I’m building Hideout, a small web-based chat app inspired by Discord-style rooms, but stripped down to the minimum.
I started this project because I was curious about one specific problem: how do you make a real-time chat app feel alive with very few users?
Right now:
Hideout has ~35 users
One main room
Text chat only
No moderation tools, bots, or servers to configure
The app is intentionally simple. When someone joins, they’re dropped directly into the active room so conversations aren’t fragmented.
The hardest issue so far has been the cold start problem — users joining at different times and finding empty rooms. I’m experimenting with:
activity concentration (one room)
time-based prompts
system messages that encourage interaction
This is very early and not polished, but it’s usable today.
I’m mainly looking for:
feedback on the experience
thoughts on approaches to early community formation
ideas for making small real-time apps feel social before scale
I’ll be around to answer questions and discuss what I’ve learned so far.
Thanks!