Want to build a secure video chat application? If YES, you’ve reached the right place!
Once you scan the market, you’ll find so many video chat solutions available, and developing your own video chat app has more benefits. To begin with, you can customize the live chat video call app to your specific business needs and use cases.
Rather than starting from scratch, which is tedious and costly, the easy availability of third-party APIs and SDKs offers cost-effective and time-efficient solutions. Integrating third-party video chat SDK allows you to customize your live video-calling chat app as much as you want without the hassle of devoting huge amounts of resources and money.
Before diving into the specifics to build video chat app, let’s first examine their features.
Basic and Advanced Features of Video Chat App
The very first step of Live Video Call App Development is to determine which features you want to add. Some features are essential and must exist. However, there are some advanced features that you may want to include to increase the appeal of your app and provide a richer user experience.
Basic features of video chat API for customer service include:
- User registration and profile settings
Allow your users to easily register on the app to start using the live video call service. They can manually fill out a sign-up form or register through a widely used social media platform. Once logged in, they can enter into profile creation that includes filling basic information, including their name, photo, and a brief description. The video chat app should also include a management interface for account information and settings.
- Advanced Search
Users can add and find the exact contact they need with the use of advanced search.
- Status of the user and the message
You can use this feature to quickly assess whether your companions are online and have read your message.
- Push notifications
Push notifications make it possible to connect with your users even when they are not connected to the internet. With this feature, users will never miss an important chat or any update.
- Multi-party, peer-to-peer, or video streaming
You must also consider the type of Live video chat API you want to provide. Is your app designed for video streaming, group chats, or one-on-one conversations? Your choice of technology and price will be impacted by this.
- Chat
You may want to include chat functionality in addition to video calling. Messaging helps enhance a video chat conversation while also allowing users to share written content. If there is a poor internet connection or a video is not needed, chat can be used to continue communication.
Advanced features of Live video calls and chat for customer service include:
To help your app stand out from the crowd, consider adding the following advanced features to your video API:
- End-to-end encryption ensures that user data is completely secure.
- Automatic backup to avoid the accidental loss of important data.
- Supports data formats such as text, video, audio, pictures, photographs, stickers, etc.
- Screen sharing allows users to share their screen with others on the call, which is highly helpful when doing demos or presentations.
- File sharing to send media-rich attachments such as jpegs and pdfs.
Intuitive UI/UX Design
Once you’ve decided on the features, the next step is to consider the design and workflow. Ensure that your choice of app, whether it is white-label video chat application or a customizable video chat solution has an appealing and intuitive user interface and user experience. Users don’t need much time to understand. The video chat interface should be simple and appealing, with a few buttons and icons.
Tech Stack for Video Chat App Development
One of the most important factors to consider when developing a video chat solution is selecting the best technology stack to use. To some extent, the technology you choose will be determined by the features you select and the audience for whom you are designing.
- Programming language
Make your video chatting app compatible with iOS, Android, and the web programming languages, to ensure maximum accessibility. You can also use a tech stack like react js or angular to build a cross-platform application.
- WebRTC Backend Development
WebRTC is used in the majority of video call applications. WebRTC video calls are standardized at the W3C and IETF levels, allowing you to build real-time communication software in your browser.
The way you use the technology stack depends on your specific use case:
Peer to Peer Connection (P2P)
WebRTC peer-to-peer: Peer-to-peer communication with WebRTC is possible between one person or a small group of persons. Even though signaling and a TURN server are utilized to initiate a call, once it has started, there will be a direct connection between peers for the exchange of media.
Media Server Integration
A media server is a must to record sessions and save data. This way, all communication gets routed through a centralized conference media server, which is an integral part of WebRTC SFU technology.
Video Chat API and SDK
It’s time to choose one of the many ready-made solutions that offer SDKs and APIs to build the chatting functionality. Along with saving money, it will also save your development team’s time and work.
Hosting Environment for Video Chat App
There are two approaches to developing and running a WebRTC video chat application: on-premise and through a CPaaS provider (Communication-Platform-as-a-Service).
- On-Premise
On-premise solutions offer the highest level of data security. You can also get any information you need whenever you want. However, with this configuration, you are responsible for the servers’ ongoing integrity, maintenance, and security. If you decide to use this hosting option for a video conferencing use case, you will need to purchase or rent additional hardware, including the media server itself, as well as configure it.
- CPaaS (Communication-Platform-as-a-Service)
A communication platform as a service gives you access to its own infrastructure. A wide range of software tools, APIs, sample code, and other readily available solutions are generally included. Besides this, it allows you to focus on Video Chat App Development without worrying about building/maintaining your own infrastructure.
Summing Up
In an era where everything is getting digitized, creating and launching a video chat app is a smart move. Furthermore, according to a study, remote work and online education are the way of the future, so the demand for such applications will continue to grow. Why wait? Launch your own video chat app as soon as possible.