What steps are involved in creating a custom-built real-time chat application similar to WhatsApp?
With 22+ years of experience in enterprise technology and digital transformation, Samar Shah helps organizations translate complex business challenges into scalable digital products. As Co-Founder and CEO of Svaapta IT-Ally, he has guided 650+ businesses across global markets in leveraging software, AI, cloud, and emerging technologies to accelerate growth and innovation.
Founded by Jan Koum and Brian Acton in 2009, Whats App as a real-time chat app makes an inspirational success story for many out there. The instant messaging app Whats App has 1.6 billion users around the world in 2019. The number has surged to 3 billion users in 2022 and is still rising progressively. More than one billion messages are sent using Whats App every day. The app is dominating the world of instant messaging for its seamless communication and other fantastic features.
Due to its terrific usability, modern-day enterprise environment also needs such build a real-time chat app for effortless interoffice communication. This is because instant messaging app also aids employee collaboration and can boost efficiency and productivity of any business.
This blog is the best guide to building an excellent custom and cross platform enterprise app like Whats App. Before we dive into the subject, we will touch on how blazing fast communication benefits your business.
Business gains through accelerated communication
Team collaboration is impossible without smooth communication. An enterprise-grade instant chat messenger ensures smooth communication and is speedier than email responses. Thus, a new communication channel helps you reap the following business gains:
Increased Productivity
Fast, reliable interoffice communication
Improved all-hour connectivity
High work standards: rapid decision making and duty allocation
Data Security, group exclusivity and confidentiality
Minimum local and international communication cost
Usually, develop mobile app involves two options: ready-to-use and bespoke solution. A ready-to-use chat app contains general features on which one can build other unique features as demanded by the app owner. Here is the set of a few good main and special features for you to consider:
Main Features of an instant messaging enterprise app
Chat groups
Easy sign-in and registration options
Import contacts
Flawless and appealing UI design
Location sharing
Multimedia files sharing
Voice call and audio support
Multi device support
Instant push notifications
Data security
Special custom features for a real-time chat app
Push notification control
Video calls
Block contacts
Profile privacy
Meeting alerts
Screen sharing
Chat trails and tracing
Smileys/emoji
Offline sync
Scalable servers
Chat Data and history backup
Social integrations
Self-destructing messages
Calendar synchronisation
Features that make a difference
Self — Destructing Messages
Like Snap chat, you can also add this typical element of erasing the message after a while from the group.
Payment Integration
Unified Payment Interface (UPI) A reliable and secure instant payment module
Virtual Payment Address (VPA) Lets users use the secure email address registered with a bank account that can be shared publicly for transactions.
Screen sharing
For real-time chat app, screen sharing enables employees to show real-time information through screen images.
Scalable servers
An app with a powerful chat server can be scaled to add more people for efficient collaboration.
Technologies that help build a custom enterprise chat app like WhatsApp
It is imperative to know all about essential technologies and select the right platforms that help tailor-build the chat app solution as splendid as WhatsApp. Based on our recommendations and practices, a set of few technologies and framework that forms the backbone and front-end of the enterprise-grade chat app are:
PHP: An open source language used for its performance and versatility.
FreeBSD: Whats App, which has sent over billions of messages every day on its platform, has been built on FreeBSD
Erlang: The programming language that was used to build the brilliant chat app Whatsapp.
Mnesia DB: A real-time database system for a real-time enterprise chat app written in the Erlang language.
MySQL: A highly preferred database system frequently found in app data management system.
Custom XMPP Server: A capable XMPP server customised to enable fast message delivery in a real-time.
HTML 5 Web-sockets: The WebSocket is an inherent feature of HTML 5 that forms a firm connection between the server and the browser
Last words — Ready-to-use?
Although there are a few ready-to-install chat app solutions, it is always a great approach to know pros and cons before opting for a solution. A custom-built real-time enterprise chat app is often sought by business owners for smooth, effortless collaboration among employees. Being a prolific enterprise app development company, svaapta-it-ally has engineered over 100 smart applications that help enterprises transform their business methods. Have your chat app built by our expert instant messenger app developers and experience resultant business advantages.