Messaging apps have brought a revolution in the way we communicate. With the advancement in time, such apps have brought new features to the table and are not merely text messaging apps. You can send documents, videos, images, emojis, GIFs, and what not!
Amidst the crowd of so many features available in different messaging apps, it may be somewhat overwhelming to point out the essential ones. If you are planning to build a messaging app, this blog is dedicated to you. Here, we will outline some of the essential features you should include in your application. At the end of the article, we have also mentioned two advanced features that can take your app to the next level. Have a look.
Essential Features of a Messaging Application
- Simple Sign Up / Login
Simplifying the user sign up or login is a thumb rule for a messaging app. Let the users type their phone number, verify it with an OTP, and add their names & image (optional). That’s all. The sign-up process is complete.
As you can find in most of the messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram, the users need not log in every time they want to use the app. Bear this in mind while developing your application. It ensures a hassle-free interaction with your app.
If you want to keep a provision for logging in, keep it simple like the sign-up process – OTP verification. This will give your users a respite from remembering the password every time.
- User Profile
Individual user profile helps the users to customize their profile just the way they want. Depending on the features available on your app, here are some of the things that users can do:
- Update profile picture
- Change bio / status
- Update privacy and notification settings
- Change background colours
And more!
- Audio and Video Call
Today’s messaging apps have more to them than simple chatting. Audio and video calls improve user experience as these allow people to make a call without any hassles. Apps like Facebook Messenger and Skype allow one to make a call without requiring the phone number of the recipient.
- Push Notification
Messaging apps should enable users to check new messages instantly. Therefore, push notification is a must-have feature. In fact, it is the backbone of a messaging app that encourages users to interact with the app more often.
While too much push notifications from say a music app or photo editing app can irritate the users and lead them to uninstall the application, the notifications from a messaging app never really irritate them as much. So you can leverage this feature just the way you want!
- File Sharing
This is perhaps the most interesting part about a messaging app and you can be as experimental as you want. Here are a few things that various messaging apps let the users share:
- Images
- Audio and Video files
- URLs
- Voice clips
- Contact card
- Documents
- Location
- GIF
- Stickers
You can trigger user engagement by building custom emoji, GIF and sticker packs.
- Group Creation
Your messaging app should allow the users to create a group with multiple people and share the same things that they can share in the individual chatbox. This is a useful feature as the users can add as many people as they want to the group and communicate simultaneously.
- Cloud Synchronization
It is the practice of storing files like images, audios, videos, and documents safely. Messages and files are usually stored in the cloud and these can be accessed anytime & anywhere.
It also allows the user to access your app through different devices and find all the data. If people change their phone, they can access the files and chat history through other devices by just entering the registered phone number or email ID.
WhatsApp allows one to take a backup of the chat. On the other hand, Telegram offers secret chats that automatically get deleted after the user-specified time and leave no trace on the server.
- Offline Access
The best part of a messaging app is that the users can check the chat history and already downloaded files in the app with a poor network and even without a network connection.
This instantly enhances the user experience and the demand for your app. The users can interact with your app even in a remote location or while travelling.
- Encryption
We cannot stress this enough. Though it is not a UI feature of a messaging app, it’s a crucial element that can make or break the popularity of your application.
End-to-end encryption is a system of communication where only the communicating users can read the messages. It seeks to prevent any third party to decrypt the data that is being communicated.
Remember, encryption is fundamental to a messaging app. It is important as it secures sensitive information. In fact, Signal – a messaging app – has prepared a complete marketing strategy based on this single feature.
If you are not sure how to integrate such essential features, hiring a mobile app development agency is a good idea. It will make sure that the quality and user-friendliness of the app are not compromised.
Advanced Features to Integrate into Your App
If you want your app to be more user-engaging and stand out from the crowd, brainstorming advanced features and integrating them into your app is a must. Here are two ideas to get started.
- High-End AR and VR Features
Augmented reality produces an immersive experience. Your app may allow the users to create an AR room, add friends, and doodle at each other’s space. They can also play AR or VR-based games available in your chat app. Possibilities are many and you may explore these to take your app to the next level.
- E-Wallet
Have you noticed that WhatsApp recently added a payment option? It is indeed a major leap and you can consider integrating it into your app.
Integrating a payment SDK into a messaging app will help the users to transfer money to their acquaintances easily.
As you can understand, brainstorming and integrating such advanced features require adequate tech expertise. Instead of trying an amateurish hand, it’s better to engage professional mobile app development services to create a distinguishing messaging application.
Closing Thoughts
Before starting out, determine your target audience and the purpose of your app. It will direct the features you should integrate into the application. Also, if you want to appeal to your audience, make sure to offer the features that your competitors are already providing and something more. Otherwise, why would they be interested to stop using the existing ones and install yours?
Once your app drives enough installs, you can even monetize some features and offer premium features in exchange for money. If these are interesting enough, some of your users may be interested to purchase.
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