💬 Chatty — Real-Time Chat App with AI

Chatty is a modern, real-time one-on-one chat application powered by the MERN stack with Socket.IO for WebSocket-based communication and Gemini AI for assisting users in composing and editing messages. The platform offers a clean UI, theme customization, user profile management, and secure authentication.

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🚀 Features

• 🔁 Real-time messaging using Socket.IO
• 🤖 AI-assisted text composition and editing with Gemini AI
• 🟢 Online/offline user status detection
• 🔍 Filter/search for online users
• 🎨 Customizable UI themes (light/dark/cyberpunk, etc.)
• 👤 Profile page with editable avatar, email, and join date
• 🔐 Secure authentication with JWT and bcryptjs
• ☁️ Image upload via Cloudinary

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🧑‍💻 Tech Stack

Frontend

• React (with Vite)
• TailwindCSS & DaisyUI
• React Router, Zustand, Axios
• Socket.IO Client, Lucide-React

Backend

• Node.js, Express.js
• Google Gemini AI API
• MongoDB with Mongoose
• Socket.IO, JWT, bcryptjs
• Cloudinary for image hosting
• cookie-parser, cors, dotenv, nodemon

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📸 Screenshots

AI Chat	Real-Time Chat

Login Page

Profile Page	Settings Page

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⚙️ Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/apoorv654123/Chatty.git
cd Chatty

2. Backend Setup

cd server
npm install

• Create a .env file in /server and add:

  PORT=5000
  MONGODB_URI=your_mongo_uri
  JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
  CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
  CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key
  CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret
  

npm run dev

3. Frontend Setup

cd ../client
npm install
npm run dev

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🛡️ Security

• Passwords are hashed using bcryptjs
• Authentication handled via jsonwebtoken and secure HTTP-only cookies
• Sensitive data protected via environment variables (dotenv)

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📈 Future Scope

• ✅ Group chats
• ✅ Voice and video calls
• ✅ Emoji and file sharing
• ✅ Message reactions and notifications
• ✅ AI-powered summarization and auto-reply

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📄 License

MIT License. Feel free to fork, contribute, or suggest improvements.

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🙌 Acknowledgements

Thanks to:

• Google Gemini
• Cloudinary
• Socket.IO
• TailwindCSS
• DaisyUI

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💡 Final Thoughts

"Confidence comes from building. Clarity comes from shipping." Start small, keep building, and launch often. 🚀