Social Media Apps – Page 3

How To Develop An App Like Viber For Android?

Posted on April 20, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

In 2015 only, nearly 75% of mobile users preferred to use instant messaging apps for quick communication. Because of this, the soaring demand to create a chat app has emerged. One such app that has enhanced the quality of interpersonal communication is Viber. Used by people from all walks of life, Viber is a social networking phenomenon and has amazing features which has made it one of the most celebrated chat apps in the world.

Many businesses and companies crave apps like Viber in order to deliver messages conveniently, without any time delay. People who loved Viber want more of such sophisticated experience in their daily life to make their personal conversations more delightful and spontaneous. Since the launch of Viber, the technology to create a chat app for Android users has improved in many ways.

Viber’s History of Making

In later days of 2010, Viber was first launched for iPhone, as competition for Skype. Founded by four Israeli partners (Talmon Marco, Igor Megzinik, Sani Maroli and Ofer Smocha), as a part of an Android app development project, the first Android version of Viber was released in May 2011. This was the restricted version, though, with a limited group of users. After receiving the positive response, Viber was then launched for Blackberry and Windows phone in mid 2012. In July, 2012, the first ever unrestricted version was out.

The Success Factors of Viber: Features and Functionality

Viber’s functionality varies depending on the platform where it is installed. Upon installing, it asks to make a user account where phone number is a username. After the installation process, Viber interacts with phone’s local address book, creating a synchronized organization of contacts.

Viber doesn’t require users to log in to the app to communicate through messages, images or voice calls over 3G/4G and Wi-Fi networks. The software works across various popular mobile and desktop platforms, including Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. The software also supports as many as 30 languages.

Developing apps like Viber for Android

The need for real time communication has inspired the growth of Android app development for Android users. Any chat application must be enriched with stunning features to ensure intuitive messaging and sharing experience. Ever since Viber’s launch, technologies have transformed a lot and now enables spontaneous conversations as expected by today’s users.

As more and more creative updates are introduced in chat apps, it is possible for developers to develop similar apps that improve chat communication standards every time. Each app that ends up in app store has unique attributes and personalized architecture made to amaze its users.

Technologies for Instant Messaging Apps

ERLANG:

It is the superiors programming language used by many high-rated real-time chat apps (Whatsapp, Wechat, etc). It is a general purpose language that enables Android app development for instant messaging apps with great usability and intuitive user experience.

Cassandra:

It is the best easily available chat app creator with reliable scalability. One can replicate multiple datacentres using it and it provides ease to restrict local data outage instances.

Amazon Simple Storage Service:

Amazon cloud storage instils true power to real-time instant messaging apps. Amazon S3 offers secure and scalable cloud storage for data objects and makes the app accessible from everywhere.

Ideal Features of Most Desirable Chat App

The success mantra behind real-time instant chat app lies in its ability to serve users something they desire or something they never really expected. Touching the right sentiment and creating a finest appeal of chat communication is what makes such apps special among users. To create a chat app like Viber, one must make sure it will not just be about serving the purpose of text messages since these users have mature tastes and love surprises in form of unforeseen features and unique approach.

Some of the ideal traits that can make your chat app perform best would be:

Connectivity:

Real-time chat app is the most preferable communication option among today’s folks because of its prompt message delivery. Therefore the app must offer instant connectivity for users.

Quality conversations:

One-on-one and group conversations must be enabled in any modern instant messaging app. The group talk should have the capability to offer quality conversations and convenience to share documents, multimedia files, location details, audio message, and contacts.

Security standards:

Android app development team must focus on providing high security in chat application so that users can rely on the app without having concerns about losing their privacy or data to any third party.

Voice and video calling:

Viber, WhatsApp and Skype lets users avail voice calling services; skype had video calling since the beginning. Team video/voice call, conference talk are some of the features that set business standards in the app and enhance communication experience, making it scalable and more usable.

Presence and availability:

The chat must be laced with clear presence indicators, which is the requirement for any instant communication chat. The different presence status that signal the availability of users are: Online, offline, away, On Break, Busy, In meeting, Be back in, etc.

Search options:

The presence of search functionality enables users to look for conversations of recent past. It gives easy access to specific contacts or their conversations based on shared numbers and facts.

Favourite list:

To create a chat app means giving the users power to do more. By adding an option of gathering friends in favourite list, users can enjoy even more personalized experience.

Profile:

this is the most prominent feature of any instant chat app as it allows users to create their virtual profile with personal details, image and an elaborate stylish status.

Conclusion:

When it comes to creating an instant messaging chat app like Viber, the ideas can be endless. You can do as much as you think in your app. You can find the best Android app development team that understands the concept of developing a real-time chat app thoroughly and have proven experience in the area. It can be a business purpose app or an app that is intended for personal/social conversations with elaborate features and high-quality functionality. You can also make it a fusion of both. No matter what your approach is, the app must turn out to be an intuitive experience for users and engage them in fastest and most personalized communication ever.

15 Movies That Can Take on the Future of Technology

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

The most important thing in a scientific fiction, thriller movie is that you get to watch the endless usage of technological gadgets that could be used in future world. Technology never stays still and it keeps moving forward and so does the concepts in Hollywood industry. And with the advent of computer and app technology, its not at all difficult to portray someone’s vision in movies.

For creators, film makers and story tellers, future technology and the world of imagination has always been a fountain of possibilities and innovations. The rapid evolution of CGI effects and better technology in devices has enabled people to shoot movies even in phones. Night fishing shot on 2011 is the first film which was entirely shot on an iPhone.

The consequences and influence of smart phones in our daily lives has mostly used and explored in the latest released movie ‘starve crow’ which is called to be the world’s first selfie movie. Many of the technologies predicted years ago in movies like swiping gestures, touch-screen computing, motion-controlled sensors are these days used in real.

As digital technology is making changes in film-making, this visual graph depicts the real-world technologies showcased in movies years ago.

Must-have Features for Modern Mobile Messengers

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

Nowadays users wish to use messenger apps not just for basic texting but wish to perform more superior actions such as calling, sending multimedia objects(audio, video, images, documents etc.) while still keeping their security intact.

Like Whatsapp, you may want to create a chat app with outstanding features that define its success. Some of them are:

1) User Login:

There are two options when it comes to allowing users to subscribe to your app’s messenger services. Whatsapp comes with little restrictions and offer users to sign up by typing their phone number and receiving a confirmation message from the app. It simplifies onboarding process for them.

However, things have changed and your app can now support multiple devices. Also, users will be asked to go through a proper sign up process in order to avoid security issues so that people you exchange messages with will have limited access to your online profile. You can decide ultimately which option is more viable for your audience.

2) Rugged and Capable Backend:

You must not compromise while adding high capability to your backend architecture from scratch. Your server will eventually deal with loads of content and messages, which requires you to avoid any occurrence of system downtime. Whatsapp had a robust protocol called XMPP to handle and organize heavy load of messages that are exchanged between users and servers.

The protocol supports group as well as one-on-one communication with its secure, scalable and flexible system. Ejabberd is one of scalable, customizable and system-friendly XMPP server that ensures massive security and trustworthy SSL/TSL encryption.

To create a chat app, you can even opt for other available dedicated servers to process and store multimedia files and messages of dynamic nature for seamless management of high-load communications.

3) Emoticons:

People have gone crazy with the usage of emoticons. There are entire conversations that make use of just emoticons. A chat app cannot ignore them quite easily.

4) Personalized Experience through Geo-location Sensing:

Like Whatsapp, you can allow your mobile chat app users to share their status and specific location. It will be great if you can even capitalize on this feature to generate small revenue per each user.

Take Geolocation to next level by monetizing it and letting nearby stores to advertise their products deals and offers through several messages that will appear on users’ mobile as they stroll by the store.

5) Push Notifications:

Push notification is a handy message used by service providers for communication between a provider and a user. From time to time, these messages update users about small events/activities that may matter to you.

You can avail push messages to tell users about available online friends, group friends status, message reception, and if they have read it and responded. You can think of many creative ways to use push notifications to keep your chat app users interested, engaged and active.

6) Encrypted Messages for Inviolable Security:

People have grown smarter with smart technology and they demand highly secure network apps. Security level offered by an app influences their decision to choose an instant messenger app. Message security and protection is an essential feature needed to create a chat app.

The western people are more agitated about the security of their information they share online and wand off the criminals hacking their devices. Due to increasing world concerns about information safety, messengers like Telegram, Snapchat have strengthened the security of their services.

Whatsapp also provides an end-to-end encryption system now that will restrict the intrusion from any third party decoding the messages of users. Signal, a chat messenger app, offers unique authentication system where each conversation is protected by random app-generated phrase that participants use to confirm their identity.

You can use open source or your own in-house encryption protocol for sure-fire pre-emptive security.

Wickr messenger app offers security of another level by generating a new key for each conversation.

7) Data Back-up Services with Cloud:

Cloud sync is the best option to keep files stored in a different virtual place in organized fashion. It updates itself when you initiate the action of changing a file on your device. In messenger apps, this can be achieved by allowing users to save their chat histories and files in cloud and access them anytime.

This can be quite a boon for those who are likely to lose their devices or delete their chat app by mistake or use multiple devices. WhatsApp, for instance, offers an option to back up your chat content using Google Drive or iCloud.

There are several other messengers that furnish mature cloud sync service where cloud chats are stored on their servers using keys set on local devices.

8) Broadcast Messages for Additional Control:

It will be wonderful for your users if they can create a group of their favourite contacts and send them personal messages that are non-group messages. To create a chat app, this feature (aka Broadcast messages) can be an excellent exciter for users.

In this message exchange system, the recipients can’t identify who all received the same message content. This comes handy when you have something to announce or spread ahead. This can be a perfect tool for marketing agencies who want to reach the customers with special promotional messages.

On the whole, a good and efficient messenger is certainly the tool every smartphone must have. Despite the fact there are plenty of offers within apps like Skype, Viber, WhatsApp and others, users still keep searching for messaging apps that is more efficient and provide more off user friendly features. No matter what strategy you opt for, make sure that you follow a long-term value to turn your app into recognized and well-established brand in the niche.

7 Things to Keep in Mind Before Creating a Chat App

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

From Viber to Whatsapp, Chat apps are all the rage now. They have enabled communication like never before. It’s natural that you would want to build one either as a standalone app or as an addition to your existing product or service. Either way, it’s quite exciting to create a chat app for businesses.

So how can you replicate the grand successes of WhatsApp and Facebook messenger?

Here are 7 things to keep in mind before creating a chat app.

1. The basic essentials of any successful chat app

a) The best way to launch the chat app is to first launch its MVP (Minimal Viable Product). Whatsapp followed the same method and presented the essential features that can pique users’ interest and grab their attention. You can then continue developing the app capitalizing on users’ intuitive feedback. This way, you will follow a careful and confident path to create a chat app, and curb the initial cost of development and learn about your market impression.

b) Make up your mind about whether the platform is going to be native (iOS or Android) or Hybrid. Whatsapp first created their app for iPhone, and then went for Android after seeing tremendous success. Whatsapp now offers satisfying Windows PC and Mac messenger services and have evoked incredible response in Asian countries. You can walk on the same trail and build a native app. Android chat app development also sounds perfect for this approach.

c) Whatsapp focused on putting users first as they presented the chat app free from annoying advertisements. You can also surrender to users’ needs and avoid in-app monetizing tricks and emphasize on excellent user experience. Thus, you will receive thumbs up from your messenger users.

d) The way your app appears to users can tell a lot about your app success. If you are/have developers who work delicately on UX/UI, there is a big chance you will create a chat app that will be downloaded by many people. Almost 90% users judge your app based on their first impression about its design, icons and style.

e) Whatsapp designed a chat app that took off quite gloriously. The reason is being consistent in their ability to add new features and capabilities from time to time. Initially it was a simple messenger app, the interface of which then evolved to become feature-rich and user-friendly. It added new capabilities to make audio/video calls, send emojis, pictures, PDF and multimedia, stickers, etc. By improving the inner app structure periodically, users remain surprised, captivated and glued to your app.

2. Learn a great deal about the Target Audience

There are so many things that are usually determined by your target audience including features, design interface, mobile platform, etc. Mobile platform relies majorly on the target audience that is going to use your chat app. You don’t want to create a chat app without considering how well it will touch its users.

If you want your app to end up on a massive number of mobile screens, make sure you build the app on both iOS and Android. These two platforms are the most popular mobile operating systems present in around 95% of total smartphones in existence. Android has a huge share in the market engaging close to 80% of the users. However, iOS users are more loyal and promise bright revenue opportunities for app makers.

3. Documentation of your chat app idea

It is difficult to protect your ideas with legal system since the protection available is minimal. But it is crucial to preserve and shield your app development idea before you create a chat app. This becomes important when you reach the developmental stage. So you can find one solution to this: Documentation.

The documentation of your ongoing experimental ideas is proof that it belongs to you. You can’t achieve success in the first attempt, and the development process often involves many attempts, failures, refinements and partial breakthroughs. You may even need to save your attempts in a document for a while before they can be reused for future success. This is how an idea works out and meets the best results.

Make documents simple, concise and crisp in a way that you can understand better. It will help you for future reference. Note down all your scenarios and use cases, all the combinations of layouts and widgets and colours.

Also jot down the suitability of a specific platform for your app and thoughts on the vision of UI choices each time you try different screen sizes and resolutions. To remember more precisely, draw frameworks with details of how each element will be placed, and where, and how it will affect the overall layout of the app.

4. The estimated cost for creating a chat app

The cost of creating a chat app is a complex subject as it involves a lot more than what comes to mind initially. It is more than just about calculating development time, hourly rates and investment of resources.
The team you need to create a chat app encompasses UI/UX designer, 2-3 experienced developers, project manager and a QA expert. You may also need a developer to handle back end app infrastructure and develop an API.

Considering design, development and testing scope, the ultimate moderate development price may stretch upto $5000 to $15000 for a basic to medium range app.

If you want a high-quality work from professional developers, the price will definitely hit around $10,000, which includes a fully functional instant messenger like Whatsapp.

The final price is again subject to the amount of complexity involved and intensity of challenges while giving shape to unprecedented features. So it all comes down to the following deciding factors:

a) Backend development: This is the logic-based operating system that enables the exchange of data between mobile app and a database.

b) Third-party integrations: Third-party integration of libraries, frameworks and other essential services are accountable for enabling many functions in real-time mobile chat apps.

c) Admin panel development: This is a dashboard sort of tool that helps monitor and operate apps, manage users, statistics and various types of content.

d) In-app s: Nowadays there are lots of virtual rewards, objects and merchandises that can be implemented as in-app s for a chat app.

e) Types of devices/OS: In both Android and iOS, the chat app must be compatible enough to work consistently across the recent previous as well as latest versions of OS updates.

f) Customization: It is obvious that custom interface designs are a little higher in price as compared to those built using standard components. Further animations and combination of standard and custom designs drive the cost up.

5. Tools that matter for an instant chat app

Open source cross-platform app frameworks are the best way to reduce app development cost. They are free to use and available on different websites online with fully fledged SDK and code libraries. As you create a chat app, some features can be directly integrated using third-party plug-ins with smattering of customization.

For instance, Puship is one of the best options for implementing push notification function for iOS and Android devices.

Below are a few handy app development tools that help create a scintillating app and diminish costs:

AppGyver: Very popular web-based tool today that also offers hosting services for cross-platform iOS and Android apps made of multiple pages.

Alpha: It is considered as a rapid app development tool that creates web as well as hybrid mobile apps that support offline functioning.

ViziApps: it is a viable combination of an online visual designer and customizable sample apps that support building iOS and Android native apps with code generation.

Appcelerator: based on Java-script, it provides an excellent cloud service for using a wide selection of automatically scaled network features and suitable data objects for your app across iOS, Android, Windows and BlackBerry.

PhoneGap: An excellent open source chat app development tool that uses standard languages like HTML and Javascripts and allows developers to create a chat app for Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry devices. Developers can also work with hardware components of mobiles like GPS, camera, sound, accelerometer, etc.

Sencha: It uses HTML 5 and supports handful of devices across different platforms. It helps developers improve development speed and boost their productivity with its pre-built components. Its HTML5 code can be translated into both android and iOS platforms.

Corona: Initially designed for Windows OS, it can be used for developing apps for many platforms. It enables you to start coding for the app in minimal time, making your implementation process faster. The language used for programming is Lua in C.

Xamarin: An efficient chat app building tool. It is multi-task app developer tool that supports virtual testing on multiple devices, app monitoring and performance testing, and app store delivery.

RhoMobile: It enables you to create native apps across a wide range of OS and devices. Its framework is open source, based on Ruby. You can build apps for Android, Windows Mobile, iOS, and many types of Smartphone devices. The best part about this open-source framework is that it just requires one-time coding.

6. Incorporate the latest technologies and trends

There are plenty of chat apps available in the market. This stiff competition makes it difficult to create a stand out app. The best way is to incorporate features that are in tandem with the latest trends. It can help gain attention of the general audience.

For Instance, Snapchat arrived on the scene with a truly unique concept and revolutionised how the western world approached social media. Instagram and messenger followed suit with AR features. Similarly, there should be some unique selling point that makes your app unique.

7. Making lucre from your mobile chat app

Monetization is a good idea of balancing the cost of chat app development as it generates great amount of revenue. Look around to see how other apps are doing it in the market.

Whatsapp started to make small revenue from each user by initially charging a tiny subscription fee of $0.99 a year. The app creators allowed the users to enjoy the chat services free for one year. As number of users soared, this augmented total earnings. However, modern messenger apps are free of cost nowadays.

Whatsapp’s historical success ceased the archaic philosophy of annoying users with frequent in-app advertisement. People began to choose chat apps that offer no intrusion. You may find it wise to make users’ experience enjoyable by exempting them from punitive ads.

Surprisingly, stickers sell a lot and are hot favourite among young audience who would like to make their conversations more expressive, fun, interesting and lively. Think of paid stickers as a good, try-worthy source of revenue generation as used by many contemporary messengers. You can offer them on a decent price to engage more users.

If you are to create a chat app with multiple facilities, you will find that specially designed paid wallpapers and themes can also be used for customization purpose and are loved by users who like to experiment different things every day.

You can also add small fun games in chat threads with exciting levels, currencies, virtual objects and other thinkable in-app s.

In a way, there is no limit to how much you can play with your messenger app and augment its progressive features to create more monetization opportunities.

Conclusion

SMS texting has been long replaced by instant chat messengers due to its ability to offer smarter, quicker and exciting ways to communicate with people across the globe. Such chat apps allow people to remain seamlessly connected without paying anything for the service. Competition among chat apps is definitely fierce, but the messenger market always welcome apps that have power to surprise users with fascinating features and unseen capabilities.

Also, chat apps have become a necessity for custom enterprise software. If you plan to create a chat app that offers incredible potential to change the existing standards of traditional communication, you can contact a reliable mobile app development company in India. Share your rough sketch on messaging application with a company that has unparalleled programming skills and competitive resources, and get it done.

How To Create A Chat App Successfully

Posted on June 9, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

Messaging or the use of chat apps are surging in popularity these days as people prefer chat-based apps over text messages as it provides real-time interactions and gives them a personal touch experience. Compared to the previous year, the number of persons who use chat apps for messaging has increased by 15.5% when compared to previous year.

How To Create A Chat App

Being a cheaper service when compared with text messaging, most of the chat apps, provide service at very low cost or is completely free to use. 2018 is again considered to be a year of growth, where 1.85 billion people annually might use these kind of apps.

Features of a Chat App:

1) Send messages all over the world

2) Add social networking features

3) Simple and uncluttered

4) Free audio/video calling and messaging services

5) Enable individual as well as groupchats etc.

6) Mostly cloud-based

7) High reliability, scalability

8) Higher load support

9) A faster way of sending messages

10) Support graphical emoticons for enhanced user experience

11) Works in multi-platforms

12) Cost-efficient service

13) Improve security with an end to end encryption

With the explosion of popular, easy-to-use messaging apps like WhatsApp, Line, Telegram, WeChat, Tango, SnapChat, Skype, Google Hangouts, Hike etc., the demand of chat apps is growing day by day. Almost all of these apps provide real-time messaging, free voice and video calls, group chats, end-to-end encryption messaging, unlimited sharing of data and files, contact sharing, and much more either over the mobile data plan or using Wi-Fi.

When it comes to building a chat app, the main advantage for businesses is:

Increased Productivity
Increased visibility
Brand promotions
Quicker marketing facilities

Chat Application Trend that Companies Need to Leverage On:

1. Use of Emojis:

When it comes to building a user-friendly chat app, one of the main factors to include is emojis which lets users express their emotions with just a click. Usage of emojis not only enable overall interaction but even makes the app more attractive and fun to use.

2. Integration of AI:

Now app developers are leveraging on AI to seamlessly connect and integrate with the audience. Deep learning, face recognition, emotional perception etc. are integrated into chat apps to make a better and smarter communication.

3. Multi-platform:

This feature lets you access the same account on any device, thus giving more access to their communication tools.

4. Ephemerality:

Living in the moment or end-to-end encryption is another feature that it taking over in almost all chat apps. The best thing about this feature is that you need not worry about the messages or the media that your sharing because it only exists for a very short time span.

5. Geo-location Integration:

Geo-location provides users the facility to tag the exact location to provide an effective flow of interaction on a real-time basis.

6. Cloud Service Synchronization:

This helps users to monitor, scale, store and update the hosting environment and data.

Overall, a chat app is not only for texting or sharing pictures, but it can be used for all sort of content. To attract users, brands and businesses need to generate new trends and techniques to top the chart.

Each successful chat app needs to have specific salient features, so let’s take a look at the steps to create a chat app successfully with the best functionalities.

The Startup Idea- What Makes your App Idea Special?

Having a strong app idea can lead you through the process in a well-defined way. As marketer/businessmen, look at all ideas in the app world through the lens of “how this is going to make money.”

When you’re coming up with an idea to build a chat app, you need to ask yourself two basic questions.

“How many levels are you going to have in an app?”
“What’s the design of the app going to be like?”

So, if you want to take in an advice, then, it’s way better to focus on an existing model and make it better with add-on unique features.

As you think about your idea, make sure that it is perfect from the start to end of the development process.

A major feature of innovative products is their combination of three major aspects: human desirability, financial viability, and technical feasibility. It is important to consider all three aspects to develop a fairly detailed concept before spending unnecessary efforts in implementing a solution. Get feedback from others, including potential users, to help refine your idea.

If you are to opt for developing your own chat site, you should consider these things:

1) First, explore your own resources
2) Study your competition
3) Conduct a broad analysis
4) Expand your vision by exploring other industries that are not related to yours
5) Keep an intimate relation with people whom you want to serve
6) Think about the platform where you need your app to work on

Who is your Competition? Does your Idea have a Chance?

Chatting is still the easiest way to send messages. Brands follow audiences, so, it’s not that surprising to see the explosive growth of chat apps in all fields. There are quite few from which most of us choose. Here, is our list of ten of the top chat apps that can be your app competitor.

1) Telegram:

Kicking this list off is Telegram, which is free to use. The only thing you’ll have to do is, install and start using it. Telegram focuses strongly on encryption and security. Users looking for a chat app more focused on delivering secure messages in a speedy manner certainly can go for this app.

2) WeChat:

WeChat is a popular option to consider and there are plenty of reasons to love this app. It supports Android Wear, which can help you send messages from your wrist if you have one of the supported devices. It also has a PC client so that you can message from your laptop or desktop.

3) Whatsapp:

It is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to send messages without having to pay for SMS. It’s available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Symbian.

With free voice and video calls, you can have face-to-face conversations, when voice or text just isn’t enough, by using your phone’s Internet connection. The latest version of the app has introduced an end to end-to-encryption to keep the personal data of the users secure.

4) Facebook Messenger:

This is easily the biggest and most widely used chat app among social media chat apps. You can talk with any of your Facebook friends or set group chats for multiple people.

5) LINE:

LINE is actually one of the biggest chat apps out in store, and it offers group chats, free video calls, free voice calls with your LINE contacts no matter where you are.

6) Hangout:

It is surely one of the most recognizable chat apps, and like a few in the list, it can be used on multiple platforms like tablets, smart phones and the computer.

7) Snapchat:

This isn’t like the traditional chat apps, but it is a chat app nonetheless. Instead of just your typical typed up messages, it lets you take a quick picture with the option of attaching a caption before sending it to your contacts.

8) Hike:

One of the unique features of hike is its offline chat facility for users. The amazing collection of stickers enhances the experience of chatting, by helping to convey real emotions.

Competition is a good thing. Go through the stories behind leading brands. Google wasn’t the first search engine and Facebook wasn’t the first social network. There are too many examples to count on.

The above-listed apps are just a few from lots left. Unless your app can do something exceptional, it will be certainly very difficult to stay in the market.

Documentation of your Idea

“A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There is no legal protection for ideas. Protecting the idea is crucial, especially during developmental stages. Although no legal filings can protect your app idea, the documentation can certainly help you.

Experimentation is an ongoing process that involves trying, retrying and continuous refining. Take into account different scenarios as possible and give each, a type of logic. While you begin first, think about your layout and widget choices. Make an idea of which platform you are going to use and how your UI will look on different screen sizes and resolution densities.

Sketched layouts also known as wire frames will help to show where each element will be placed and how important it will be in relation to other objects on the page. In this, you visually conceptualize the features, and approximate the layout and structure of your application.

Choosing your Platforms- iOS/Android/Windows

The popularity of mobile enterprise and consumer-based mobile apps has grown tremendously in the last decade. The app stores are flooded with millions of mobile apps covering myriad of topics and genres. Since Mobile App Development can be a lucrative business, an app developer hoping to develop the next big thing is always on the horizon.

Mobile platforms have sprung up over the years to cater to the increasing demand, but to choose which platform is best for your app is a tough one.

Knowing about the basic functionalities of iOS, Android, Windows doesn’t give you the full picture of the good and bad of each platform. The capabilities of one operating system may not be possible with the other. Know the limitations of each platform and choose.

Here are a few tips to decide which platforms you have to develop your app for.

1. Target Audience for Your App:

One of the biggest determining factors when it comes to selecting mobile platform is your app’s target audience. If your app targets the mass market, make sure that the most popular platforms such as iOS and Android are your priorities.

Android and iOS have the largest user base. Windows take a significantly smaller share of the pie. According to Business Insider, Android has captured almost 80.2% of the users while iOS trails behind at 14.8% of its users.

In the case of mobile revenue, iOS users are comparatively more loyal than Android by creating greater revenue opportunities for developers who wish to work on the iOS platform.

2. Piracy Issues:

Piracy is a prime concern for mobile app developers. Android is reported to have a whopping number of pirated apps in the playstore and can easily be pirated, circulated as apk files and installed on devices without having to root them. But in the case of iOS, be it free or paid, it requires a validation by the Apple App Store before downloading anything.

The open nature of the Google Play Store compared to the iOS App Store has created circuitous routes for downloading more apps without actually having to pay for them. This is a major cause for the concern to developers who aim to monetize their applications.

3. Environment:

iOS:

Developers looking to create apps on iOS have to work with Xcode, which supports C, C++, Objective-C++, Java, Python, Ruby, Rez and Swift source code with a variety of programming models.

The latest version, Xcode 6, includes interesting features like “Playground”, a live debugging tool and an entirely new programming language called as Swift in iPhone App Development. Even though Xcode is sleek and powerful, latency and editing errors in Xcode 6 can create issues for the developers.

Android Apps:

Android developers now have a choice between Eclipse and Android Studio during development:

a) Eclipse

The program components provide the environment for writing, modifying, compiling, debugging and deploying the software. Support system is available for C++, CBOL, Python, Ruby on Rails etc.

The advantage is that a wide range of cohesive tools is available and it runs on a variety of operating systems. But on the downside, it can be extremely slow and resource intensive.

b) Android Studio

Android Studio is now officially called IDE (Integrated Development Environment). One of the newly integrated features in Android Studio is Gradle, which is deeply integrated that users who have not used this feature may find it extremely challenging.

One of the commendable features is its layout designer with a drag-and-drop interface. This enables the creation of visually appealing chat applications.

The main drawback is the complexity, lack of resources and tutorials for beginners. New users may find it challenging to learn the ropes in Android Studio.

Windows Apps

Windows phone users make approximately 3.5% of the worldwide smart phone market share. Comparing with other mobile platforms, Windows is definitely not the top choice for an app developer.

Even though the features of Windows may not be as promising as iOS/Android, Windows App Development does provide some pretty versatile tools. This platform supports a variety of languages such as C# or C++ with XAML, C++ with Direct X and JavaScript with HTML/CSS.

Although the Windows platform may not have as large market share as Android or iOS, many of their development options are expertly designed for everyone from beginners to veteran developers.

Cross Platform Development

One more option to reduce time & cost is to go for the Hybrid Mobile App Development also known as cross-platform development.

Here, one code language runs on multiple platforms and is a cheaper and faster solution. They provide a native look and feel with the help of an HTML UI framework and CSS, JS Technology.

But, as discussed, each tool has its pros and cons, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

How much will it Cost you to Create a Chat Application?

Mobile App development cost estimate not only hinges on development time and hourly rates, but also the price depends on a number of factors that are needed to successfully implement an idea.

Depending on project requirements, the development team can be basic or extended. A basic app team includes a UI/UX designer, project manager, at least two developers and a quality assurance engineer. If the app requires a back end infrastructure to develop, then, an API and a back end developer should also join the team.

The price of building a mobile chat app is made up of various components:

1. UI/UX design- up to 100 hours
2. Development-up to 900 hours, plus 25% of the PM and QA services.

Considering all this, the medium development price would score around $1,000- $15,000 for a an app.
Generally, a professional company takes somewhere around $5,000 to $10,000 to develop a fully functional instant messaging application like WhatsApp and Hike.

Obviously, complexity of a product is the main factor when it comes to app development costs, and out of this, the following three factors affect the final cost:

1. Technical complexity
2. Number of devices and OS
3. Custom designs and animations

1) Technical Complexity

There are several features that can add technical complexity to a project. Some common examples include:

a) Third-party integrations: Some functions in mobile apps require integration with third party libraries, frameworks, and services. Real-time chats can be easily implemented with the help of Layer, Pubnub etc.

b) Backend development: A backend is an operating system with APIs to enable the exchange of data between a mobile application and a database. The back-end implements the application business logic.

c) Admin panel development: This is a very useful tool that makes it easier to operate apps, manage users, content, view stats, and more.

d) In-app s: From virtual goods to additional functionality, there are different forms of in-app s that we can implement.

e) Use of hardware components: Smart phones are packed with different hardware components such as gyroscopes, heart rate sensors, NFC, Bluetooth, GPS, barometers etc. Finding the right one for each device and testing how different components communicate with the software may increase the cost and time.

2) Number of devices and OS

When it comes to an iOS app, it should be compatible with the latest and previous versions of iPhone and support the latest and previous iOS versions (iOS 9 and iOS 8).

This is also applicable to Android OS versions.

3) Custom designs and animations

Custom user interface costs would be higher than the price of building from standard components.
This includes the choosing of custom and standard UI components.

Designing & Developing your Chat App

The dominance of social networking sites has been curbed by the emergence of messaging chat apps. Currently, the demand for live chat apps has increased to such an extent that they are heading towards dethroning the social media sites.

Messaging app is an understatement. Because there are so many features developed in an instant messaging application that has made them deployable for numerous applications.

When you are looking to build a feature-rich and sturdy chat app, you will have to use the appropriate technologies.

Features to be incorporated while creating a Chat App:

Location based information
Group chats becomes mandatory
Auto sync feature
Offline messages
Last Seen for the recent online activity time
Screen Sharing enables users to share their screens with their contacts
Multimedia sharing allows sharing unlimited multimedia data
Voice Calling feature
Social Integrations
Video Calling for real time conversation

The trend of bots has already taken off, where a large number of brands run bots. Bots make customer service interactions easier for customers, and for brands. Apps like WeChat, Kik and even Facebook messenger has started using bots in their chats.

Hiring a Developer to Create Chat App

When you are going to hire a developer, you tend to have so many options- a firm, an individual, a small team, overseas etc. The hardest part in this would be where to start and whom to trust.

Here are few great ways to start your developer search:

Enquire Around:

This can be through co-workers, friends, family or discussion boards, websites, and review sites. Ask for referrals and explain to them what you’re looking for.

Google – Enables search of different firms and their portfolio/service offerings with their contact details.

Freelancing Sites -You can browse in freelancing websites and find job postings that are similar to yours and see what people write as their job request. You can later do research on these forums by going through their profile pages or on their main web pages, and maybe, even follow up with their contact form.

Choosing a Developer:

Individual Developers

Personal and collaborative– If it’s the right one, they may act more like a partner than a hired person

Specific skill sets– Every developer has their own strengths and if you get one that matches exactly what you’re doing, you will get the best results.

Cheaper– This can either be for better or for worse because you’re not paying for project management and overhead.

Firms

Highly deliverable and time-oriented– Firms focus on project plans and time lines. You’ll be reported with updates on project in regular basis telling you where things stand.

Project management– You’ll have one prime person who can take the lead on everything you want to discuss about the entire project.

Have backup Plans– This means that if something comes up with any of the developers, there is always a backup plan to continue your project.

Testing/QA– This helps to detect bugs and get multiple perspectives on the project.

Whomever you opt for, your primary goal is to generate revenue with your chat app. The developer needs to know exactly how to build in features to make an income out of it.
If you opt for a free app, be sure that the freelancer/the firm is well versed in integrating mobile display ads, in-app s or paid subscription services.

Which are the Best App Development Tools?

Different cross platform tools have different specialities. Each platform is unique and exhibits different features, capabilities and behaviour. Multi-platform apps are truly in-today; so, you will have to find solutions to develop the best cross-formatted apps, without emptying all your resources.

Here is a list of some great tools for Mobile App Development:

1) RhoMobile: It offers an open-source framework based on Ruby. This permits to create native app, spanning over s stunning range of OS’ and smart phones. This includes Android, Windows Mobile, iOS etc. The framework supplied by this tool is in such a way that you only need to code once. This can be used to build apps for most of the major smart phones.

2) PhoneGap: Allows developers to create chat application for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iTouch and iPad devices. It uses standard web development languages such as HTML and JavaScript, and allows the developer to work with device hardware features such as accelerometer, GPS/location, camera, sound etc.

3)MoSync: Yet another SDK tool based on standard web programming. This offers the developer integrated compilers, libraries, run times, device profiles and various other useful tools. MoSync now also includes Eclipse-based IDE for C/C++ programming.

4)WidgetPad: This is a collaborative, open-source environment for development which uses standard web technologies, such as JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3.

It includes source code editing, collaboration, debugging, project management, distribution. Widget Pad, which is now in private beta, can be used to create a chat application for iOS and Android.

5) Sencha: Helps to develop your tools in HTML5 and works across a handful of devices on different platforms and boosts productivity with pre-built components. Once you have developed the HTML5 code, then you can translate it to both android and iOS platforms.

6) Cocos2d: It is primarily used in two-dimensional game development. It allows the developers to use C++, JavaScript, C#, Xcode, Python etc.

7) Corona: This tool comes with the promise that you can start coding your new app in as little as five minutes after the download. The programming language is Lua, which is written in C.

8)Xamarin: Includes app store delivery, performance testing and monitoring, and the ability to do virtual tests on more devices to test whether everything is working properly.

Making use of these tools can make things easier for you to develop a reliable chat app.

How to Monetize your App?

Finally, when you are finished with your app and polished it as a result of beta testing feedback, the next step is to think about business. When you plan your own development, monetization should be one of the key elements of your design.

Five strategies to design the financial aspects are given below:

Pay per Download:

Using pay per download for your app, each user will have to pay as they download and install it on their phone. Payment can be handled by an app store, mobile operator or you can set up a mechanism. Payment is generally handled in one of two ways: operator billing or credit/debit-card payments.

In-app payment:

It’s a way to charge for specific actions or assets within your application. Alternatively, you can offer some basic features of your application for free, but, charge for premium contents like videos, virtual credits, premium information and additional features.

Mobile Advertising:

As it is common on websites, you can think of earning money by displaying advertisements. Many companies offer tools to display mobile ads and it is the easiest way to make money.

Sponsorships:

The user gets your app for free and in return, is prompted to sign-up for a newsletter of your sponsor. The sponsor will pay the developer an amount for each newsletter registration.

Stickers:

Premium sticker packs are a mixture of the app’s own-produced content and content from established producers such as Disney or Sony, and from smaller providers. The rich, graphical nature of stickers can create interesting and engaging content.

Official accounts:

Such accounts allow brands, celebrities and merchants to connect and engage with users. The official account uses familiar features within the app so that they can connect with users as friends and share contents and messages.

Content Merchandising (themes, filters, wallpapers):

There are different content types that can be retailed within a messaging app. Whether this works or not depends on the implementation of the idea. This content extension can also help in core messaging experiences.

Commerce:

With a large number of users and the presence of brands in official accounts it’s likely that mobile commerce will be a direction for ambitious chatting apps to go in. WeChat has already included a scanner used to read QR codes to help users share their accounts and connect with friends. These bar codes help the users to pay for the product from WeChat.

App Publishing

Publishing refers to the process that takes the completed Mobile App development project to the App Store.

The final step in the development of an application is to publish the application. It involves two essential tasks:

Preparing for Publication – ‘Release version’ of the application is created so that it can be deployed to compatible devices.
Distribution – The release version of an application is made available through one or more of various distribution channels.

iOS Devices

In order to distribute applications to all iOS devices, Apple requires apps to be published through the App Store, making it the one-stop shopping location for iOS applications.

With over 500,000 applications in the store, developers of many types of apps capitalize on the massive success of this single point of distribution. The App Store is a main solution, offering app developers both distribution and payment systems.

The process of submitting an application to the App Store involves:

1. Creating an App idea and selecting entitlements
2. Creating Distribution Provisioning Profile.
3. Submitting your application through iTunes Connect.

After you submit an app for publication, it goes through a review process by Apple to ensure that it meets the guidelines for quality and content. If the application fails to meet these guidelines, iOS will reject it and you’ll have to resubmit it.

Android Devices

The simplest way to distribute an Android App is via the Google Play store. It is also the simplest way to reach millions of users.

The starting point is the Google Play Developer Console. It is the dedicated dashboard for developers, which lets you manage your apps in the Play Store.

After you have signed up and paid the registration fee, complete your account details, including Developer Name (the name that is displayed on the Google Play store).

Once this is done, officially, it can take up to 48 hours for your Google Play Developer registration to be fully processed. Confirm the verification mail. After the account has been created, you can publish your apps.

Windows

In order to publish your app in Windows Store you need to create a Windows Store Account. Once you create your account, go to Dashboard using the live ID.

Verify your payment method link. Once you get the message that your account is verified, you are ready to begin submitting your app.

App Store Optimization

ASO is the process of optimizing mobile apps to rank it higher in the search results of an app store. The higher the app rank is, the more will be its visibility to its potential customers. The increased visibility can bring in more traffic to your app page in the app store.

If you’re not using ASO for your app, then you are losing the largest channel available to search your app. With thousands of apps in different app stores, majority of the developers do not utilise the ASO facility to promote their app. So, you can use this as a secret weapon to rank your app in the app store and for its overall success.

Main factors that affect ASO:

Title: The keyword used in the title should be the one with the most search traffic. For best results with ASO, use relevant keywords within your title.
Keywords: To improve your search rankings, you need to use keywords which are relevant and which are most often used by your target audience.
App Description: This one main field has to be filled with your apps data. This includes ‘above the fold’ and ‘below the fold’. Most of the customers only read the ‘above the fold’ which includes 1-2 sentences as description.
Publishers Name: Make sure that the developer’s name has relevant keywords which could help you rank better for people doing generic search.
Total number of Downloads: Your number of downloads are important to ASO
Ratings and Reviews: This is also important and difficult to control. However, there are ways to motivate happy users to rate and review your app.
Follow the Content Policy: You need to determine the proper app content rating and follow the content policy which is laid down for Android, iOS and Windows devices.
Minimize your Code Size: You should aim to minimize the code size by removing any redundant code and thus, eventually reduce the size of your app.
Design an attractive icon: Having a unique and attractive icon can grab customers’ attention. Attractive icons can make the users curious to know about the app.
Include Screen shots and Videos: Including tempting videos and images can give the user a clear idea about your app.
Localize your app listings: To globalize your app, you need to focus on the localization. It is the method of marketing your app to a non-English speaking audience in their native languages.
Update App Regularly: Keep updating your app to ensure that they meet the changing guidelines of different devices. If you fail to keep up with the guidelines, your app can be blocked in the store.

Like SEO, ASO also takes a substantial amount of time before showing results, but, you need to constantly work on it and keep on improving it. Monitor it regularly and be aware of the competitor’s ranking.

Marketing Strategy

Your work doesn’t end with the launch of the app. Rather, the real work just starts. You need to start marketing your app to the maximum possible levels.

If you have a well planned and executed marketing strategy, it can yield immense benefits among the users.
Your main focus has to be the end-users of your app. So, you will have to study their mobile behavior and understand the same, before embarking on a particular marketing strategy.

Some things to be noted to achieve success with your marketing strategy:

1) Study Customer Behavior Patterns:

Focus on your target audience and find ways to engage them. Study them keenly and recognize their unique behaviour patterns where each user is unique in their own ways.

2) Main Objective should be kept in mind:

Your main aim should be to provide maximum benefits to your users through the application. To achieve this, you will have to keep active interaction with the audience, and offer them, irresistible deals and offers .

3) Refine your Marketing Strategy:

This involves the process of planning, including a team to handle various aspects of your app, publicizing and advertising your service, gathering and processing user information and choosing the right mobile platform to market your app.

4) Select the right mobile technology:

SMS is the best method to reach the maximum users, which also adapts to almost all types of mobile phones. This method of communication is the most direct and one which your audience can opt-in to receive as well.

5) Find your niche and be exclusive:

To differentiate your app with others, introduce features that no one else has given. By doing so, you enable your app to live alongside other messaging juggernauts like WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, We Chat, LINE, Hangout etc.

It’s easy to assume that your app can become the next Snapchat or WhatsApp as long as you build a solid product. However, what makes the app successful isn’t the fact that it exists, but. the efficiencies it creates.

6) Digital/Content Marketing:

Best of all, you can start a micro site and start blogging to your audience and promote your app as you would promote any other product. You can use a variety of valuable content in different forms to attract users from search engines and more.

7) Organic Promotion:

To trace your mobile app distribution process, make sure you sign up for a good analytic tool. Let the app review sites as well as authors and pen down your app’s review. This will help in more downloads and popularity for your app. Share your app and the content on various social media platforms. You can also request users to review or rate your mobile app. Mobiles are holding a considerable share of the digital world, but, web still matters and thus, it is strongly recommended that you create a web page for your app.

8) Paid Promotion:

Install a tracking tool to figure out the paid ad source the visitor is coming from. Calculate the total number of downloads needed to be in the top chart list. Once your app has created a buzz, cut short the paid marketing and maintain keyword rankings organically.

By focusing on marketing strategies, you can create chat application that not only makes life better for your users, but also makes a profit for your start up plan.

Post App Launch Services

Considering the kind of competition we have these days, post app launch services are vital for app success.

Customer Support:

Ensure that you provide your users the best customer support or risk losing them. Why? Simply because they have plenty of alternatives available.

Bug Fixing:

No software is ever bug-free. Also, with a number of software updates happening to operating systems, the chances are ever so high for bugs. So, test and fix buggy software within a short period. Otherwise users would leave you indefinitely.

New Features Incorporation:

There are so many new features cropping up every now and then. To stay in the race, you should adapt new features and work on providing fresh features as well.

On the whole, create chat application is an amazing option and is becoming powerful for most brands and consumers. The greatest opportunity of a chat app lies in its ability to promote all areas of the brands strategy into a great user experience. When creativity is blended with traditional business, it makes an app complete.

Experiences suggest that apps which save money or time are most attractive, followed by games and business tools. But, the success of any app cannot be predicted. Success usually comes with a lot of experimentation and perseverance.

Exclusive Bonus: Download PDF