Instant Chat is a web-based chat application that uses Firebase for backend services (authentication and storing messages), and React for the frontend user interface.

• User Authentication with Google
• Real-time chat functionality
• Firestore database to store messages

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes.

• Node.js and npm
• Firebase account

1. Clone the repo in your local directory using git clone.
2. Navigate to the Firebase console, create a new project and enable the necessary services (Authentication, Firestore).
3. Replace the Firebase config object in the .env file with your Firebase project settings.
4. Run npm install to install the necessary dependencies.
5. Run npm start to start the local development server.

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser. If you're not authenticated, you'll be redirected to the sign-in page. You can sign in with Google. After signing in, you'll be redirected to the chat room.

In your Firestore database, go to the rules tab and change if false to if true. This step is necessary to read and write data to your Firestore database.