free4chat Roadmap: Embracing Jodel-like Anonymous Room Chat

[madawei2699]

free4chat Roadmap: Embracing Jodel-like Anonymous Room Chat

Project Goal: To transform free4chat into a minimalist, room-based anonymous chat platform, inspired by Jodel's core functionalities, while maintaining a focus on privacy and ease of use. Location-Based Services (LBS) will be intentionally omitted in the initial phases to prioritize core anonymity and simplify development.

Core Principles:

• Anonymity First: User privacy and anonymity are paramount. No personal information collection or tracking.
• Room-Based Community: Rooms are the central organizing unit, replacing location-based channels.
• Simplicity & Ease of Use: Keep features minimal and user interface intuitive for rapid adoption and development.
• Open Source & Community Driven: Encourage community contributions and feedback to shape the project's evolution.

Roadmap Phases:

Phase 1: MVP - Core Room-Based Anonymous Chat (Focus: Web Platform)

• Objective: Establish a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that delivers the fundamental Jodel-like anonymous room chat experience on the web, leveraging existing free4chat WebRTC infrastructure.

• Features to Implement (Based on existing TODOs):

  • Room Management:
    • [x] Public Room Listing: Implement a simple interface to list available public rooms. (Based on "Public rooms discovery, like hot room list or filter rooms by type/tag" TODO)
    • [x] Room Creation: Allow users to create public rooms with a user-defined name/topic.
    • [x] Room Joining: Enable users to anonymously join public rooms.
  • Anonymous Room Chat:
    • [x] Anonymous Text Chat in Room: Utilize existing text chat functionality within rooms, ensuring anonymity.
    • [x] Anonymous Voice Chat in Room: Utilize existing voice chat functionality within rooms, ensuring anonymity.
    • [x] Emoji Support in Text Chat: Retain emoji support in text chat for richer communication.
    • [ ] Persist text messages to browser localStorage (Optional for MVP): Consider adding local storage persistence for text messages if time allows, but not critical for MVP.
  • Basic Room Interaction:
    • [x] Send Text/Emoji Messages: Ensure users can send text and emoji messages within rooms.
    • [x] Voice Communication: Ensure users can engage in voice chat within rooms.

• Technical Tasks:

  • Frontend (React/Next.js):
    • Develop UI for room listing, creation, and joining.
    • Adapt existing chat UI to function within the room context.
  • Backend (Elixir/Phoenix):
    • Implement room management logic (creation, listing, joining).
    • Ensure seamless integration with existing WebRTC voice and text chat functionalities within the room context.
    • Refactor room discovery mechanism to be room-based instead of location-based.

• Deliverables for MVP:

  • Functional Web platform where users can:
    • View a list of public chat rooms.
    • Create new public chat rooms.
    • Join public chat rooms anonymously.
    • Engage in real-time text and voice chat within rooms anonymously.

Phase 2: Iteration & Refinement - Enhancing Room Experience (Focus: Web Platform)

• Objective: Improve the user experience within rooms and add essential features based on initial user feedback and community input.

• Features to Implement:

  • Room Features Enhancement:
    • [ ] Room permission setting, like public/private type setting: Implement private rooms with password protection for more controlled conversations. (Based on existing TODO)
      • Private rooms should not be listed publicly.
      • Password mechanism using End-to-End Encryption (as described in existing TODO) for enhanced security.
    • [ ] Room Topic/Tags: Allow room creators to add topics or tags to rooms for better categorization and discoverability.
    • [ ] User List in Room (Optional): Consider adding a simple user list within rooms (with anonymous identifiers) to show who is currently participating, if privacy considerations allow.
  • User Experience Improvements:
    • [ ] Persist text messages to browser localStorage (If not implemented in MVP): Implement local storage persistence for text messages to improve user experience.
    • [ ] Safari (WebKit) Compatibility: Improve compatibility with Safari and WebKit-based browsers. (Based on existing TODO)
  • Moderation & Community Tools (Basic):
    • [ ] Report/Flag Message (Basic): Implement a basic message reporting mechanism for users to flag inappropriate content.
    • [ ] Room Description/Rules (Optional): Allow room creators to add a description or basic rules for their room.

• Technical Tasks:

  • Frontend:
    • Implement UI for private room creation and password entry.
    • Develop UI for room topic/tag display and selection.
    • Enhance chat UI based on user feedback.
  • Backend:
    • Implement private room logic and password verification.
    • Add backend support for room topics/tags.
    • Implement basic moderation features (message reporting).

• Deliverables for Iteration Phase:

  • Enhanced Web platform with:
    • Private and public rooms.
    • Room topics/tags for better discovery.
    • Improved user experience based on initial feedback.
    • Basic moderation tools.

Phase 3: Future Exploration - Advanced Features & Extensibility (Web & Potential App)

• Objective: Explore more advanced features and functionalities, potentially including real-time collaboration, AI integration, and considering a future mobile app version, based on community interest and resources.

• Features to Explore (Based on existing TODOs & new ideas):

  • Advanced Communication Features:
    • [ ] Can send arbitrary data by WebRTC datachannel: Explore and potentially implement the ability to send arbitrary data via WebRTC data channels for future feature expansions.
  • Real-time Collaboration (Optional, Explore if Community Interested):
    • [ ] User real-time collaboration, like whiteboard: Investigate and potentially implement real-time collaboration features like a whiteboard, using CRDTs or other suitable technologies (as listed in existing TODOs).
  • AI Robot Integration (Optional, Explore if Community Interested):
    • [ ] AI Robot user, like game robot who can play or facilitate game: Explore the integration of AI robots for games or other interactive experiences within rooms (as listed in existing TODOs).
  • Security & Privacy Enhancements:
    • [ ] Security enhancement, like coturn TLS setup, end-to-end encryption, etc.: Implement security enhancements, including TURN TLS setup and exploring end-to-end encryption for all communication (as listed in existing TODOs).
    • [ ] Privacy enhancement: Continuously evaluate and implement privacy enhancements.
    • [ ] TURN enable TLS: Enable TLS for TURN servers for improved security (as listed in existing TODOs).
    • [ ] IPV6 support: Explore and implement IPV6 support (as listed in existing TODOs).
  • Mobile App (Future Consideration):
    • [ ] Explore feasibility of developing a mobile app (Android/iOS) based on the Web platform.

• Technical Tasks:

  • Research and Experimentation: Investigate CRDTs, AI integration, advanced security, and mobile app development frameworks.
  • Community Engagement: Gather community feedback on desired advanced features and prioritize based on interest and feasibility.
  • Iterative Development: Implement selected advanced features in iterative cycles, focusing on quality and user experience.

• Deliverables for Future Exploration Phase:

  • Potentially enhanced Web platform with advanced features (depending on community interest and feasibility).
  • Feasibility study and potentially a basic mobile app version (depending on resources and community interest).
  • A more robust and feature-rich anonymous room-based chat platform.

Key Considerations:

• Minimalism: Throughout all phases, maintain a focus on simplicity and avoid feature creep.
• Community Involvement: Actively engage with the open-source community for contributions, feedback, and collaborative development.
• Prioritization: Focus on completing MVP features first, then iterate based on user feedback and community priorities.
• Flexibility: This roadmap is a guide, be prepared to adapt and adjust based on technical challenges, community feedback, and evolving project goals.

[mickel8]

Hi @madawei2699, just saw your project, really nice job! 🎉

I saw you are using membrane_rtc_engine on your elixir dev branch. Is this currently "main" branch? Did you think about switching to Elixir WebRTC?

[madawei2699]

Hi @mickel8, I plan to switch to https://github.com/elixir-webrtc in the future when I have some free time. I'm looking forward to the datachannel feature, but it seems that elixir-webrtc is still planning this feature, right?

[mickel8]

Actually, we already support them ;)

[madawei2699]

Cool, I'll check it later and switch to it this year!