Social Networking Chat Profiles

I’m building a free social-networking chat platform and the next milestone is a robust user-profile system. Every member needs a space where they can upload a profile picture and write a short bio or description that appears seamlessly inside one-to-one and group chat views.

Here’s how I picture the flow: a new user signs up, is prompted to add a photo (cropped and compressed on the client side), writes a brief bio, and then jumps straight into their chats. The profile must be editable later, with changes propagating instantly to existing conversations. A clean, responsive UI is essential on both mobile and web, and the solution must plug into my existing Node.js / React stack (Firebase handles auth and real-time messaging).

Deliverables
• Modular profile component integrated with current chat backend
• Secure image upload & storage with automatic sizing
• Editable bio field capped at 200 characters, markdown optional
• End-to-end testing instructions and concise setup documentation

Acceptance criteria
• Profile picture and bio display correctly in chat lists and message headers
• Image uploads reject unsupported formats and files over 2 MB
• All code passes linting and unit tests and is delivered via Git

Group chats and media sharing are on the roadmap, so well-structured, extensible code will score extra points. If you have experience scaling social features, let me know when you can start and how long you’ll need to deliver this slice.