Our Story

Built for real conversations

TempTalk started as a personal project to understand real-time web — and turned into a full-featured chat application that actually feels good to use.

The Why

Why build another chat app?

Most chat tutorials stop at "messages appear on screen." TempTalk went further — typing indicators, smart scroll UX, unread tracking, private rooms, PWA support. The kind of details that separate a project from a product.

Built solo by Nikhil Kumar — a full-stack developer who believes the best way to learn is to ship something real.

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< 50ms

Message latency

🎁

100%

Free forever

📱

PWA

Installable app

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2 Rooms

Public + Private

How it was built

The build journey

The Idea

Wanted to build something real-time from scratch — no tutorials, just learning by doing.

Socket.IO Deep Dive

Spent time understanding WebSockets, rooms, events, and connection lifecycle.

Building the UI

Designed a dark, modern chat interface inspired by the best messaging apps.

Smart UX Details

Added typing indicators, smart scroll, unread tracking — the details that make it feel real.

Private Rooms

Architected an ephemeral room system — create, share a key, chat, gone when empty.

PWA + Auth

Added Clerk auth and PWA support so it installs like a native app on mobile.

Under the hood

Tech stack

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Next.js 15

App Router, SSR, file-based routing

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Socket.IO

WebSocket server & client for realtime events

🎨

Tailwind CSS

Utility-first styling, mobile-first layout

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Clerk

Google & GitHub OAuth, session management

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Node.js + Express

Backend HTTP + WebSocket server

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Vercel + Railway

Frontend & backend deployment