Realtime — presence and live topics

Bring the "live" experience of the big platforms to your self-hosted community — without paying for a cloud subscription. Realtime makes topics feel alive: new posts appear the instant they're written, members can see who's in the room, and a typing indicator lets conversations flow like chat. It all runs on your own server, with no third-party service in the loop.

Three features, one lightweight app

⚡ Live Topics — New replies and reactions arrive the moment they're posted. Instead of hammering refresh, members get a tasteful "3 new replies" bar that loads the latest with a tap.

👀 Real-Time Viewing — A live "…is also here" presence pill sits by the topic title, showing who else is reading this very second. It turns a quiet thread into a room.

⌨️ Real-Time Typing — When someone starts writing a reply, everyone else sees a subtle "…is typing" indicator. Fewer duplicate posts, and the natural rhythm people expect from modern chat.

Why members and admins love it

• Instant, no refresh over a persistent WebSocket connection

• Runs entirely on your infrastructure — no SaaS, no per-seat pricing, no data leaving your servers

• Never gets in the way — if the service is down, the community keeps working; realtime just pauses

• Upgrade-safe — listens to IPS content events, never edits core files

• Light on resources — a tiny Node.js process handling thousands of concurrent readers

(Full version includes the "How it works", requirements, and "what's in the download" sections.)

File Information

Submitter Ernest Defoe

Submitted 07/24/26

Category Live, Video & Audio apps for Invision Community 5

View File

Realtime — presence and live topics 1.0.8 is out.

Fixed in this release:

• Realtime — presence and live topics: AdminCP shows raw language keys instead of names