Social network ยท Real time

Cats

A social app for cat photos with an infinite feed, live chat, and in-browser cat detection.

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Challenge

Grow a React project into a social experience with posts, accounts, and real-time messaging without weighing down the initial load.

My approach

I connected the interface to a headless WordPress API and Socket.io, loading chat, charts, and the detector only when needed.

The project began as a React course capstone and grew into an app with a headless WordPress API, JWT sessions, profiles, and an infinitely loading feed.

When someone posts a photo, TensorFlow.js and COCO-SSD detect cats in the browser before upload. The detector loads on demand.

Chat combines a public room and private conversations with presence, typing indicators, reconnection, and paginated history. New messages appear optimistically; unread counts and notifications cover activity while the tab is hidden.

As a PWA, Cats keeps its static shell available offline. Authenticated requests and Socket.io messages still require the network.

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