What is Private Chat?
Private Chat is a minimalist, privacy-focused messaging application that creates temporary chat rooms for secure conversations. Each room automatically self-destructs after 10 minutes, leaving no trace of your conversation.Quick start
Get your local development environment running in under 5 minutes
How it works
Understand rooms, self-destruction timers, and real-time messaging
Real-time messaging
WebSocket-powered instant message delivery with Upstash Realtime
Deploy to Vercel
Deploy your own instance to production in minutes
Core features
Zero persistence
Messages vanish after 10 minutes. No databases, no logs, no history.
No accounts
Generate anonymous usernames instantly. No registration required.
Instant rooms
Create sharable chat rooms with a single click. Share the URL to invite others.
Real-time sync
Messages appear instantly across all connected clients via WebSockets.
Self-destruct
Countdown timer shows time remaining. Destroy rooms manually anytime.
Cookie-based auth
Secure room access with token-based authentication.
Technology stack
Private Chat is built with modern web technologies:- Next.js 16 - React framework with App Router
- Upstash Redis - Serverless Redis for temporary data storage
- Upstash Realtime - WebSocket infrastructure for live updates
- Elysia - Fast, type-safe API routes
- TypeScript - End-to-end type safety
- TanStack Query - Data fetching and caching
- Tailwind CSS - Utility-first styling
Use cases
Private Chat is ideal for sensitive conversations that don’t need permanent records.
- Quick team sync - Share temporary updates without cluttering Slack
- Sensitive discussions - Discuss confidential topics with automatic cleanup
- Customer support - Help customers without storing conversation history
- Code sharing - Share snippets and logs that expire automatically
- Interview coordination - Share meeting links and notes temporarily
What’s next?
Run locally
Follow the quickstart guide to clone and run the project
Understand the architecture
Read how it works to learn about the core concepts
Configure your instance
Set up environment variables for your deployment
Deploy to production
Launch your instance on Vercel or your preferred platform