WhatsApp Web Clone Part 1: User Authentication & Chat
Blog post from Stream
In the first part of a series on building a WhatsApp web clone, developers are guided through setting up a project using NextJS and Supabase for user authentication and Stream for chat functionality. The tutorial emphasizes the importance of using NodeJS in an isolated environment to avoid system conflicts and introduces NVM for managing Node versions. Supabase is utilized for straightforward username/password authentication, while Stream Chat offers a robust backend and frontend SDK for managing chat messages, ensuring fast global delivery. Developers are shown how to integrate these tools into a NextJS project using a Supabase template and Stream's React SDK, allowing for a rapid setup of a chat interface with customizable UI components. The article provides code snippets for creating a WhatsApp-like user interface and includes styling tips to enhance the app's appearance. The guide concludes by encouraging developers to explore further features, such as video calling, which will be covered in subsequent parts of the series.