Real-Time Social Media Chat

I need a developer who can add a real-time chat experience to a social-media-style platform I’m building. The primary goal is simple: users should be able to open a conversation window and see messages appear instantly, without page refreshes or long delays. Think WhatsApp-speed responsiveness, but embedded in a broader social feed.

Key expectations
• Real-time chat functionality built with a reliable stack (WebSockets, Firebase, Socket.IO, or another solution you’re comfortable with).
• Smooth front-end integration so new messages appear immediately and the chat pane feels native to the rest of the UI.
• Basic presence indicators (typing, online/offline) so conversations feel alive.
• Clean, well-commented code and a brief setup guide so I can deploy to staging and production environments.

Group chat and encryption are not on the roadmap right now, but please structure the code so those features could be added later without a full rewrite.

Deliverable: a working chat module hooked into my existing user database, pushed to a private Git repo, plus a short read-me explaining configuration and deployment steps.