatic scroll to new messages. When finished, you'll have a functional chat that you can integrate into any application or use as a foundation for a more complex messaging system.

Options

Step 1: Ask an AI for the chat

I need a real-time chat with:
- Firebase Realtime Database
- Multiple users
- Messages with timestamp
- Auto scroll to new message
- "Typing..." indicator
- React + TypeScript

Give me the complete code.

Typical code (Firebase)

import { ref, push, onValue } from 'firebase/database'

// Send message
const sendMessage = (text: string) => {
  push(ref(db, 'messages'), {
    text,
    userId: user.uid,
    userName: user.displayName,
    timestamp: Date.now()
  })
}

// Listen to messages
useEffect(() => {
  const messagesRef = ref(db, 'messages')
  return onValue(messagesRef, (snapshot) => {
    const data = snapshot.val()
    setMessages(Object.values(data || {}))
  })
}, [])

Next step

→ S3 File Upload