Chitchatter is a free (as in both price and freedom) communication tool. Designed to be the simplest way to connect with others privately and securely, it is:
- There is no API server. All that's required for Chitchatter to function is availability of GitHub for static assets, and public WebTorrent and STUN/TURN relay servers for establishing peer-to-peer communication.
Chitchatter uses [Vite](https://vitejs.dev/). The secure networking and streaming magic would not be possible without [Trystero](https://github.com/dmotz/trystero). File transfer functionality is powered by [`secure-file-transfer`](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/secure-file-transfer).
- **⚠️ Chitchatter currently DOES NOT have a TURN server available to enable reliable peer connections. The project needs your help! Please see [#112](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/issues/112#issuecomment-2136285630) for more info.**
Open https://chitchatter.im/ and join a room to start chatting with anyone else who is in the room. By default, room names are random [UUID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier)s that are generated client-side. To privately communicate with someone, it is recommended to join one of these randomly-generated rooms and share the URL (via the "🔗" button at the top of the page) to whomever you wish to communicate with via a secure medium of your choosing (such as [Burner Note](https://burnernote.com/) or [Yopass](https://yopass.se/)). Your user name will be presented to you, and it would be good to share that with who you will be chatting with beforehand so they know they're talking to you.
- Chitchatter is an entirely client-side communication app. It uses public WebTorrent servers to establish peer connections and STUN/TURN relay servers when direct peer-to-peer connections cannot be established, but there is no Chitchatter API server.
- This is a community-driven and unfunded project that makes no money. The users come first and there is no corporate influence or financial interest involved.
There is no shortage of user-friendly chat apps available, but they rely on a central service to facilitate communication. It is difficult to trust these central services, as commercial interests and [government pressure](https://www.npr.org/2022/08/12/1117092169/nebraska-cops-used-facebook-messages-to-investigate-an-alleged-illegal-abortion) can compel service operators to work against the best interest of the users. Even when user data is handled in good faith by service operators, the possibility remains that [encrypted data held at rest may be decrypted](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-may-have-found-way-to-unlock-san-bernardino-shooters-iphone/) against the user's will.
Chitchatter designs around these risks with a [web meshe architecture](https://dev.to/jeremyckahn/taking-the-power-back-with-web-meshes-omg). There is no central service operator that stores or potentially mishandles communication data. Some services are required to establish an initial connection between peers, but otherwise the app uses direct peer-to-peer communication for everything. Any services that are used by Chitchatter have no association with the project and are publicly available for all to use.
I consider Chitchatter feature-complete inasmuch it does all the things I personally need it to do. I don't have specific plans to add significant functionality in the future, but I may do so if it seems fun to me at the time. **I am committed to fixing any significant bugs** that are reported, so please [open an issue](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/issues/new) if you discover one! Aside from that, Chitchatter is effectively in maintenance mode for the foreseeable future.
If you would like a feature to be implemented and are willing to pay a development cost to ensure it gets done, please file a GitHub issue describing the feature and indicate that you are willing to compensate for the work. If you are not willing to pay, please open a GitHub issue regardless. I may implement it if it seems fun to do so, but other members of the community may also step up to implement it via Pull Requests.
I will always make time support Pull Requests from others. If you're willing to put in the work to improve Chitchatter, I am willing to help shepherd that work along and get it shipped.
If you don't agree with the direction of the project, you are welcome to fork Chitchatter and take it in another one.
### 🏗️ Support and custom development
I'm willing to do paid installations and customizations of Chitchatter for your needs. If you'd like to contract me to make a version of Chitchatter that is custom built for you, please email me at jeremyckahn@gmail.com and let me know what you have in mind to get started.
The core of Chitchatter's security model is the fact that it is fully open source. You are free (and encouraged) to fully audit the project source code and infrastructure. Not only is the source code available under the terms of the [GPL](./LICENSE), but [all build logs are publicly accessible](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/actions/workflows/pages/pages-build-deployment) as well.
If you would like to verify that the app hosted at https://chitchatter.im/ is the one that is hosted on GitHub, you can use `dig`:
chitchatter.im. 231 IN CNAME jeremyckahn.github.io.
jeremyckahn.github.io. 231 IN A 185.199.111.153
jeremyckahn.github.io. 231 IN A 185.199.110.153
jeremyckahn.github.io. 231 IN A 185.199.109.153
jeremyckahn.github.io. 231 IN A 185.199.108.153
```
To examine the static assets that are served to end users, you can audit the [`gh-pages` branch](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/tree/gh-pages).
You can use the official Chitchatter SDK to embed the app as a [Web Component](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_components) called `<chat-room />`.
> Presently Chitchatter can only be developed on \*NIX systems such as Linux and macOS. If you are using Windows, you can use [WSL](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install) to set up a Linux environment.
To make changes to Chitchatter, clone the source code from GitHub. Ensure you have [Node and NPM](https://nodejs.org) installed. Then in the project directory, run:
Runs the front end app in the development mode. Uses public WebTorrent trackers. Open [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000) to view it in your browser.
Chitchatter is designed to be forked and self-hosted. If you would like to change pairing or relay server configuration or you prefer to control your own builds and versions, [fork this repo](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/fork) and follow the steps below.
> Chitchatter peer connections are bound to the instance's domain. So, a user of Chitchatter at https://chitchatter.im/ would not be able to connect to a user of a Chitchatter instance on another domain (such as a personal GitHub Pages-hosted fork).
1. Change the [`homepage` property in `package.json`](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/blob/1ea67e2c3a45115e054ebfe3457f2c3572c6213b/package.json#L4) to whatever URL your Chitchatter instance will be hosted from. This will be something like `https://github_user_or_org_name.github.io/chitchatter/`.
2. Define a [`DEPLOY_KEY` GitHub Action secret](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/blob/e2bac732cf1288f7b5d0bec151098f18e8b1d0d6/.github/workflows/deploy.yml#L28-L31) (at `https://github.com/github_user_or_org_name/chitchatter/settings/secrets/actions`). See the docs for [`peaceiris/actions-gh-pages`](https://github.com/peaceiris/actions-gh-pages#%EF%B8%8F-set-ssh-private-key-deploy_key) for more information.
3. If you're using GitHub Pages [without a custom domain](https://github.com/sitek94/vite-deploy-demo?tab=readme-ov-file#fix-assets-links), you'll need to define the repo name as the `base` property [in `vite.config.ts`](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/blob/df6d10868e12ad13036a44f959796f4da35adc28/vite.config.ts#L35-L38). Here's an example of how that might look:
When hosted on GitHub Pages and the configuration above has been done, the Production environment is updated when the remote `main` branch is updated (once GitHub Actions are enabled).
Build the app with `npm run build`, and then serve the `dist` directory. Any static file serving solution should work provided it is using a [secure context](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Secure_Contexts).
If you run into any issues with a custom Chitchatter installation, first ensure that you are using [the latest version of the code](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/tree/main). If you are hosting your installation with GitHub Pages, sync your `main` branch and _not_ your `gh-pages` branch. Updating your `main` branch will trigger a proper rebuild of your `gh-pages` branch.
This could happen for a variety of reasons. The most likely of which is that one or more peers cannot connect directly and must use the configured STUN/TURN relay as a fallback. The standard relay is free and does not guarantee any level of service, so it may simply be unavailable for some time (or just not work at all for some users). There's not much to do other than wait until it becomes available again, or possibly try from another device or location.
##### Issues specific to browsers with ad blocking extensions
Some ad blockers (such as uBlock Origin) prevent connections to certain WebTorrent servers. This prevents Chitchatter peers from connecting. To work around this, you can either disable your ad blocker or [self-host your own Chitchatter instance](#self-hosting).
Chitchatter works on iOS Safari, but browser-level bugs often prevent peers from rejoining the room when the browser is closed and later reopened (for instance, when switching applications). The suggested workaround for this issue is to refresh the page to rejoin the room.
Per [#36](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/issues/36), check your `about:config` settings and ensure that `media.peerconnection.enabled` is **enabled**.
Chitchatter uses [StreamSaver.js](https://github.com/jimmywarting/StreamSaver.js) to facilitate large file transfers. Download managers such as [FDM](https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/) are [known to interfere with StreamSaver.js](https://github.com/jimmywarting/StreamSaver.js/issues/325), so it is recommended to disable such download managers when trying to receive files.
Chitchatter undergoes [weekly security audits](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/blob/develop/.github/workflows/security.yml) to identify and address potential vulnerabilities. Reports from all audits can be found in [**Issues**](https://github.com/jeremyckahn/chitchatter/issues?q=%22Security+Report+-+%22).
By using Chitchatter, you agree to accept **full responsibility** for your actions related to its use. Additionally, you agree **not** to hold any contributors to the Chitchatter project responsible for any result of your use of it. The developers of Chitchatter do not endorse illegal activity.
