Rainlit

Private voice calls, video, screen sharing, messages and file sharing with your friends. Everyone has an account, adds friends by username, and can see who's online. Each friend has a conversation where messages and files are kept (or not, if you turn saving off). Groups are a few friends (up to 10) with a chat and a call of their own. Spaces are communities with text and voice channels that anyone can make and invite people to (or bring over from Discord, with a server template link). Calls between two friends (video and screen sharing too) go directly between your devices; the server only helps them find each other. Group calls and voice channels go through a media server (Cloudflare's, or LiveKit), end-to-end encrypted (see SELF-HOSTING.md), and others' video only comes while you're looking at it. Someone left alone in a voice channel for 15 minutes is asked if they're still there, and taken out if they don't answer, so a channel isn't left open overnight by accident.

Run your own: anyone can host a Rainlit for their friends or community, on Render in a few clicks or on any machine with Docker. See SELF-HOSTING.md. Where it's headed (free accounts on rainlit.app, voice channels, one account everywhere) is in ROADMAP.md.

1. Try it on your own computer

1. Install Node.js 24 (24.22.1 or later) from https://nodejs.org
2. Open a terminal in this folder and run:

   npm install
   npm start
   

3. The terminal prints a setup code. Open http://localhost:3000, sign up with that code, and you're the admin.
4. To try a call with yourself, open the admin panel (the key button next to your name), make an invite, then open http://127.0.0.1:3000 in another tab and sign up there with the invite. (That second address keeps its own sign-in, so the two tabs can be two different people.) Add each other as friends and call. Mute one tab so it doesn't echo.

Everything is kept in a data folder next to server.js. Delete it to start over.

2. Put it online

SELF-HOSTING.md has it all: Render in a few clicks, or Docker on your own computer or server (with https:// set up for you), your own address, backups and updating.

3. Invite your friends

Rainlit is invite-only to start with, so strangers who find your address can't make an account.

1. Press the key button next to your name.
2. Press Make an invite. A message with your app's address and the code is copied, ready to paste to your friend.
3. They sign up with it, then add you (or you add them) by username.

Each code works once. Unused codes can be deleted.

Birthdays: signing up asks for a birthday, without saying what age it takes (a "neutral age screen"). Anyone under 13 is told they can't make an account, and that device can't try again for a day. The birthday isn't kept: someone 13 to 17 keeps only the day they turn 18, and 18+ channels stay closed to them until then. A server can ask for more than 13 with MIN_AGE (some countries' laws want 14, 15 or 16).

Open sign-ups: the same panel can let anyone sign up without an invite, with a bot check, a daily limit and a waitlist (see SELF-HOSTING.md).

Everyone inviting: the same panel can let everyone make invites too, 5 a month each, from Invite someone to Rainlit under Add a friend.

Forgot password: in the same panel, press Reset link next to their account and send them the link. It works once, for 24 hours, and signs them out everywhere else.

Flagged accounts: the same panel lists accounts that look like they're filling up the free tier (bots, mostly), each with what was noticed: a new account hitting its daily limit, the same file sent again and again, a lot in files nobody else opens, several accounts made from one place in a day. New accounts can send up to 250 MB of files a day for their first week, and so can a flagged one until you press Looks fine. Nobody's suspended unless you do it.

Announcements: the same panel tells everyone something (a change to the terms, some planned downtime). It shows once to each person, the next time they open Rainlit (right away if it's open), until they press Got it. For a big change to the terms or privacy policy, send it at least 3 days before the change starts: they both promise that.

4. Relay and GIFs

If calls get stuck on "Connecting" on some networks, add a relay (a TURN server; Cloudflare's is free to start). The GIF button needs a free KLIPY key. Both are in SELF-HOSTING.md (steps 5 and 6).

5. The Android app

Get it from https://rainlit.app/android (or with Obtainium, from https://github.com/coldsignals/rainlit-android). It keeps calls going with the screen off, rings like a phone call, and gets notifications while it's closed if ntfy is installed. It opens rainlit.app; for another Rainlit server, press Use a different Rainlit server on the sign-in screen (or Settings → Server → Change). More in mobile/README.md.

6. Rainlit for Windows

Get it from https://rainlit.app/download. It opens rainlit.app; for another Rainlit server, press Use a different Rainlit server on the sign-in screen (or Settings → Server → Change; the tray menu goes back to rainlit.app). It's the same Rainlit in its own window, plus:

• Push to talk that works while you're in another app or a game.
• Screen sharing with sound, with Rainlit's own sound left out so your friend doesn't hear themselves.
• Your activity, if you want it: "Playing Hades" or "Listening to (a song)" by your name, for your friends and people in your spaces (see below).
• It keeps running in the tray by the clock, so calls and messages still reach you with the window closed, with Windows notifications and a flashing taskbar button.
• It updates itself.

The installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows shows "Windows protected your PC" the first time: click More info, then Run anyway. How it's built and released is in desktop/README.md.

Friends and profiles

• Add a friend: type their username in the box at the top of the list. They get a request to accept. If they'd already asked you, you're friends straight away.
• Online, away, offline: the dot on each picture. You show as away after 10 minutes away: in Rainlit for Windows, from your computer (no key or mouse in any program); in a browser or the phone app, from Rainlit. In a call too, so whoever's in it with you sees "Away" on your picture there (talking counts as being there). You can also pick Away, Do not disturb or Appear offline yourself (Your profile, Show me as). Do not disturb shows red, and mutes you: no message sounds, no notifications on your computer or phone, and calls coming in don't ring (they still show in Rainlit).
• Your profile: click your name at the bottom left. Change your picture (PNG, JPG, WebP or GIF, up to 8 MB, and GIFs move; a big one's made 512 pixels across, losslessly, so it's never blurred or blocky), display name and a status of up to 120 characters. Your password, your email and sign out are there too, and Your files: everything you've sent, biggest first, to make room.
• Your birthday: add one to Your profile (just the month and day, never the year) and it's celebrated on the day, by your own clock: confetti over everything the first time you open Rainlit, and balloons and confetti on your picture all day. Tick Celebrate it where others can see and everyone who can see your profile sees the balloons too (only that it's your birthday, that day: never the date). Leave it empty and nothing's kept: the birthday you signed up with never is.
• Your card: how your profile looks to everyone who opens it (Your profile, Customize): two colours it goes between, a pattern along its top (any of the homepages', in those colours), a font for your name (any of theirs), and weather over it (rain, snow, sparkles, floating hearts, autumn leaves). Glow adds the moving patterns and its weather (fireflies, an aurora, a thunderstorm, cherry blossoms, embers), to try on there first. Make it plain again puts it back as it was. It's in the corner by your name too (bottom left), smaller: its colours, pattern, font and weather; and behind your name in your spaces' members, the same (in the members panel, and the Members box on a phone; your name in your role's colour, where that reads on it).
• Your email: new accounts get a link to confirm their email address (your profile says whether it's confirmed, and sends another). Forgot your password? Forgot your password? on the sign-in screen emails a link, good for an hour. Changing your email needs your password, and the old address is told. (A Rainlit that doesn't send email: its admin makes reset links instead. See SELF-HOSTING.md to turn email on.)
• What you're doing: with Rainlit for Windows, your friends and the people in your spaces can see "Playing Hades" or "Listening to (a song) · (artist)" by your name, and on your profile card, for how long you've played and how far into the song you are. It finds games itself (any Steam game, and popular ones from elsewhere: League, VALORANT, Minecraft, Roblox...), and you can add any program in Settings. Songs come from Spotify, Apple Music and other music apps, as Windows' media controls show them (web browsers only if you want). It's off until you say yes, it asks once, and nobody sees it while you appear offline. Only the game's or song's name leaves your computer, and Rainlit doesn't keep it. (Spotify's own API only lets small apps have 5 users, so Rainlit doesn't use it.)
• A friend's menu: right-click a friend in the list (long-press on a phone, or the "..." that appears when you hover) for Message, Call, View profile and Remove friend. Clicking their name at the top of your conversation shows their profile too.

Themes

Settings > Theme: Rainlit's own (the night, lit by a lamp), Dark (plain greys), Midnight (black, for OLED screens), Light, or Auto (Light or Rainlit, as your device is set). With Glow (below), there's also a theme for each season: Sakura (cherry blossoms at night, with falling petals), Monsoon (deep green, and the rains), Fireflies (a summer night in the woods), Maple (autumn at dusk, with falling leaves) and Aurora (the northern lights, and snow), each with its own weather in place of the rain; anyone else can try them on while Settings is open (and sees what Glow gets you). Your theme is kept with your account, so it's the same on all your devices. If your Glow ends, a Glow theme you're using stays until you switch to another; switching back to it takes Glow again (the same goes for a homepage's Glow extras).

Homepages

Everyone has a homepage: a whole page of their own, like the personal pages of the old web (GeoCities, Angelfire) or a Strawpage, where the profile card is the quick look. Open anyone's from their profile card (Homepage), and yours from your own (Your homepage, then Edit).

• Put anything anywhere: words in 14 fonts (pixel, handwriting, gothic, neon, Comic...), with boxes (a sticky note, a label, a speech bubble, a caution sign) and effects (glow, rainbow, blinking, scrolling, wavy); pictures, GIFs and videos with frames (a photo with a caption, a stamp, a heart, or a window: Rain95, RainXP, Raintosh or Rainscape, an old browser); pixel stickers (an old desktop's too: a computer, a folder, a bin, an hourglass, an error...), any emoji and your spaces' emoji; tape and paper. Drag to move; the handles resize and turn (or press R). To front and To back stack them, and Undo takes anything back.
• Videos: MP4 or WebM, up to 20 MB each, sharing the page's room (40 MB) with its pictures and songs. On the page one plays over and over without its sound while it's on the screen, and visitors can turn the sound on (for anyone who'd rather things didn't move, it waits for them to press play).
• Click it for a video, or a sound: a button, a picture, a sticker or some words can open a link, or pop up a video instead: it opens somewhere over the page in a window (Rain95, RainXP, Raintosh, Rainscape or a plain one), playing with its sound, until it's closed with its ×. Every click pops up another. Or it plays a sound of yours (a meow when a spinning cat's clicked), from the start each time. Try it shows you while you're making it.
• The old web: a visitor counter (like the hit counters of old, every visit counts but yours), a guestbook anyone who can see your page can sign (they can delete what they wrote, and you can delete anything in it; you hear when someone signs it), a music player for a song of yours (MP3, M4A, OGG, FLAC or WAV, up to 10 MB), as a tunebox, a cassette or just a button (it only plays when a visitor presses play), and a taskbar, Rain95 or RainXP, with a start button and a clock showing each visitor their own time.
• Ask me anything: a box visitors ask you things in, anonymously if you let them (you aren't told who asked; whoever runs the server is, only if you report the question). Only you see a question until you answer it, right on your page; then it shows there with your answer. Report one to stop whoever asked from asking again, without finding out who it was.
• Shelves and buttons: a shelf shows off favourite games, music or shows by their covers, with name tags and links: add pictures, or paste a link (a Steam page, an album, a film's page) and its cover and name are found for you. Friend buttons (88x31s, the little badges old sites linked each other with) take visitors to a friend's page: pick a friend, and one's made from their name, their card's colours and a pixel sticker, to change any way you like (or link anywhere). A link to someone's homepage opens it right in Rainlit.
• The page: a pattern (polka dots and flowers to plaid, camo, hexagons or a circuit board), a color or your own picture behind it, weather over it (rain, snow, sparkles, floating hearts, autumn leaves), and a name for it.
• Your pet: it lives on your page too (unless you'd rather it didn't: the Pet tab), wandering around the part of the page that's showing (and following along as it's scrolled), and anyone who can see your page can pet it (see "Pets" below).
• Glow's extras: people with Glow also get backgrounds that move (a starfield, bokeh lights, holographic foil and waves, in the page's colours), effects for visitors (a trail of sparkles, hearts, stars, bubbles, raindrops or pixels behind their pointer, and confetti, hearts, stars, ripples or fireworks where they click), a fortune ball visitors ask things (with its forecasts, or answers you write), fireflies, an aurora, a thunderstorm, cherry blossoms and embers for weather, Shimmer and Lamplight words, and Gilded and Neon frames, and room for 200 MB and 500 pieces. Anyone can try them on in the editor (nothing's saved). If Glow ends, what's on the page stays, until it's switched off.
• Who can see it: your friends, people in your spaces too (like your profile card; that's where it starts), or anyone with its link, rainlit.app/@yourname, even without an account, to put in a bio anywhere.
• Everyone starts with an "under construction" page until they make theirs.
• It's built from pieces, not code: pages can't run anything, and their pictures come from Rainlit itself. A page can be reported like a message. Pictures can be up to 5 MB each, songs 10 MB, and 40 MB in all.

Pets

Everyone can adopt a pixel pet: a cat, a dog or a fish, each in four colours, with a name. It has a room of its own in the app (the button by your profile, which shows your pet, and a dot when it's hungry), where it wanders about, naps, and comes over to see what the pointer's up to, and where you look after it: feed it (a bowl comes, and it eats) and play with it (it chases a ball). It gets hungry over three days and glum over two, but never ill, and never runs away; hungry, it just mopes about, thinking of food, until it's fed. Petting it cheers it up: click it. It lives on your homepage too (unless you'd rather it didn't), where anyone who can see your page can pet it, and it counts how many times it's been petted. Its room is pixel too, and yours to do up (its Decorate tab): a wallpaper (stripes, hearts, slate, wood panels, plaid...) and a floor, a rug, something on the wall (a picture, a clock, a guitar, a dartboard...), and something in each corner (a plant, a lamp, a bookshelf, a desk, an armchair, or its bed, where it naps). The weather out its window changes by itself (day or night by your clock, and a new sky each hour), or pick one to keep: rain, a clear night, snow, a sunny day or a sunset. Glow brings three more pets: a droplet (Rainlit's own little drop) that sends out ripples when it's petted, a dragon that puffs flames, and a spirit fox with a glowing tail; and things for the room that glow: starlit, aurora and city wallpapers, cloud and crystal floors, a magic circle, fairy lights, a neon heart and a neon bolt, an aquarium, a lava lamp, an arcade machine, and a thunderstorm or the northern lights out the window (anyone can try them all on in the room). It's all just for fun: nothing nags you, and if you'd rather not see the pet button at all, Settings > Look hides it. Letting your pet go (its room's Pet tab, once you've said you're sure) deletes it, and everything about it; its room stays as you did it up, for the next one. Visit other people's pets too: their profile card says Visit and its name, and opens its room as they've done it up, where you can pet it (their friends and people in a space with them can; how full or happy it is stays theirs).

Feedback

Settings > Feedback sends a bug, an idea or anything else straight to whoever runs the server (on rainlit.app, the people making Rainlit). With a bug, a tick box sends diagnostics too: which app and browser, the screen, the theme and call settings, whether you were in a call, and Rainlit's own recent errors (never messages); you can read them before sending. The admin sees it all in the Admin panel (the key button gets a dot for new feedback), and can reply, which shows under what you sent, or mark it done. Up to 10 a day each.

Rainlit Glow

rainlit.app is free, and paid for by one person. Glow is how people support it and keep it that way, for $5 a month or $50 a year (and tips), at rainlit.app/support (Your profile, Rainlit Glow). What supporters get is marked with a Glow tag wherever it is, and it's more of what costs money: files up to 100 MB, 50 GB for them, 1,000 notes, sharper screen sharing in voice channels (1080p at up to 60 fps, while it fits in what Cloudflare sends for free), no slower start for a new account, three more pets (and things for their rooms), homepage extras (moving backgrounds, effects for visitors, a fortune ball...), five themes with weather of their own (Sakura, Monsoon, Fireflies, Maple and Aurora), and a badge, a raindrop that gathers light the longer they