BlinkChat is a production-ready, modern real-time chat application designed for speed, scalability, and great UX. It supports instant messaging using Socket.IO, secure authentication with JWT and Google OAuth, image sharing via Cloudinary, and a clean responsive UI with dark mode and animations.

This app is perfect if you’re building:

• A startup MVP
• A SaaS messaging system

Features

• Real-time messaging with Socket.IO
• Google OAuth + Email/Password login

Requirements

• MongoDB database

Install Dependencies

Frontend:

cd frontend
npm install

Backend:

cd server
npm install

 Setup Environment Variables

Create .env files in both:

Frontend (frontend/.env.local)

NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://localhost:5000
NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_google_client_id
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_name

Backend (server/.env)

PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_uri
JWT_SECRET=your_secret_key
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_google_client_id
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your_google_client_secret
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_secret
EMAIL_USER=your_email
EMAIL_PASS=your_email_password

 Start the App

Backend:

cd server
npm run dev

Frontend:

cd frontend
npm run dev

Open in browser: