DEV Community

Hari babu Thatikonda
Hari babu Thatikonda

Posted on

I built a simple anonymous 1-on-1 video chat app — just talk, no logins.

Hi folks 👋

I’ve always found small talk and real-time conversations a bit challenging - so I decided to turn that discomfort into something creative.

I built an anonymous 1-on-1 video chat app - no signups, no usernames, just a direct connection between two strangers.

🔗 Try it here

💻 Source code on GitHub


🛠️ Tech Stack:

  • Java 21 + Virtual Threads (for lightweight concurrency)
  • Spring Boot (backend server)
  • WebSockets (for signaling)
  • WebRTC (for peer-to-peer video streaming)
  • Render (for deployment)

💡 Why I Built It

  • To understand the actual handshake between browsers during a WebRTC connection.
  • To explore how virtual threads in Java 21 could scale real-time communication.
  • And honestly, to build something weirdly personal — something that felt a little like Omegle, but from scratch.

🧠 What I Learned

  • WebRTC is deceptively complex. STUN/TURN servers are essential once you're outside local networks.
  • Java virtual threads are amazing for handling lots of concurrent lightweight tasks — perfect for chat apps.
  • Signaling is half the battle — getting peers to connect securely and efficiently is a big chunk of the work.
  • Being introverted doesn’t mean you can’t build communication tools — it just means your version might be simpler, quieter, and intentional.

🚧 Things I Want to Improve

  • Better UI/UX (right now it’s very minimal).
  • Optional audio-only mode.
  • Mobile responsiveness and fallback logic.
  • Add basic moderation or CAPTCHA to prevent abuse.

If this sounds interesting to you, feel free to try it and let me know what you think — feedback, bugs, weird edge cases… all welcome!

Thanks for reading 🙏


Check it out →

🐙 GitHub Repo →

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
testfeed profile image
Testfeed

good post!