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Life & fun · August 4, 2025

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…

The Hideout launched on August 4, 2025 with 5 votes. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.

Visit joinhideout.vercel.app ↗The Hideout alternatives

What it does

The Hideout is a real-time, anonymous chat app where you can create rooms, invite friends, and play Mafia together — no login, no install. Perfect for hanging out, gaming, or studying with friends anywhere.

In the maker’s words, at launch

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…

Does a similar job

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