How to Build a Messaging Apps, Useful Insights You Should Know

The success stories of messaging giants has forced startups to think over how to build a messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger.

In this post, I will guide you through chat app development aspects: from basic MVP features to development steps and monetization models. You’ll also learn how much it costs to develop a custom messenger application. 

Is It Worth to Build a Messaging Apps?

Suppose you want to build a powerful chat app to compete with popular messengers like WhatsApp or Telegram. In that case, you need to figure out how many people utilize them, how much time they spend in the app, and determine the core competitors. Obtained data will allow you to make reasoned decisions in the future.

According to Statista, the number of messaging app users will grow to 3 million by the end of 2022. Messenger marketing results in a 70% better open rate than email marketing.

The main reason why people use chat apps are:

• • No hold times
  • Convenient
  • Submit records of a chat
  • Handle multiple tasks
  • Can utilize at work

People interact with messaging applications at least 10 minutes daily.

Finally, before starting messaging app development, you should be aware of market leaders to come up with unique business solutions. Here are the top five messaging apps based on a number of active users globally:

1. 1. WhatsApp
   2.  Facebook Messenger
   3. WeChat
   4. Telegram
   5. Snapchat

Delving deeper into competitor analysis, you’ll reveal hundreds of live chat apps you’ll have to rival with. The competition is tough, and you’ll need to do a great job to stand out and attract users’ attention. However, there is always a chance for exciting projects. So, ensure the messaging app you make can offer users an outstanding experience.

Must-Have Features for Messaging Application

To understand how to build a chat app, you should determine the functionality implemented. Features and in-app content are what define the users’ choice most. This means you need to select the right set of features to develop a user-oriented app. I’ve rounded up the core features for the messaging app to help you create an MVP version of the product. As your startup scales, you will be able to add advanced features.

1. Authorization

This is the basic but most vital feature of all chat apps. Typically, there are three ways to sign up:

• • Phone number
  • Email
  • Enter via social media

Let’s discuss each of them in more detail.

• • Registration via phone number. For signing up via phone number, engineers need to make a mechanism that connects with the client-side of the app and operation system the device runs on. Thus, the client-side will be able to respond to the request (confirmation SMS ) transmitted by the server. 
  • Registration via social media & email. Mobile developers can utilize the open authorization protocol or directly interact with the client-server API to implement this option.

2. Importing Contacts

It’s vital to provide automation importation of all required contacts to meet users’ expectations. Mobile engineers can develop messaging apps that examine all the users’ contacts and transmit them to the server. 

To implement this, developers may build a mechanism comparing user’s contacts with records in the app’s database. If the match is identified, the app indicates those users on the client-side.

3. Instant Messaging

This feature is the heart of messenger development. It can be carried out in two ways. The main differences between those methods are that the messages are moved from user to user in the first case, in the second — through the server.

Method #1. The first method means that messages aren’t saved on the server. Instead, the only authentication is performed by the server. After that, each message is coded by an asymmetric cryptography algorithm (public-key cryptography) and is provided to the receiver via the wireless mesh network.

Method #2. Applying the second method to messaging app development, the information will be stored on the central server. Therefore, the users will interact with the server through the HTTPS protocol with SSL cryptography. If you want your chat app to support real-time messaging, you’ll need to lower the polling interval to 1-2 seconds. This method may also encompass additional cryptography (when a message is moved to the user in an encrypted form).

If you’re planning to build an app with video chat, you should choose video and audio codecs that’ll provide a high-quality video at the minimum Internet speed. The video and audio quality should be able to change during the call, depending on the connection speed.

4. File Sharing

Want to create a messaging application that will definitely make its place in the sun? Then, make it possible for customers to share various content (photos, videos, documents, etc.).

App developers can utilize special APIs or cross the information to the server using SOAP and RESTful APIs to implement file sharing functionality. 

The primary purpose of this feature is to enable people to send existing files, make photos and videos from the application, and share them with friends.

5. Tracking Location

CLLocationManager Class (iOS) and android.location package (Android) classes can be utilized to implement geolocation features into the messaging app.

How can users benefit from it? They can share their current place with friends or define the location of a particular area (store, office, cafe, etc.). For instance, in Telegram, a user can make a route from their current address to the received place.

6. Encryption

Taking into account the rising amount of stealing private data, robust encryption is crucial for any app. If you want to develop a chat application, you have to ensure the safety of clients’ data. That’s why you need to look for security and compliance specialists for messaging app development.

Let’s consider the encryption types based on chat app like Telegram:

• • Cloud Messages. This type is a traditional encryption method.
  • Secret Chats. When users switch on the chat mode, the messages are encrypted in an entirely different way — end-to-end. All the messages in Secret Chat can be decoded only using a smartphone. There are also additional security functions you can consider such as notifications about making screenshots of a chat, a ban for message transmission to users outside the chat, etc.

Security features are a must-have nowadays since every user wants to feel safe and private utilizing messenger. Hence, if you’re going to launch a successful messaging app, you need to add many security and privacy features.

Cost to Create/Build a Messaging Apps

Before moving to messenger app development costs, let’s consider how much time it takes to implement the basic features for this type of app. Then, as an example, I will consider the development time and price of a WhatsApp-like app.

The total number of hours includes time spent on iOS-, Android app development, Back-end development, and UI/UX design for each mobile platform separately.

• • iOS/Android — from 578 hours to 852 hours
  • Back-end — between  524 hours and 768 hours
  • UI/UX design — from 60 hours to 80 hours

It takes approximately from 1740 hours to 2632 hours to develop a chat app. Unfortunately, it’s challenging to provide a detailed time estimate due to the complexity of additional features. Keep in mind that development time may vary depending on your requirements.

If you want to know the price, you need to multiply the time by the hourly rate of chosen software developers. The estimate below is based on the average hourly rate of $50/hour in Eastern Europe. 

• • Creating an app for the iOS/Android platform will vary between $28,900 to $42,600.
  • It will take from $26,200 to $38,400 to implement back-end part
  • The cost for UI/UX design (for one platform) will vary between $3,000 to $4,000.

Consequently, the total cost of making an app like Whatsapp will start from $90,000 and go up to $131,600.

How to Make/Build a Messaging Apps [Final Checklist]

Below you’ll find a short checklist that helps you learn how to create a messaging app.

• • Step 1. Conduct market research.
  • Step 2. Define the market leaders of your chat app.
  • Step 3. Pick up relevant features to build your instant messaging app.
  • Step 4. Choose the mobile platform(s) to develop an app for.
  • Step 5. Consider the monetization strategy for your chat app.
  • Step 6. Jot down all your ideas
  • Step 7. Decide on the features set for the MVP version
  • Step 8. Hire experienced software developers or IT development company
  • Step 9. Share your product vision with the team
  • Step. 10 Be entirely involved in the project to obtain better results.
  • Step 11. Think through a marketing strategy and start a promotion campaign before the app’s publication.  
  • Step 12. Release the app on  Google Play or App Store. 
  • Step 13. Maintain the app and add new features over time.

Below you’ll find the tech stack that can be utilized to make a messaging application. Keep reading.

Technology Stack for App Creation

Android chat app development uses Java and Kotlin programming languages, while iOS-based messaging apps require Swift and Objective C. 

To make it possible for users to authorize the system, you need a 3rd party API to guarantee hackers won’t extract personal data.  For instance, Nexmo API is utilized to verify users through phone numbers, while social media account confirmations use Facebook SDK and Twitter Kit tools.

Voice calling and video calling features require Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. WebSocket enables server-app interaction to send and secure message information. Other data is kept with different databases.

The technology stack may range depending on the app’s functionality demand. You can refer article on technology stacks of Android and iOS.

How to Monetize Your Own Chat App?

Here are several ways you can make a profit with your messaging app:

• • Advertisement model. Choosing this way of monetization ensures your app won’t be overloaded with ads. Otherwise, there is a risk of users’ outflow. The ads shouldn’t annoy them and fill up too much space on the app’s screen.
  • In-app purchases. You can make money by enabling users to purchase additional content (e.g., sticker packs, games, themes, etc.).
  • Subscription-based model. This model implies that users need to subscribe to a premium model to access additional options (in-app calls, turn off the ads, etc.). However, the subscription model is a good choice if you have a broad client base. It’ll be hard for a new-release chat application to compete with market leaders that are distributed for free.

Summing Up

As you see, to build a messaging apps development requires detailed preparation steps since there are many factors to think of and diversified features you can implement. The final look of your chat app will depend on your preferences. First, however, you need to hire a reliable IT vendor with extensive experience and expertise in this field. This way, you’ll be able to deliver a powerful and trusted software solution to your customers.

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