I am a fellow Android developer and want to develop a similar app like Firechat for educational purposes
I just want to know what kind of packages and techniques I need to learn to develop a app like this
App Features : I Need to discover the phones which Have wifi direct and my App on Next I need to be able to send messages and start device to device communication and If the device I want to connect is not in range ,The message should Hop from one device to another till the destination is reached I think It can done by creating a mesh network
I have went through similar techonlogies like serval/Firechat/Opengarden ,But I am not being able to comprehend it
For being able to connect devices for peer to peer connection you have the following options:
1. Wifi Direct
2. Bluetooth
3. Wifi Hotspot
Here is a basic tutorial on how to build a chat over wifi direct http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/wifip2p.html
And for bluetooth http://developer.android.com/samples/BluetoothChat/index.html
You can also import these sample projects in eclipse by:
1 For WifiDirect -
Go to New -> Android Sample Project -> Choose API level 16 (Android 4.1.2)-> WifiDirectDemo
2 For Bluetooth -
Go to New -> Android Sample Project -> Choose API level 16 (Android 4.1.2)> BluetoothChat