Text messages have become an integral part of our communication process. A broad functionality that satisfies all the requirements of the audience is a target that many entrepreneurs are striving to obtain.
There is already a variety of prosperous solutions on the market defining how profitable the messaging app implementation is. Let’s take a deeper dive into the key architecture steps, tips, a list of the most in-demand tech products for messaging, and a discussion of the basic functionality for this type of application.
Research and Insights for Messengers
Prior to starting the chatting software project implementation, it is worth assessing the current market state to define whether your solution will become sought-after.
Due to a recent report, chatting software has come in handy for 80% of individuals from 19 to 64 years old.
As for the driving reasons for such a successful statistic, they are disclosed in another research and are as follows:
- Eliminated setbacks
- Simplicity and usage comfort
- Messages history storing
- Optimization of workflow
- Multifunctional solution
On average, the minimal number of messaging applications downloaded on the mobile devices of the modern audience is two. Approximately ten minutes are spent on the usage daily. The row of top chatting market giants is as follows:
- Facebook Messenger
- QQ Mobile
- Skype
- Viber
- Snapchat
- Line
- Telegram
As we may conclude, the messaging sector is pretty competitive. Nevertheless, in case you track the requirements of your customers, keep upgrading the functionality and implement booming solutions into your chatting software, there are no obstacles for you to gain a devoted target audience and obtain high profit. But what functionality is worth realizing to stand out from the crowd? Let’s observe the critical features to attract the first users.
Chatting Software: Key Features to Implement
The primary aspect to think over is the future product functionality. Besides, you should create a flawless, unique design that will ensure pleasant interactions between the solution and the customers to deliver a high satisfaction rate.
We have split the functionality into two sections: essential and advanced features. Consequently, the first group is integral to designing a minimum viable product and launching it. Further, you will be able to enhance your application with the second list of advanced functionality elements to engage and retain your client base.
Essential functionality for the messaging software
Let’s discover the primary features without which the product won’t fulfill its key purposes:
Signing up/in
The registration process allows users to create a profile in your chatting app and start product utilization. Traditionally, this process may be accomplished with a row of methods mentioned below:
- Sign up using the phone number or the email address
- Signing in via existing social media accounts
The first model requires architecting an algorithm that communicates with the product’s customer side as well as the gadget’s platform. Open authorization protocol is applied to implement the second authorization way.
Phone book transmission
Robotised transferring of the contact list is another key feature to realize. The software executes the analysis of the entire phone book, afterward transferring it to the server.
Contacts who already have the app installed and are registered in it should be displayed as well. The operation principle is that the program matches the software database with the user’s phone book.
An excellent feature to have for audience growth is to allow clients to send invitations to their contacts this way motivating them to download and run your chatting solution.
Immediate texting
There are a couple of popular methods to implement this integral functionality element, the key diversity of which lie in data transferring flow. The first strategy requires server processing, and the second occurs straightforwardly between contacts.
In the case with video and audio calls realization, w architecture should provide for the unstable connection via wifi/cellular data. The transmission models are the same as with messages. To avoid service failure, you may apply the direct model.
Data delivery
Information exchange is key to every communication. Therefore, your software should enable exchanging the great variety of digital objects like images, recordings, files, etc. The implementation requires the utilization of certain APIs, such as SOAP and RESTful.
Geolocation services
Sending the current location with the other users or sending the placement of specific objects on the map (e.g., shopping malls, grocery stores, hotels, restaurants) is the primary purpose of this feature. To realize this useful function, app software engineers make use of CLLocation Class for the iOS platform and Android.location package for Android, accordingly.
Security
Data encryption is a solid method to overcome the issues related to confidentiality loss. Safety may be guaranteed by embedding cloud or secret chats, as those solutions are considered to be pretty robust encryption models. Don’t negotiate sufficient security methods architecture as privacy-related issues result in damaging your credibility as well as your income.
Extra functionality for a messenger
Below we’ll give some hints on which advanced features you may satisfy your audience with:
- Voice calls and messages
- Video calls and messages
- Calling numerous contacts in the group
- Channel creation
- Disappearing text messages
Messenger Architecture: Checklist
The following points describe essentials to comply with to make your chatting application relevant and demanded:
Access to multiple operating systems
By implementing the product for the most widely used platform, you cover the maximum audience possible. Apart from App Store and Google Play, there’s an option to launch a web solution of your chatting software to provide access to the browser regardless of the device and OS it runs on. Web products are universal and will contribute to the audience’s rapid growth.
Cloud environment
It keeps and syncs the messaging history as well as all of the shared docs, links, and other in-chat objects. This is also the perfect way to gain competitiveness over huge market players like Viber and WhatsApp.
An appropriate set of solutions
The tech kit to apply is majorly defined by the functionality as well as the operating system the message is designed for. The approximate list of digital tools to apply is as follows: Android architecture requires Kotlin and Retrofit 2 usage, while iOS predefines applying Swift and Alamofire.
Chatting Software Monetization Models
It’s time to take a look at the most valuable part of the entire chatting software development. There are several ways to gain profit from your application:
- Promotions and banners placement
- Additional content buying (stickers, color schemes, advanced functionality elements)
- The subscription fee for extra features access
Estimate for Messaging Software Architecture
Let’s outline the approximate calculation for the time (in hours) required to design a messenger.
- iOS and Android architecture: 578-852
- Backend implementation: 524-768
- Creating UI/UX design for a single OS: 60-80
- Summary: 1740-2632
Costs for Product Implementation
To calculate the most precise amount of financial investments needed for product implementation, you should multiply the hourly rate for the software development services of the chosen vendor by the number of hours required to implement the solution. As an instance, if we take the hourly rate equal to $50, we’ll receive a total sum ranging between $90.000-$131.600.
Apart from this, it is worth mentioning that the future product quality is determined by the IT provider you select. In case the potential partner is competent in a wide range of digital products development like create question and answer website, healthcare CRM, supply chain optimization solutions, and other fields, it’s a decent and reliable vendor.
Summarize
Messaging is a simple and convenient communication method, and the digital products for this process are projected to stay relevant and demanded permanently. However, the perfect and competitive application can be implemented only in cooperation with a solid software development provider, so you should be sufficiently scrupulous in terms of partner choosing.