Today, when your morning starts with instant messaging apps and dawn comes with video chats, can you imagine a day without online chat solutions? Of course not. From customer interaction to the personal messages, instant and video chat solution is the prominent part of communication circles in 2020 and WhatsApp is on the top charts with 1.5 billion users.
If you are intruded with on-demand message apps and want to develop your own app similar to WhatsApp, Arthonsys has prepared a complete solution of the video chat app development process to help you out.
Why WhatsApp’s Ruling On-demand Message Apps Industry?
WhatsApp is a brainchild of Jan Koum and Brian Acton. In 2009, it was launched on the iPhone App Store with no alternative. This application has defined the norms for chat solutions for mobile apps. In the initial phase, WhatsApp including features like –
- Sending photos and audio files;
- Sharing geo data;
- Sending contact details;
- Sending voice messages;
With the acceleration in WhatsApp’s popularity, now you can make audio and video calls with this platform. Plus, the WhatsApp business appeased the customer interaction level. Additionally, WhatsApp is constantly evolving and offering dynamic features like an end to end encryption. WhatsApp might be ruling the instant chat solutions, but if you have an idea to elevate instant messaging and video chat apps, you shouldn’t let that go.
How to Make Instant/Video Chat App?
To build instant chat solutions for mobile apps, you have to follow a simple pathway –
Pick a Business Model
Foremost, you have to figure out all the business side of video chat app development. You need to define your audience – for whom you want to create an app. Next, you have to create a monetization plan to earn from your app. Further, if you want to beat your competitors, you have to mark the shortcomings of your competitors and try them to overcome in your live chat solution app.
Determine Features
Once you have formulated the business model, you have to determine which features you want to embed in your app and how you can do that. For instance, WhatsApp uses the YAWS web server to store multimedia files and FreeBSD operating systems to power servers. Similarly, you have to figure out your app features and technologies to implement them.
Set your Budget
You need to set a budget to develop a messaging app because you can’t spend too much or less on your app. From app development to promotion, you required a significant amount to make a successful app. The budget structure depends upon the features, technologies, and numerous other features. So, sit with your team and define your instant app solutions budget prior to starting the development process.
Find an App Development Company
Can you sail without a boat? No, right – in the same way, you can’t develop on-demand messaging apps without the support of a progressive app development company. From server sustainability to the coding structure of your app, you have to consider all the factors before selecting a team to develop your app. Nowadays, you can also hire app development remotely to increase the scaling and productivity level of your app. Finding the best instant messaging app development company is a highly crucial part of the development cycle.
Features of Live Chat Solution
If you want to satisfy your users and gain a competitive edge, you have to pay special attention to the app features. Taking inspiration from WhatsApp, we have composed the list of the essential features of live chat solution –
- Contact Integration – When you register with WhatsApp, it will automatically add contacts from your phone address book. The sole purpose of the messaging app is to interact with your contacts. So, you should consider adding a one-tap social media contact list syncing for the convenience of users.
- Interesting Messaging – Sending and receiving different formats of messages is the USB of WhatsApp. Moreover, it also lets you save chat history for future references. Now, these instant messaging solutions aren’t that easy as it looks, but you have to take it even ahead. For instance, you can add custom stickers, digital dialogues, or something else to elevate the level of instant messaging.
- Push Notifications – It is a small feature that you can implement while developing the MVP, but the impact of this feature is gigantic from a marketing point of view. Thus, you should try to jazz up push notifications feature to stay connected with your users.
- Multimedia Sharing and Integration – You can focus on enhancing the multimedia sharing features also. By analyzing the different multimedia options, you can surely find a way to make your app distinctive. Our suggestion would be integrating the app with cloud services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, etc.
- Advanced Location Technology – The option of location sharing is highly popular among users. Thus, if you find a way to make it advanced, you can surely impress your users. By tweaking with new location sciences, you can effortlessly empower your app with geolocation.
On-demand Message Apps Development Cost
To be honest, predicting the app development cost is impossible without intensive knowledge. The app development cost primarily depends upon the features and technologies used in the app. Thus, accurate app development costs can be generated after understanding the app model. According to a rough estimate, live app solution development costs can be anywhere between $55-$70K or even more.
Core Team to Develop Live Chat Solution
If you want to build or hire a core team to develop your video chat app, you required to appoint following professionals in your online chat solutions team –
- Manager – A person who has the responsibility to fully manage the development process after communicating with all the associated parties.
- Project Manager – It’s a responsibility to determine the smooth flow of the development process.
- Project Analyst – Project manager can perform the duties of project analyst, but hiring two individual professionals is the ideal solution.
- App Developers – Depending upon the tech stack involved in the project, a dev team can be assembled. Generally, having 2-5 front end developers and back end developers, along with 2-3 post-release specialized developers in the development team, is recommended.
- Testing Engineers – You need 2-3 quality assurance engineers in your team to eliminate bugs from your app.
- UX Designer – To design an engaging and interactive structure of the app, your development team should have 2-3 UX designers.
Final Words
Chat solutions for mobile apps can instantly be developed with the support of the right team. Once you have an amazing idea to create an instant messaging app like WhatsApp, you just need a proficient team to implement your idea. When you are looking for a trustworthy and experienced video chat app development team, you simply have to consult with Arthonsys and launch your messaging app instantly.
