How to Build Web Chat Application in 2025 (Complete Guide)

If you’re curious about how to create a simple web-based chat application in java for your users but not sure where to start, this is the article for you.

In this tutorial, I will walk you through the complete process of building a web chat app in simple steps. Throughout this guide, I’ll use a Plain text editor to create our web app and add the chat features using MirrorFly’s chat SDK for Web. In addition,

I’ve recommended compatible versions of web browsers that will be able to operate our build chat app.

Recommended Browser Versions

• Edge 13 or above
• Chrome 16 or higher
• Firefox 11 or above
• Safari 7 or above

Moving ahead, you’ll learn:

06 Steps to Create a Web-based Chat Application

• Download the chat SDKs 
• Add the chat features to the app
• Connect the Free chat SDKs to the Server
• Send and receive messages via your own web chat app

Sounds good? Let’s get started!

1. SDK Authentication

The first step in creating a web chat app using third-party APIs is to make sure that the server is able to authenticate the SDKs.

For this authentication to take place, we need a license key that helps the MirrorFly server know that your app can be trusted to integrate the SDKs.

Let’s get the License key by performing the following steps:

• Go to the MirrorFly Console Page
• On this page, we’ll need to create a MirrorFly account by registering as a user.
• We’ll have to fill in the required details like name, contact details, and organization details and click on the Signup button to complete the registration process
• Now, we’ll be taken to our MirrorFly account page where we’ll find our profile’s overview page.
• Under the ‘Application Info’ section, we can find the ‘License Key’ needed for the integration process

2. SDK Integration

Once we’ve acquired the License Key, we’ll step into the SDK integration process.

For the SDK integration, download the Javascript SDK in the Download SDK section of the MirrorFly Account.

Next, we’ll need to extract the files and import the SDK files into your development environment.

After importing the SDK files, include the script file into your index.html

<script src="./index.js"></script>
<script src="./socket.io.js"></script>

Chat SDK Integration using React

• If you are looking to add the chat features using React, follow the below steps:
• Include the script file in your index.html

<script src="./index.js"></script>
<script src="./socket.io.js"></script>

• In the Project root, create a new file SDK.js and continue to paste the below code

const SDK = window.SDK;
export default SDK;

• Next, we’ll need to import the SDK into the app

import SDK from "./SDK";

Chat SDK Integration using React Native

If you plan on integrating the Chat SDK using React Native, you must ensure that the peer-dependencies with specific versions mentioned below are installed

• react-native – Any version
• react-native-get-random-values – must use version above or equal to version 1.7.1
• @react-native-async-storage/async-storage – Any version
• Now, extract all the files from the dist folder and copy them
• Inside our project, create a new folder and paste all the files
• Next, export the SDK objects by creating a file SDK.js

Finally, import the SDKs using the below code:

import './index';
const SDK = window.SDK;
export default SDK;

Chat SDK Integration Using Angular

• Extract the SDK files from the downloaded folder
• Copy them and paste them in a new folder created within the Project’s root folder.
• Open your angular.json
• Navigate to build > options > scripts
• Add the relative file paths of the downloaded JS files in the array of scripts
• In the root component, add the below code (into Root component’s ngOnInit)

declare var SDK: any;

• Finally, initialize the angular SDK initialization

3. Initialization of the Chat SDKs

• When there are changes in the connection status of the client’s app, a certain set of data must be responsive to carry out the initialization process
• In the licensekey param, paste the license key acquired from the MirrorFly account.
• To pass the data, use the below method:

const initializeObj = {
  apiBaseUrl: `API_URL`,
  licenseKey: `LICENSE_KEY`,
  isTrialLicenseKey: `TRIAL_MODE`,
  callbackListeners: {},
};
await SDK.initializeSDK(initializeObj);

Sandbox Details

function connectionListener(response) {
  if (response.status === "CONNECTED") {
	console.log("Connection Established");
  } else if (response.status === "DISCONNECTED") {
	console.log("Disconnected");
  }
}

const initializeObj = {
  apiBaseUrl: "https://api-preprod-sandbox.mirrorfly.com/api/v1",
  licenseKey: "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
  isTrialLicenseKey: true,
  callbackListeners: {
	connectionListener
  },
};
await SDK.initializeSDK(initializeObj);

Example Response

{
  "statusCode": 200,
  "message": "Success"
}

To send or receive messages via the app, we need to connect a user to the server. Obtain a user name and password and proceed with the below method:

4. User Registration

await SDK.register(`USER_IDENTIFIER`);

Sample Response:

{
  statusCode: 200,
  message: "Success",
  data: {
	username: "123456789",
	password: "987654321"
  }
}

Connect the SDK to MirrorFly Server

Make use of the credentials acquired during the above user registration process

When the connection is established successfully, a response message: statusCode of 200 will appear. Otherwise, an execution error message will pop up

await SDK.connect(`USERNAME`, `PASSWORD`);

5. Send a Message From Your Web Chat App

Use the below method to send a message to another user via our in-app chat app

await SDK.sendTextMessage(`TO_USER_JID`, `MESSAGE_BODY`);

6. Receive a Message From Your Web Chat App

Implement the messageListener function that will trigger whenever a new message is received on our web app. To execute the reception of messages, we need to call the below method

function messageListener(response) {
  console.log("Message Listener", response);
}

Build a Web Chat Application With MirrorFly SDK

So, now you know how to integrate our chat SDK to build a web chat system. But, there’s more! With MirrorFly, you can avail 2 types of chat solutions – self-hosted and cloud. Whichever you choose for your chat app, I’m sure that these solutions will give you a huge number of benefits. 

I’ve listed the quick details of both the models below:

Benefits of Self-hosted solution:

• Customize the chat features as per your needs
• Avail a complete white-label chat solution with our self-hosted messaging SDK.
• Get our chat SDK for a one-time license cost
• Take complete control of your chat app’s security and features.

Benefits of Cloud solution:

• Avail Free chat API
• Devoted space on our cloud servers
• Multi-tenancy chat support
• Avail chat features for monthly subscription
• 21-day Free trial on our video and voice call SDKs.

Conclusion

If you’ve come all way long to the end of this article – I must appreciate your perseverance to learn how to create a web chat application We’ve come across the complete process of adding chat app system design to a web app that can work on all compatible browsers. This indeed will create an interaction-rich experience for your users. Plus, multiply the conversion rate of your brand and increase your sales on platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Walmart or anything you run your business on.

As exciting as I was to write this article, I hope you also had a great time learning all the details on how to create a simple web based chat application project. Since we’ve covered only the basic communication features in this article, I would urge you to check out other interesting features here.

Wish to meet you soon with yet another great insight. Until then, I wish the best to you! 

Frequently Asked Question

Related Articles:

• Things You Should Know About Developing a Custom Mobile Chat App
• How To Build a Real-Time Chat App for iOS and Android?
• How To Create Your Own Brand Messenger With White-label Chat App?
• The Top Scalable Messaging App Strategies For 2025