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 🙏
Top comments (1)
good post!