Feature Update for Messaging App to Suit Your Requirements

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Every messaging app has its pinch...and when we log-in and use...it goes better than manifesting satisfaction and excitement, context is vital. Check the feature update and beyond!

We are all sitting down to a hot bowl of consequences (Credits: COVID-19). Things have been strange lately. Communicating on our phone has gone far beyond simple short messages and voice calls (phone calls, data calls). We have social messengers, professional messengers that are so power-packed and challenging, to settle on which services are worth our time.

Different cultural contexts have led to varying applicability of social media. The apps didn’t alter how people were behaving but rather people changed and repurposed the way the platforms worked for them. If that seemed mundane and normal in one context, it was almost impossible to fathom when trans-placed somewhere else.

Citing an example of an ethnographer Elisabetta Costa here, who once talked to women in southeast Turkey about how they used Facebook. Her participants were amazed to discover that people in some countries commonly had only one Facebook account and that it would contain their real details. “Don’t they use pseudonyms or fake profiles?” said one respondent. “I can’t believe it. How could it be possible?”

Many researchers are making similar discoveries, hitting their ground running. Technology is not driving people apart. There is mounting evidence to counter the idea that social media has been contributing to the problem of social ties in the weakening of human relations. Rather the technology has rearranged how social ties are maintained, and how the culture influences the way we use the technology. The medium may change but the end product is not drastically different.

The Popularity: How to make Messaging Apps?

Although people often consume themselves in mind-less browsing of social media profiles. This incessant focus on apps (as the main force pushing us to new frontiers in the communication) helps swipe aside the differences amongst common friends, thus adding a new experience to surrounding culture co-existing with the technology.

The past few days have gone by in an absolute blur. Few of us, most of us, all of us have been waiting for that nudge from the universe to just try picking up the phone, and start texting, video calling and zoom! Mobile messaging apps offer a superior alternative to email and text messaging with their extraordinary built-in networking features, enhanced security, free video-calling over Wi-Fi or Data Plans.

The Need: How to make Chat Apps?

New Messenger 2020 apps are fast, simple, and free and can help users manage all your conversation (voice, chat, and video) without much botheration. Messaging apps are preferred over traditional text messaging apps (pre-installed in phones) because:

  • These are normally free.
  • Helpful for contacting friends, co-workers, family (without incurring any charges as they work on the internet)
  • Helpful in contacting employees in different time-zones (offshore developers)
  • Messaging apps have end-to-end encryption, password access and automatic message deletion.
  • Additionally, there are some truly amazing features like: “Delete for everyone”, “Delete for self” – where a sender has the liberty to delete a message (text, voice, video, image) within 60 minutes of sending across.
  • While a receiver gets notified about the message by incoming pop-up, the sender gets notified if the receiver has read the message or not via the colour of the “ticks”.
  • Top Messaging apps have features to create groups/chat rooms, broadcast messages, facility to save posts (in Facebook)/star the messages (in Whatsapp)
  • Popular messaging apps have amazing features like two-step verification, changing the phone number, requesting account info, inactivating or deleting the account completely. Also the data can be migrated, if backed-up on cloud or Google servers in case the user changes their smartphone device.

The Toppers: Best Android/iOS Messaging Apps in 2020

Apart from all-time famous social media apps like Facebook Messenger, Apple’s FaceTime and Skype here is a list of best messaging apps for desktop and mobile devices.

  • Adaptable and light-on-data: WhatsApp Messenger
  • Simplified Security: Signal Private Messenger
  • For professionals and pro-members: Slack
  • For game chat: Discord
  • Best paid Features: LINE: Free Calls & Messages
  • Google Hangouts
  • Best for Video Calls: Facebook Messenger
  • Filters/Mimicry/Videography/Self-destructing photos: Snapchat
  • Community Chat: Telegram
  • Alternative to popular chat apps: WeChat
  • Chat, coordinate, or share: GroupMe
  • Unlimited Group Conversations: Viber Messenger
  • Best Walkie-Talkie App: Voxer
  • No User Account Required: HeyTell
  • Works like a normal phone number: Talkatone
  • Most secure messaging app: Silent Phone

The Essentials: for the Best Chat App

Features:

(P.S: Every messaging app has its features)

  • SMS & MMS
  • Group messaging
  • Blocked Contacts SMS, MMS
  • Delete Message
  • Dual SIM
  • Mute Notifications
  • Add contacts via messages
  • Quick Dial
  • Send files as large as 100 MB
  • Built-in map to share GPS location
  • Send Money through the app
  • Send stickers and GIF images
  • Unlimited message storage
  • Admin-controlled chats
  • Message recall
  • Extreme notifications
  • Chat broadcasting
  • Hands-free walkie-talkie mode
  • Get free short message themes for Android Phones with Theme Messenger For SMS, Theme Dark Mode, Theme Rain, etc. iPhone messaging Apps for Android allow creating your own themes, design-stylish conversation interface, make use of amazing fonts for your application.
  • Authorization/Authentication – via Google accounts, other social media accounts, or mobile number
  • Importing contacts from other smart-phone device or other accounts
  • Messaging to all contacts and new ones.
  • Sharing media files (audio/images/video/voice)
  • Push Notifications
  • Connected in real-time
  • Voice and Video Calling
  • Instant one to one and group chats
  • Additional operations
  • Supports Multimedia Attachments
  • Encrypted Communication
  • Self-Destructing Messages
  • On-Schedule Messages
  • Implementing Chatbots
  • Messaging to destined users with an invisible ink approach – that can be decrypted only by those who have decryption code.
  • Good to have in-app gaming, in-app purchases to monetize (sometimes a subscription is required to remove the advertisements)
  • Including monetization models: subscription fee, advertising, in-app purchases and sponsorship

Technology Stack for a Chat App (WeChat, WhatsApp, Viber)

WhatsappWeChatViber
LanguageErlang, PHPErlangNative
DatabaseMnesiaEnMicroMsg

DB and SQLCipher

Mongo DB
ProtocolXMPPHTTPSSIP

(Session Initiation Protocol)

ServerEjabbered, YAWS, LighttpdEjabberd, IceWarp, iChat, Openfire, ProsodyAWS

(Amazon web Services),

Nginx

(As a load balancer & webserver)

Operating SystemFreeBSD

Additionally, RESTful API, databases, storage servers, messaging protocols like XMPP, notification services are an essential part of the technology stack of the real-time chat application.

Well planned security, robust back-end, attractive user interface, Push notifications, Integration of geo-location, Cloud synchronization and the target audience for iOS or Android platforms (native or cross-platform app) – are all essential features that have to be present to make alternatives to Viber for smartphones work.

Cost of Apps for Free Text Messaging

  • A basic messaging app: $50K – $80K (can be developed in 3-5 months)
  • A Medium messaging app: $1, 00, 000 – $1, 20, 000 (requires 6.9 months to be developed)
  • A Comprehensive messaging app: $2, 40, 000+ (can be developed in 9+ months)

Ratiocination: Considering Features, Cost Factors and Technology Stack to Create iOS/Android Messaging App

Availability of the servers to develop a multi-grade chat app, noting on real-time communication servers, instant data exchange between the apps and servers – figuring out how to make a messaging app can be quite complicated with a wide range of protocols available for every messaging landscape such as MQTT, WebSockets – BOSH, XMPP, Long polling & COMET. Each chat application architecture is created differently, manifesting various functionalities, it becomes equally important to strike a chord between the available frameworks and those that are required to be learnt. Pretty much complicated here with all-inclusive React, Xamarin, Python, Objective-C, Java, .Net, erlang, Cocoa with a possibility of extending the chat application across platforms (Android, iOS and web). To create a chat messenger application like Whatsapp, we need to choose the framework with high library standards and that is supported by different channels. Adding to it, it is essential to put in the required security with layers of end-to-end encryption, AES, HIPAA, HMAC to ensure the messages carried between servers and chat apps are completely shielded. While selecting the tech stack to ensure security it is important for the functionality to adapt to the application.

While developers create a messaging app, they need to source the real-time messaging SDKs and chat APIs along with figuring out the Self-hosted (On-premises) vs. Hosted Chat Application Possibility viz-a-viz everything that is required to customize the chat application and Hosted service is the SaaS-based application. Learn more.

Disclaimer: In case we host the chat service for clients, we don’t access or have complete control over the chat source code, configuration of the features and customizations. Self-hosted service offers end-to-end accessibility and control to customize the chat functionalities and features that adapt to our business needs.

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About Author
Manish Jain

Manish Jain

Manish Jain is the co-founder and Managing Director at Konstant Infosolutions. He is responsible for the overall operations of the company and has played a major role in bringing Konstant up from its humble beginnings and, with his immense energy and drive, transforming it into a globally trusted name in IT solutions.

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