What to chat on?

Question

Node.js

Good day to all. I would like to write a chat on android, later on ios. To begin with, I will start writing for android, but it is necessary that then you can use the same technology to write a chat on ios. Also to be able to scale. What to write on? And in what environment would you advise writing for android?

I know a little C#. I wrote a chat for a site on node.js. Was fully working. Or there are ready decisions can, any, protocols. Here VK has (telegrams) its own MProto protocol like. Is this worth using?

Answer 1

A protocol is an interaction contract between a client and a server. It can be absolutely anything, as long as you write both the client application and the server yourself. You can write your own protocol if you want. Only, of course, it doesn’t make much sense to reinvent the wheel. As for MT Proto from Telegram, it is, of course, quite secure, but certain requirements are needed to use it. I would advise not reinventing the wheel and not chasing fashionable solutions to take something simple, like HTTP (S) and use it. And if something cannot be implemented on this protocol, then you will be able to fully name the reasons for switching to other protocols.
As for ready-made chat solutions, they certainly exist. You just have to google.
As for the development environment, it entirely depends on the language you choose. Xamarin, for example, will allow you to write in C# for both iOS and Android. For C#, the best environment is Visual Studio. If you write in Java - there are your own JetBrains tools.
You just need to have a good understanding of what exactly you want to do, and what you mean by scaling. Database sharding/replication? Number of active connections?

Answer 2

Look at SignalR, they write what can be considered as some alternative to Expressjs in c#.

Answer 3

Better look towards Xamarin and you will immediately write for both Android and iOS