In this tutorial, we'll walk you through the process of creating a WhatsApp-style chat application using Cursor AI, CometChat SDK, and Next.js. This project showcases the power of AI-assisted coding combined with robust SDKs to rapidly build complex applications.
Throughout this guide, we'll provide you with the exact prompts to input into Cursor AI. You can simply copy and paste these prompts, allowing Cursor AI to generate much of the code for you. This approach dramatically speeds up the development process and demonstrates how AI can augment your coding skills.
We'll be integrating the CometChat SDK for real-time messaging capabilities and building our application on Next.js, a popular React framework. By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a working Whatsapp chat clone application with features like:
User authentication
Displaying a contact list
Showing message history
Sending real-time messages
1. Setting up the Next.js Project
To start, create a new Next.js project using Cursor AI. Open Cursor AI, create a new folder for your project, then open the Composer in Cursor AI and enter the following prompt.
Cursor AI will suggest running the following commands in your terminal. Run these commands to set up your Next.js project and start the development server.
2. Creating the WhatsApp UI
Now, let's create a WhatsApp-like UI for our application using Cursor AI. Simply enter the prompt provided below, and Cursor will generate the necessary code to create a chat interface similar to WhatsApp.
Make sure it's placed in the correct file (usually app/page.tsx for Next.js 13+). If the message bubbles don't look quite right, you can continue prompting for additional refinements.
3. Integrating CometChat SDK
Next, we'll integrate the CometChat SDK into our project. The CometChat SDK will power all the real-time messaging features for your Whatsapp clone chat app.
Add real-time chat with minimal effort using CometChat
Sign up for a CometChat account and create a new app to get your App ID, Region, and Auth Key. Cursor will create a new file with environment variables, just update the actual APP ID and region from your CometChat app. For more detailed instructions, troubleshooting tips, or additional guidance, refer to the CometChat documentation.
Install the CometChat SDK by running this command in your terminal:
Initialize CometChat by using the following prompt in Cursor AI
4. Implementing user authentication with CometChat
Now we'll implement user authentication using CometChat. This will authenticate a new user into CometChat when the user logs-in. Run the following prompts in Cursor AI
5. Fetching and displaying user list
Let's implement the functionality to fetch and display the user list on your Whatsapp clone app.
6. Implementing message history
Now, let's add the ability to view message history when a user is selected.
7. Enabling real-time message reception
Finally, let's implement the ability to send messages in real-time.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You've now created a functional WhatsApp clone using Cursor AI, CometChat SDK, and Next.js. This tutorial demonstrates how quickly you can prototype complex applications using AI-assisted coding and powerful SDKs.
Feel free to expand on this basic implementation by adding features like real-time message updates, read receipts, or file sharing. The CometChat SDK provides a wide range of features that you can easily integrate into your application.
Remember to replace placeholder values (like APP_ID, APP_REGION, and AUTH_KEY) with your actual CometChat credentials before deploying your application.
More tutorials with cursor AI and CometChat
If you're interested in leveraging the power of AI and CometChat to build dynamic chat applications, here are more tutorials that use Cursor AI to simplify the development process.
Anant Garg
CometChat
