50+ Features

Everything you need in a messaging platform

Seven message types, real-time presence, typing indicators, reactions, replies, group chats, AI assistant, embeddable widget — matching the feature sets of WhatsApp, Slack, and iMessage in a single platform.

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Messaging

Seven Message Types

Text, voice, images, video, files, link previews, and syntax-highlighted code blocks — every format your team needs.

Text Messages

Instant delivery with read receipts, date separators, and message grouping. Under 100ms end-to-end.

Voice Messages

Record voice notes with waveform visualisation, playback controls, and “listened” receipts.

Image Sharing

Inline previews with fullscreen lightbox. Server-side Sharp processing generates thumbnail, medium, and full-res variants.

Video Sharing

Inline video player with thumbnail, duration badge, and standard playback controls.

File Attachments

PDFs, Word, Excel, ZIP — up to 50 MB. Type-specific icons, file name, size, and one-tap download.

Link Previews

URLs auto-fetched for Open Graph metadata — title, description, image, and favicon rendered as rich cards.

Code Blocks

Syntax highlighting for 40+ languages with automatic detection and a copy button.

Real-Time

Real-Time Awareness

Users always know who is online, who is typing, and who has read their message — instant feedback at every level.

Typing Indicators

Animated “typing…” with bouncing dots — visible in both the chat and the conversation list.

Ghost Typing

See every character the other person types in real time, letter by letter. No mainstream app offers this.

Read Receipts

Three states — sending (clock), delivered (tick), read (blue double tick). Voice messages add a “listened” state.

Online Presence

Green (online), amber (away), grey (offline) dots on every avatar. “Last seen” for offline contacts.

Recording Indicator

When someone is recording a voice note, the other participant sees a live “recording…” indicator.

Smart Summaries

AI-generated one-line summaries replace the last message on the conversation list. Scan every thread at a glance.

Interactions

Message Interactions

React, reply, edit, unsend — every message is interactive. Full emoji picker, offline queue, and edit history.

Reactions

Tap-and-hold to add emoji badges below any message. Multiple reactions per message from different users.

Replies

Swipe right or use the context menu to reply. Quoted preview with sender, content type, and truncated text.

Edit Messages

Edit any sent message with up-arrow shortcut. “(edited)” label shown. Full edit history stored for audit.

Unsend Messages

Delete for everyone — message replaced with a “deleted” placeholder, equivalent to WhatsApp’s “Delete for Everyone”.

Emoji Picker

Full emoji picker with category tabs, search, and a recently-used section.

Offline Support

Messages sent offline are queued locally and delivered automatically when the connection restores. IndexedDB cache.

All of this — free & open source

Chatr delivers all of this out of the box — MIT-licensed, no per-seat fees, no vendor lock-in. Clone the repo and deploy on your own infrastructure.

Get the Source Documentation

Social

Groups & Social

Full-featured group chats with role management (Owner, Admin, Member), invite controls, and a social layer. Create groups with names, avatars, cover images, and descriptions. All seven message types are supported inside groups.

Friends & Blocking— Send friend requests via search. Accepted contacts show a “Friend” badge. Blocked users cannot search for you, message you, view your profile, or see your online status.

Invitations — Owners and Admins invite new members via search. Pending invitations appear as a badge on the Groups tab.

Artificial Intelligence

AI Chatbot & Smart Summaries

Luna is an AI assistant powered by GPT-4o-mini that appears as a regular contact. No special interface, no learning curve — just send a message and get an intelligent response.

Luna AI Chatbot

Ask questions, get code help, brainstorm ideas, or just chat. Luna maintains conversation context and responds with typing indicators like a real contact.

Streaming Responses

Responses stream token-by-token in real time. You see Luna “typing” and then watch the response build, exactly like iMessage or ChatGPT.

Conversation Summaries

AI-generated one-line summaries replace the last message on the conversation list. Scan every thread at a glance without opening them.

Personalisation

Profile, Settings & Privacy

Every user gets a full profile system, granular privacy controls, and customisable notification preferences. No “one size fits all”.

Rich Profiles

Display name, bio, avatar, and cover image. Profile cards show friend status, online indicator, and mutual groups.

Granular Privacy

Control visibility of online status, last seen, profile photo, read receipts, and typing indicators — each on a per-field toggle.

Notification Preferences

Per-conversation muting, sound toggles, and notification grouping. Desktop push notifications for mentions and DMs.

Design

Design & Themes

Dark and light themes with a single-tap toggle. No reload, no flicker. Deep navy dark theme optimised for OLED screens.

Security

Enterprise-Grade Authentication

Four authentication methods, per-field privacy controls, and server-side enforcement at every layer. Built for compliance-sensitive environments.

Email Verification

Transactional emails via Mailtrap with branded HTML templates for verification, password reset, and welcome flows.

SMS Verification

SMS code delivery via The SMS Works API. 6-digit codes with expiry, rate limiting, and retry protection.

TOTP Two-Factor Auth

Time-based one-time passwords with QR code setup, backup codes, and authenticator app support (Google Authenticator, Authy).

Password Recovery

Secure token-based reset flow with email delivery, expiry, and single-use enforcement.

Rate Limiting

Redis-backed rate limiting on login, registration, and API endpoints. Prevents brute-force and abuse.

Privacy Controls

Per-field visibility (online status, last seen, profile, read receipts). Users control exactly what others can see.

For Developers

Built to extend, not just use

Clean architecture, strict TypeScript, comprehensive tests, and documented APIs. Whether you’re integrating, customising, or learning — the codebase is designed to be readable.

88 REST Endpoints

Full API with Swagger documentation. Authentication, messaging, groups, files, contacts, settings — all via standard REST.

85+ WebSocket Events

Real-time event system for messages, typing, presence, reactions, and more. Redis adapter for horizontal scaling.

Prisma ORM

Type-safe database access with auto-generated types, migrations, and 9 well-defined models. No raw SQL.

Full-stack TypeScript: Frontend (Next.js 16 + React 19), backend (Node.js + Express), widget (vanilla JS), and all tooling — every file is strict TypeScript with zero implicit any.

Observability

Real-Time Analytics Dashboard

A custom-built project intelligence dashboard with live metrics, code health gauges, commit analysis, security audit, and an embedded test runner. Not a third-party tool — built into Chatr and auto-refreshing every 30 seconds.

Code Health Gauges

Live dials showing test coverage, linter health, dependency freshness, and build stability. Green/amber/red at a glance.

Commit Intelligence

Every commit tracked with type breakdown (feat/fix/chore), velocity charts, and auto-generated changelogs.

Embedded Test Runner

Run all 3,000+ tests directly from the dashboard. Live streaming results with pass/fail counts and timing.

Security Audit Panel

Dependency vulnerability scanning, audit results, and security posture overview — all visible in one panel.

17+ Live Metrics

Lines of code, file counts, test counts, endpoint counts, socket events, components, dependencies, and more.

Documentation Viewer

Built-in Markdown documentation with Mermaid diagrams, syntax highlighting, and searchable API reference.

View Live Dashboard

Administration

Admin & Contact Management

A built-in admin panel for support users to review, manage, and respond to widget chat contacts — no external CRM required.

Widget Contact Inbox

Every visitor who chats via the embeddable widget appears as a contact with name, email, message count, and first message preview.

Conversation History

Click any contact to view the full message thread — guest messages on the left, agent replies on the right, with timestamps.

Resizable Split Panel

Contact list and message viewer side by side with a drag-to-resize divider. Uses the full viewport width on desktop.

Role-Based Access

Only users with the support flag can access the admin panel. The link appears in the burger menu and all endpoints enforce the check.

Reply to Visitors

Agents reply to widget guests directly from the admin panel. Messages arrive in the visitor's widget in real time via WebSocket.

Visitor Context

See the page URL, referrer, browser, screen size, timezone, and language for every visitor automatically captured by the widget.

Ready to see more?

Try the embeddable support widget or explore the full product overview with architecture details, screenshots, and commercial analysis.

Explore the Widget View on GitHub Full Product Overview