Introduction
Video chat fits every possible purpose and it’s the greatest tool for real-time communication. From white-collars holding online meetings to grandparents wanting to chat with their grandchildren, video chat apps like Skype are pioneering the revolution of video calling.
With video chat apps, conversations have become livelier and more personal. The reason why video chat apps are so popular is obvious. Let’s find out how to make your video chat app.
7 Steps to Create Your Video Chat App
These seven essential steps that we cannot ignore while building a video chat app for iOS or Android.
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Step #1 – Signing of an NDA AgreementOpen and trustworthy communication is a key to develop an app you want. To ensure the trust between the parties, we start the development process by signing an NDA agreement. NDA agreements help protect the client’s information and ideas they share. As soon as we sign an agreement, our PMs are ready to jump into project details. |
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Step #2 – Design and Product SpecsDefining product specifications and its features isn’t an easy task for PMs. They spend long hours talking with clients and then researching the market to find the best possible sets of features as well as product specs. PMs work closely with clients to define all the desired product specs and features in one or a series of face-to-face talks. No one can take product features out of the blue. Research and talk, then talk and research. Then PMs hold talks or a series of talks with technical specialists – UX designers and developers to find the ways to bring a client’s app idea to life. |
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Step #3 – Estimate Development Project ValueOnce we’ve got a clear understanding of what the client expects to get – fully-document product specs and a prototype, it’s a time for developers to set the ball rolling. App developers estimate the time required to develop each feature or integration, and PMs make a clear development plan estimating the time required to build a fully-functioning app. The final project estimate is the result of adding up all the hours and multiplying them by our hourly rate. |
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Step #4 – Contract SigningHaving negotiated the budget and the product features, it’s high time to sign the contract and make the way to your app-to-be. Besides being a legal foundation for our partnership, it’s a handy document for clients. As a rule, contracts contain a development plan and schedule. Having these at hand, clients know what and when to expect from developers. |
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Step #5 – DevelopmentAt IDAP, we develop mobile apps according to the Agile methodology. The app development process is split into two-weeks sprints. At the end of every sprint, a client gets a demo. The benefits of Agile have been stated loud and clear in the past year. Taking into account our experience, Agile helps development teams to become flexible and respond to changes in requirements at a blistering pace. It helps to understand the client’s needs. Thanks to Agile, we can develop custom mobile apps with exact customer profile in mind because clients can share their thoughts on every feature as soon as we develop them. There is no need in waiting till the last stage of the development process to collect the client’s feedback. |
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Step #6 – TestingAccording to Agile methodology, the project is broken down into smaller manageable units. After each unit is developed, it’s time for QA engineers to test it from cover to cover. Such an approach allows delivering apps with flawless performance. |
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Step #7 – App ReleaseFinally! This is the last but not least step in the app development process. Within this step, we help our clients to submit the app to the app stores or deploy the software solutions within the company. |
12 Features Any Video Chat App Can Do Without
Basic features create a skeleton of your video chat app. If your app hits the market, you can add more sophisticated features in the future. Here’s a list of essential features that your video chat app should have:
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User Registration There are lots of registration ways. But the most popular are registration via social media or registration via a telephone number. |
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User Profile To chat and hold conversations, everyone should have their user profile. |
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Add and Search Friends The following allows finding and adding more people to a friend list to chat and share the news. |
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User Status It’s an extremely handy feature showing whether the user is online or offline. |
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Text Chat If the Internet connection is poor, the users may fail to chat via videos. And then they can use text messages to chat when necessary. |
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Voice & Video Calls Well, video chats cannot exist without video calls. Think to add voice calls as well. |
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Geolocation The following feature reads the GPS data automatically to detect the user’s location. |
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Group Chats Users may need to create large private chats to communicate with their families, friends, and colleagues. |
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Encryption With end-to-end encryptions, users can be sure that nobody reads their messages. |
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Sync with Cloud It’s necessary to store users’ files like docs, videos, and photos they’re sharing in the chat. |
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Automatic Backup Automatic backups ensure that everything will be kept safe and sound even if the app is deleted. |
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Push Notifications Users will be notified about new messages or calls. |
Three Ultimate Ways to Get Money From Your Video Chat App
The key point of developing your own video chat app is to gain a profit. Here are three ways to monetize your app and bring home some bacon.
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Advertising It’s the most widespread way to monetize the app. Built-in advertising allows providing a free app that doesn’t require any payments. The ads will be displayed while the app is in use. But the users can always upgrade to ads-free pro or premium versions of the app. |
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Paid Voice Calls You can’t make video calls as well as text chats paid otherwise people won’t see any interest in using your app. And voice calls are additional features of your video chat app that can be available on a paid basis. |
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Premium Sticker Packs Users love sending stickers and GIFs. Consider creating some paid sticker packs. But note, users will buy the stickers if they are really amazing or add additional value to the messages. |
Summary
It’s quite promising that video chat apps are reshaping the way people communicate with each other. But building a video chat app is a real challenge especially for newcomers. Development of video or audio chat apps is quite big-budget. Let’s have a look at what it takes to build your custom video-chat app with IDAP.
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