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Two Socketchat apps never connect to each other. Each one connects to a server that one person in your group runs, so you cannot reach a friend by typing their computer’s IP address. This page shows the two pieces, who sets up which, and the mistakes that most often stop people on day one.

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The two pieces

Socketchat has two pieces, and both come in one program, socketchat.
  • The server is a program that stays running on one computer and passes sealed messages between people. Commands that start with socketchat server set it up and run it.
  • The app is the chat screen you type in. Plain socketchat opens it, and it connects to a server.

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Why there has to be a server

Every message goes from your app to the server, and from the server to each friend’s app:
Every message goes through the server
The server also holds messages for anyone whose app is closed, and hands them over when that app connects again. Apps have no way to dial each other. An IP address is the number that identifies a computer on a network, such as 192.168.1.20, and Socketchat has nowhere to type one in to reach a friend. Both of you connect to the same server instead.

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Who runs the server

One person in the group runs the server, on a computer that stays on and that everyone can reach. That can be a computer at home, a small device such as a Raspberry Pi, or a cloud server rented by the month. Everyone else only needs the app. The person who runs the server usually chats too, often on the same computer. Apps find the server by its host: the name or IP address they dial, such as chat.example.com or 192.168.1.20. They connect on port 7444. A port is a numbered door on a computer that one program listens on. Host a server compares the ways to make the host reachable from your friends’ computers.

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How people get in

People join with an invite link: a one-time socketchat:// link that tells an app which server to dial and proves the person was invited.
  1. The person who runs the server makes a link with socketchat server invite, and joins with it from their own app.
  2. In the app, they start a room with /new and make a link for each friend with /invite.
  3. Each friend runs socketchat join "<link>" with the link they got.
After that, rooms and /invite handle the rest. Anyone in a room can invite more people, unless the server’s owner allows only admins to.

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What the server cannot see

Each message is sealed on the sender’s computer, so the server passes it along without being able to open it; What the server sees lists what it does see.

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Which part do I set up?

I'm starting a group

Install Socketchat, run a server, then join it from the app and invite your friends.

A friend invited me

Install Socketchat, then run socketchat join with their link. You do not need a server.

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Common mistakes

If you already set up a server with localhost, change public_host in its config file, restart it and make new invite links. See Server settings.