Should I broadcast presence to all users?
No. For small apps, broadcasting to all is fine. For large apps, only notify connected users (people who have accepted connection requests with the user). This reduces unnecessary traffic and respects privacy strangers shouldn't see your online status.
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More FAQs in Typing Indicators and Online Presence Enhancing Chat UX with Socket.io
On input change, emit typing:start. Set a timeout to emit typing:stop after 3 seconds of no input. Clear the timeout on each new keystroke and on send. The server broadcasts typing:update to the room (excluding sender). The receiver shows 'User is typing...' when isTyping is true.
Maintain a Map of online users (userId → socketId). On connection, add the user and broadcast user:online. On disconnect, remove and broadcast user:offline. The client listens for these events and shows a green dot for online users in the chat list.
Don't broadcast all online users to everyone. On connection, find the user's connections (accepted ConnectionRequests) and only notify those users about the online status. This reduces traffic significantly for large apps.
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