Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to The Hideout
Hi HN, 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…
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
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Hi HN! https://flat.social is a web video meeting app for organising fun online meetings & social events. Each participant can move around and talk with others in their proximity. Here is a quick demo if you wanna see it in action: https://youtu.be/Y2yH3twjrx4 I’ve been on it solo for around a year right now. Tech used is Next.js, Typescript, PIXI.js on the front-end and Node, Mediasoup, Socket.io and Matter.js (physics engine) on the backend. Feel free to jump in into the demo room (https://flat.social/f/Flat.Social-Demo) to say hi, I’ll be…
2022 · flat.social · its alternatives →
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I’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic lately, so I decided to build a little web chat app inspired by Yahoo! Messenger. Right now it’s got group chat rooms. Super simple setup, no email required to register. You can create your own room or hop into one that’s already open. Room owners can customize things like backgrounds and even cursors of their room. Users can format their messages with basic markdown like bold, italics, and color texts (kind of like the old Yahoo! days). I even brought back the classic Yahoo! Messenger emoticons because… well, why not? You can try it out here:…
2025 · buzzed.chat · its alternatives →
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Add live chat to your website and answer visitors directly from Slack. One-minute install, full widget customization, and a 30-day free trial.
2016 · chatlio.com · its alternatives →
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I created a pet project to see if it is of use and interesting to people. The idea is on-demand real-time chat rooms for trending topics and for personal use. You can go to the main page at www.urshoutbox.com to create your own room then share it across your social networks/email, etc. I created a hacker news specific "shoutbox" at http://www.urshoutbox.com/bLmYAL/hacker-news . If nobody is in there, please be patient and (I hope) people will join soon to start talking. The idea is to have trending topics on facebook/twitter/etc and have chat rooms to get…
2014 · urshoutbox.com · its alternatives →
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2014 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
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Chat with millions of people. Meet new people and enjoy the most fun way of chatting :)
2012 · connected2.me · its alternatives →
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Hide Out▲1Secret chat rooms with no names, just conversations
2025 · hideout-sigma.vercel.app · its alternatives →
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Create a chat, copy the URL, paste it wherever you want. Perfect for those that would like to continue a discussion on a social network without having to sign up for anything. http://beta.mss.gs/#!/page/home
2012 · beta.mss.gs · its alternatives →
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Hi HN, For years I’ve missed the feeling of an always-on chatroom without the silos and social overhead of Discord. So I built Together: a single-room, no-signup group chat that you join with one click. No channels, no rules (yet), no onboarding flow. Everyone lands in the same place and can start talking in under a second. Why I made it - Forums and blog comments are great but slow; Discord/Slack feel heavy for casual drop-ins if you aren’t already a member of a community. - I wanted the simplest possible space where ~100 people could idle, share shower thoughts, and keep the…
2025 · together.lol · its alternatives →
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Chat'Inn▲69Miminal, Clean and Realtime Global Chat Application
2022 · chat-inn.vercel.app · its alternatives →
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Hi HN, I built a location-based chatroom with Discord-like servers. This started as a portfolio project to learn WebSockets but has spiraled into something else entirely. There are two features right now: Drop - Single chatrooms that can only be seen within a specified radius and only last for a time less than 48 hours chosen by the user. Hubs - Geofenced servers modeled after Discord. These are not time restricted. They can be created by anyone and the creator becomes the admin able to add channels and set rules. When a user enters the location’s area, they can join the hub and continue…
Nov 2025 · vicinity.social · its alternatives →
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hoody is a new take on chat, bringing back the curious, open spirit of the Internet. Revive the feeling of IRC, public message boards, and newsgroups with a localized twist.
2016 · hoody.im · its alternatives →
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ChatZa▲5Chat freely. Share ideas. Build communities. Leave no trace.
Apr 2026 · nonconfirmed.com · its alternatives →
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I’ve developed an application that reimagines chat rooms by integrating them with a world map. Each user can claim a rectangular piece of land on the map, referred to as a "banner." Users within close proximity are grouped into a chat room by the app. The banner’s size can expand or shrink based on the density of users in the area and the number of coins in the user’s account. Key Features: Real-World Interaction Model: Users are pseudo-anonymous, akin to real-world interactions. Coin balance determines user size and visibility ("stature"), while endorsements and other activities form a…
2024 · beescribe.com · its alternatives →
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I got frustrated with Claude's official platform limitations - conversations disappearing, no customization options, and clunky file handling. So I built my own interface over a weekend! GitHub: https://github.com/chihebnabil/claude-ui What it does: - Saves all conversations locally (SQLite + Drizzle ORM) - Lets you customize Claude's personality per chat - Handles file attachments properly + caching input tokens - Dark/light mode - No conversation limits - Markdown & code syntax highlighting Tech stack is pretty simple: - Nuxt 3 for the frontend - Anthropic's SDK…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Real-time anonymous chatroom with no login needed
2025 · 666.rinuo.com · its alternatives →
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Link to test: http://getmeetingsapp.com Basically it is a web-based chat application, with private and public rooms and real-time file sharing. It is currently in a half-arsed situation so needs lot of work but wanted to get some feedback from you. Thanks PS. I created a public room for feature requests, just in case: http://getmeetingsapp.com/rooms/4e7f64ea17ade37b71000002
2011 · getmeetingsapp.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →