A real-time communication product built before hosted chat APIs were the default choice.
Problem / Context
A business needed low-latency browser-to-browser communication with presence, before hosted chat APIs existed, so the media path and signalling had to be built directly on WebRTC.
What it does
- Browser-to-browser real-time chat with presence indicators
- WebRTC media path for peer-to-peer audio/video and data channels
- Socket.IO signalling and presence broadcast
- Conversation history and user state persisted to MongoDB
Engineering notes
WebRTC handled the media path while Socket.IO carried signalling and presence; a Node.js backend on Express persisted conversation history and user state to MongoDB. Built as a junior-developer engagement at Alchemy Software Limited.
Outcome / Value
A working real-time chat product demonstrating WebRTC + Socket.IO signalling — a useful reference for custom real-time features without third-party chat SaaS.
Screens
