DEV Community: GOMEEKI

HOW TO CREATE A MESSAGING APP LIKE WHATSAPP

GOMEEKI — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 02:47:43 +0000

It is amazing how the evolution of technology has affected our social interactions. Nowadays, people would rather speak to friends and family over the phone or through a messaging app than have a face-to-face conversation. This has led to increasing popularity of messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, and SnapChat. Although there are a lot of messaging apps around, there is still a lot of potential in the market for new business owners.
WhatsApp is the biggest messaging app around with close to a billion users sending over 30 billion messages every day. However, the messaging app industry still has a vast amount of room for more investors. You can turn your business idea into a success by building an app like WhatsApp and putting it in the market, preferably with some unique features.

Before we go into how you can create your app, let us look at some essential features your app should have:

Using a QuickType feature makes typing a message easier for your users. Everyone wants to do things in the most natural way possible and providing the means will attract users to your app.

Emojis have come to stay in this age of online social interactions. Emojis add life and fun to a chat, and the new predictive emoji input has made its use more pronounced. Therefore, if you want to keep your customers, you should add an emoji to your messaging app.

Multimedia sharing should not be ignored, as most social media apps base their success on multimedia sharing. The prospect of sharing of multimedia files alone can attract a good number of users to your app.

Now, what does it take to create a messaging app like WhatsApp? Let’s look at basic, essential features.

Registration Page and Contact Integration
The first thing a user is required to do on a chat app is to sign in with their phone number. Then make sure contacts from their address book are added, as the more contacts a user has, the more they will use your app. Adding an option for users to customize their profile also gives them something to play around with, which adds to the appeal of your app. However, this option adds to the cost of building the app.

Messaging
It goes without saying that users should be able to exchange messages on your app. As simple as that may sound, there is a lot of little detail you must work into the app to achieve this. You need to think of other messaging features that give users a unique experience. For example, you can use the disappearing-message feature that deletes messages after they are read.

This is where the emojis come in, and you can use stickers that help users express emotions. Other features you may consider are the group chat and private chat, though, they add to the cost of building the app.

Notifications
It is important that your users be notified of new messages on your app. Therefore, you need to incorporate this feature into the app in its development stage. The regular reminder of new messages increases the use of your app as it helps to keep a chat going. You should also provide the option of muting or shutting off the notification, as some users may not want this feature. You can use Apple Push Notification and Google Cloud Messaging for this feature.

Media File Transmission
This feature is a significant determinant of how user-friendly your chat app is. If you want to create a messaging app like WhatsApp, you must go beyond emojis and texts to allow your users to share photos, gifs, stickers, and so on. There is no doubt about how compelling a picture can be in a real-time chat. You can even spice things up by including the option of adding text to the photos. Pretty cool right? Another smart idea is to synchronize the chat with cloud services.
Other Essential Features

Many other features will make your app more attractive to potential users. You can add a few important ones at first then add others as your business grows. Some of these features are video chats, voice calls, in-app purchase and subscription, event planning and calendar.

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Messaging App like WhatsApp?
A number of things influence the cost of an app like WhatsApp. The most significant factor is the amount of functions you want to be included in the app. The more features your app will have, the more the cost of building the app. You should bear in mind that the team handling the development of your app would determine the quality of your app.

If you are thinking of building an app like WhatsApp and you need a team that will handle the project to give you a top quality app. You can review our blog post here, which highlights how to hire an app developer - https://www.gomeeki.com/hire-an-app-developer/

6 Tips to Help You Choose a Top App Development Company

GOMEEKI — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 06:37:55 +0000

When you make a decision to build a mobile app for your business, there are important factors that you have to consider before handing the project to any mobile app development company. Going on Google to do a simple search might end up being an expensive mistake. A lot of people advertise themselves as top app developers – and maybe they do have knowledge of the business – but you would be better served sacrificing some of your time to do some necessary research before choosing to give the project to app development company that would execute your needs to mitigate the risk in the project. For the purpose of this article, we will briefly outline six tips for choosing the best mobile application development company in Australia or anywhere in the world.

Identify the difference between a top app developer, web designers, and a freelancer

This point is not a swipe at freelancers in any way, but you should know that while there may be a lot of people that can build mobile apps, there is a difference in quality, and more importantly being around into the future to provide ongoing support once the application has been released into the market. If you run a small scale business that is specifically working with a very limited budget, you might be tempted to work with freelancers for your app development needs. But be sure to ask your shortlisted freelance android developer or apple developer about the past development jobs with some client references. You can also check their qualification whether they have done software engineering or a mobile developer certification that will give you more confidence in understanding their expertise in the different operating system. The easy way to verify is via social media platforms like LinkedIn or Behance.

However, if you’re a mid-to-large scale business, you should not even consider this option.

Mobile apps are a big part of the growth of your business and you must not compromise on quality. Apart from the fact that freelancers are hardly ever specialists in all the niches, they will also work for you based on their own schedule. On the flip side, genuine mobile application development companies will work on your schedule, and they will have specialist experts that deliver successfully against your business objectives. Generally, you are guaranteed better quality and better insurance of your project’s success.

Identify your app development needs

This requires that you have enough clarity about your business and how exactly an app development company will help you to drive it forward. Before you worry about the functionality and features that you want in the app that will be built for you, you should take your time to establish what the business needs, and if indeed you actually do require an app to be developed, as it will help you while you are evaluating your options for app development.

Identify the needs of your end consumers

This is even more important than identifying the needs of the business itself, as there really is no point in developing a mobile app that doesn’t perform the functions your customers want to use. The consumers drive your business, so you must identify what they want from you – possibly by conducting a survey or monitoring user behavior and work with an app development company that can deliver these capabilities.

Consider your local app development options

Say, for example, your business runs nationwide, but your headquarters is in Sydney. You should take a look at app development companies in Sydney and consider them in your search for a partner. Evaluate them with the other tips we have provided and if they check the right boxes, then seek out an initial discussion to better evaluate if they’re a right fit for you.

Look for experienced and top app developer

One other important step that you have to take when choosing a app development company is to do your research and find out about the businesses that the company has worked for in the past. This will provide you with potentially valuable information, because you might find a mobile app development company that has worked with a client in the same niche as you, meaning that the company already has experience with the kind of job you want them to do for you.

Consider the value of your Investment

Cost of app development can be one of the factors that you should consider while selecting a good mobile app development company, though cheapest isn’t always great. Spending a few extra dollars for a reputable mobile application development company will deliver additional value in the long run. Sometimes that extra $10k you invest with a more experienced provider will mitigate the risk of the entire budget you might be allocated with a lesser experienced firm.