PixelChat

Two people, one green screen.

Direct messages between friends. No threads, no channels, no bots. Messages, presence and typing arrive over a realtime socket rather than a poll loop, so the other side is where you left it.

Free. Runs in a browser. No card, no trial.

Specifications

Protocol: Supabase Realtime. One authorized channel per conversation, joined with your own token.
Presence: Online and typing states ride the same socket as the messages. Nothing polls.
Attachments: Images and files up to 10 MB, in a private bucket, handed out as short-lived signed URLs.
Accounts: Email and password. Unique usernames, an editable profile, an avatar you can replace.
Themes: Paper and ink, or green phosphor. Follows your system unless you tell it otherwise.
Security: Row-level security on every table. Authorization decided from a locally verified token.

What it isn't

Not end-to-end encrypted. Traffic is encrypted in transit, but the server can read message contents.
No group chats. One conversation, two people, for now.
No desktop or mobile build. It runs in a browser and installs to a home screen.