Windsurf
realtime
User Presence Showing Wrong Online/Offline Status in Windsurf App
The user presence system in your Windsurf-generated app shows incorrect online/offline status. Users who closed the app hours ago still appear as online, users who are actively using the app show as offline, or presence status flickers between online and offline rapidly.
Presence tracking is crucial for chat apps, collaborative tools, and social features. When it's unreliable, users send messages to people who aren't there, miss that collaborators are available, or lose trust in the application's real-time features.
The issue often manifests differently across browsers and devices — a user may appear online in their own browser but offline to everyone else, or vice versa. Mobile users are particularly affected because their connections are frequently interrupted.
Error Messages You Might See
User shows online but is unreachable
Presence flickers between online and offline
last_seen: 3 hours ago but status: online
Offline event received after new online event
Multiple presence entries for same user
Common Causes
- No heartbeat mechanism — Presence is set to online on connect and offline on disconnect, but disconnection events are unreliable and can be missed
- Stale presence data — The presence status is stored in the database but never expires, so users who disconnect abnormally stay online forever
- Tab/window handling — Opening multiple tabs creates multiple connections, and closing one tab sets the user offline even though other tabs are open
- Network interruption not detected — Mobile connections drop frequently but the server doesn't detect the disconnection for minutes due to TCP keepalive delays
- Race conditions on connect/disconnect — When a user reconnects quickly, the offline event from the old connection arrives after the online event from the new connection
How to Fix It
- Implement heartbeat-based presence — Send a heartbeat from the client every 15-30 seconds. On the server, mark users as offline if no heartbeat is received for 2x the interval
- Use Redis with TTL for presence — Store presence in Redis with a 60-second TTL. Each heartbeat refreshes the TTL. When the TTL expires, the user is automatically offline
- Handle multiple tabs/windows — Track connection count per user. Only set offline when the count reaches zero. Increment on connect, decrement on disconnect
- Add last_seen timestamp — Instead of binary online/offline, store a last_seen timestamp and consider users online if seen within the last 60 seconds
- Debounce status changes — When a user goes offline, wait 5-10 seconds before broadcasting the offline status. If they reconnect in that window, cancel the offline broadcast
- Broadcast presence updates efficiently — Use Socket.io rooms or pub/sub to only notify users who are viewing the presence indicator, not all connected users
Real developers can help you.
Milan Surelia
Milan Surelia is a Mobile App Developer with 5+ years of experience crafting scalable, cross-platform apps at 7Span and Meticha. At 7Span, he engineers feature-rich Flutter apps with smooth performance and modern UI. As the Co-Founder of Meticha, he builds open-source tools and developer-focused products that solve real-world problems.
Expertise:
💡 Developing cross-platform apps using Flutter, Dart, and Jetpack Compose for Android, iOS, and Web.
🖋️ Sharing insights through technical writing, blogging, and open-source contributions.
🤝 Collaborating closely with designers, PMs, and developers to build seamless mobile experiences.
Notable Achievements:
🎯 Revamped the Vepaar app into Vepaar Store & CRM with a 2x performance boost and smoother UX.
🚀 Launched Compose101 — a Jetpack Compose starter kit to speed up Android development.
🌟 Open source contributions on Github & StackOverflow for Flutter & Dart
🎖️ Worked on improving app performance and user experience with smart solutions.
Milan is always happy to connect, work on new ideas, and explore the latest in technology.
Jacek Rozanski
Senior PHP/Symfony developer and DevOps engineer with 20+ years of professional experience, running opcode.pl (web development agency, est. 2004).
Day job: I'm the sole backend developer at merketing company where I own and maintain 11 PHP/Symfony microservices on AWS (ECS Fargate, RDS, S3, CloudFront), handle the full CI/CD pipeline (Bitbucket Pipelines, Docker), and manage monitoring with Sentry and CloudWatch. These services handle high request volumes in production every month.
What I bring to AI-built apps:
- I audit and fix security issues (OWASP methodology), performance bottlenecks, and architectural problems in codebases generated by Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable, Bolt, and v0
- I refactor AI-generated prototypes into production-grade applications with proper error handling, testing, and clean architecture (SOLID, DDD, hexagonal architecture)
- I set up the infrastructure AI tools don't touch: AWS hosting, CI/CD pipelines, automated deployments, database optimization, monitoring, and alerting
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Tech stack: PHP 8.x, Symfony, React, Next.js, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Docker, AWS (ECS, RDS, S3, SQS/SNS, CloudFront), Terraform, Supabase. I also use AI tools daily (Claude Code, Cursor) in my own workflow, so I understand both the strengths and the gaps in AI-generated code.
Based in Poland (CET timezone). Available for async work and calls during EU/US business hours.
Franck Plazanet
I am a Strategic Engineering Leader with over 8 years of experience building high-availability enterprise systems and scaling high-performing technical teams. My focus is on bridging the gap between complex technology and business growth.
Core Expertise:
🚀 Leadership: Managing and coaching teams of 15+ engineers, fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
🏗️ Architecture: Enterprise Core Systems, Multi-system Integration (ERP/API/ETL), and Core Database Structure.
☁️ Cloud & Scale: AWS Expert; architected systems handling 10B+ monthly requests and managing 100k+ SKUs.
📈 Business Impact: Aligning tech strategy with P&L goals to drive $70k+ in monthly recurring revenue.
I thrive on "out-of-the-box" thinking to solve complex technical bottlenecks and am always looking for ways to use automation to improve business productivity.
Kingsley Omage
Fullstack software engineer passionate about AI Agents, blockchain, LLMs.
rayush33
JavaScript (React.js, React Native, Node.js) Developer with demonstrated industry experience of 4+ years, actively looking for opportunities to hone my skills as well as help small-scale business owners with solutions to technical problems
Pratik
SWE with 15+ years of experience building and maintaining web apps and extensive BE infrastructure
Bastien Labelle
Full stack dev w/ 20+ years of experience
Matthew Butler
Systems Development Engineer @ Amazon Web Services
David Olverson
Solo dev shipping production apps with AI-assisted development. I specialize in rescuing broken Lovable/Bolt/Cursor builds and taking them to production. 10+ apps shipped including SaaS CRMs, gaming platforms, real estate tools, and Discord bots. Stack: Next.js 16, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Prisma. I use Claude Code with 50+ custom skills for rapid delivery. Average turnaround: 2-4 weeks from broken prototype to production.
Mehdi Ben Haddou
- Founder of Chessigma (1M+ users) & many small projects
- ex Founding Engineer @Uplane (YC F25)
- ex Software Engineer @Amazon and @Booking.com
You don't need to be technical. Just describe what's wrong and a verified developer will handle the rest.
Get HelpFrequently Asked Questions
How often should presence heartbeats be sent?
Every 15-30 seconds is typical. Shorter intervals detect disconnections faster but increase server load. Set the offline threshold to 2x the heartbeat interval (e.g., heartbeat every 20s, offline after 40s of no heartbeat).
Should I store presence in the database or Redis?
Use Redis. Presence data changes constantly and needs TTL-based expiration. Storing it in your main database creates unnecessary write load. Redis keys with TTL naturally expire, handling abnormal disconnections automatically.