Chat Module for web app

My ReactJS web app needs an in-app chat that feels as smooth as any modern messenger while adding AI-powered polish. The core scope is a real-time chat component (ideally WebSocket or Socket.io under the hood) that plugs straight into my existing React front-end and Node back-end.

Key behaviours
• Real-time one-to-one and group messaging
• AI auto-suggestions that learn from the current thread and offer quick replies in context (no need for sentiment analysis or other NLP extras right now)
• Mobile OTP–based user authentication for the chat routes; the rest of the app already uses JWT, so this piece can be isolated or bridged as you prefer
• Clean, documented hooks / services so I can switch on file-sharing later without rewriting the foundation

Tech expectations
React 18, functional components, TypeScript optional but welcome. Feel free to lean on OpenAI, Dialogflow, or your own lightweight model for the auto-suggestions, as long as latency stays low. Code must slot into my Git repo and build with Vite.

Acceptance criteria
1. Chat UI renders inside an existing page and maintains session on hard refresh.
2. Messages deliver in <2 s round-trip on a standard connection.
3. AI quick-reply bar appears after each incoming message with at least three relevant suggestions.
4. OTP flow works end-to-end on mobile (Twilio or Firebase OK) and blocks unauthenticated access.
5. Clear README covering setup, environment variables, and how to toggle future file-sharing.

Hand me a pull request together with any cloud function or server tweak I need, and I’ll test it live the same day.