The days you spent hours and hours on a conference call are changing and, in many cases, ending. Now the video chat is the king of the telephonic conversations. As almost everyone has a smartphone that can play video chats, it’s no wonder that many people choose to use this service, especially if we take it to the enterprise level, where it is so important to see the person with the one you communicate with the best video quality.
Video chats are a step forward in communication between people , since we always carry the phone with us, so we can have a video chat wherever or whenever we want, having the opportunity to speak to someone face to face .
Due to the demand for this type of chat , most mobile phones are already equipped with some feature or software for videos. All the top mobile application companies in the world have put their feet into the process of crafting high definition video chat apps that opens broader aspects of business gains and earning revenue.
Now let me brief you with what all it takes to build an intuitive video chat app with a clear purpose to proceed with your business objective of transforming your app idea.
Take a rundown:
Video Chat Development
Development of any application, at first, raises the question to determine which platform you target to create an app for, whether iOS or Android.
‘The fundamentals and essentials to build a Video Chat App are almost the same in both; nevertheless, use of third party tools may differ.’
Video Chat App: iOS
For developing video chat apps, language prefered by the programmers is Swift (much easier than Objective-C) and third party tools considered are Vidyo, Agora, Twilio which provide high end services in building seamless video chat apps, offering live streams too. A choice among the SDK would be to use the Bambuster tool.
Video Chat App: Android
As said earlier the process involved is the same whereas the difference may lie in the service tools used for Android compared with iOS.
A significant tool use for experiencing enhanced level of video communication is Web Real Time Communication i.e. WebRTC, first choice of web and Android developers.
WebRTC is a power package that comes with the offering of audio/video communication featuring streaming, peering, audio/video codecs, data transfer (with no additional plugins) and simple APIs.
The 3 major APIs of the open-source technology (WebRTC) are:
- RTCPeerConnection
Audio/video data transfer made possible with encryption support and access control - MediaStream
You get access to chat from webcam or microphone - RTCDataChannel
A P2P communication network for data generalization is offered.
Furthermore, WebRTC possesses an in-built open source wrapper library named OpenTOK which helps you to build robust and intuitive cross-platform apps on WebRTC API basis, rendering hi-tech services.
Requisite Features of a Video Chat App
This part reveals the must-haves of a video chat application that is built with an intent to perform efficiently, performing its elementary tasks and corresponding to a stipulated time of response.
Let’s take a rundown at the essentials:
#Effortless User Registration
For a pleasant greeting of guests, easy and convenient registration is the first to mandate. To improve the threshold frequency, one must not forget to offer users a choice to sign-up and proceed via social networks.
#User Profile Creation
Registration is followed up by the identifier’s profile generation, adding an avatar, status, known data, and many other customized features which is definitely a plus. A commit to memory rule here is never to overload the screen, must provide to show online/offline status and hide sensitive information.
#Contact Management
This segment is where a user must be granted some basic admin rights in their possession and provide them an ease with smooth search, add/delete contacts, and various other actions to be done with other users of the app.
For a structured hierarchy in a complex system of roles, prefer to use access control methods, say, RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) and HRBAC (Hierarchy Role-Based Access Control) for modern and advanced options to embed in the software application.
#Audio & Video Calls
The fundamental functional features which ask for their existence as a prerequisite of a video chat app. A publisher-subscriber paradigm is to be established using the WebRTC protocol accompanied by VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technologies:
- Signaling: For Peer to Peer connection
- STUN Server: Identifying Local IP Address
- TURN Server: Act as a Mediator
VoIP establishes P2P Connection, on the flip, WebRTC builds a communication channel for audio/video calls.
#Group Calls
Group audio/video calls favor friendly communication and encourage the building of an environment for interviews, meetings, online conferencing, etc.
Inviting users for a group conversation calls for embedding the VoIP technology that enables you to add conference participants to communicate simultaneously, with a varying count of 5 to 25.
#Screen and Desktop Sharing
Screen and desktop sharing is one of the features which you cannot afford to miss and plays a significant role in team collaboration or making online consultations. You must provide this feasible attribute in video chat apps to enable data sharing, making it feature-rich.
#Notifications
For notifying users with alerts, updates and minor/major changes in the chat, proceed with the implementation of adding this functionality by using the different APIs of adequate/appropriate operators. (Apple, Google, Amazon)
#Cloud Synchronization
No user can afford to miss their private data stored on any app and this drawback of an application can be eliminated with Cloud synchronization which enables you to store files in the Cloud and protect data in the possibilities of app breakdown.
Maintaining an application’s functionality offline or even with weak internet connection is an hourly need to accumulate and retain users. For your app’s success, collaborate with Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services for data safety
#End to End Encryption
As far as your data security is concerned while transferring data during calls, end-to-end data encryption in your intuitive apps has an urge to ensure no data threats. The working is simple: the sender’s data is first transferred to the server, encrypted with coding, and then sent to the receiver.
#Automatic Backup
An obvious feature of any app. Automatic backups must be given as a must have feature to users to save their chat streams/data files in case of app deletion or breakdown.
Backup ensures data accessibility of everything and anything a user needs at any point of time.
Technical Know-How: Steps to Develop a Video Chat App
#UI/UX Design
Keeping in mind the user experience, a video chat app must gain engagement from its users being highly intuitive and interactive. Thus, the app features and functionality must be smooth rather than convoluting.
Regardless of the device, platform, OS, technologies, your high end video app must pull the interest of a user and must go beyond the obviousness of the communication interface.
#Back-End Development
After done with the UI/UX, build advanced backend connections by setting the app server, the web server and the database. This is the architecture that needs to be established for your backend development of video chat apps.
Remember, your app will be burdened with loads of video calls/group calls for which you need to make it compatible to withstand the overload. How? You need to go beyond development and apply techniques for optimizing its whole infrastructure.
- Choose experienced Developers/ Expert Backend Developers for code optimization.
- Acquire a powerful hardware base for great computing power
- Select development platforms making a wise choice of the technology stack
#WebRTC Integration
For making feasible video connections, the open source technology WebRTC has an upper hand as it makes the deployment of real-time communication possibly hassle-free on Android and iOS, using simple APIs.
WebRTC has a wide array of video apps and web service examples which are used for communication like FACEmeeting, Aircall, ClassOnLive, Call2friends, and many more.
Whether its functionality, security, productivity, building multi-peer connections, data transfer or any major aspect of a video chat app, you can rely on WebRTC without hesitating.
The 3 major APIs of the open-source technology (WebRTC) that you actually need are:
- RTCPeerConnection
Audio/video data transfer made possible with encryption support and access control - MediaStream
You get access to chat from webcam or microphone - RTCDataChannel
A P2P communication network for data generalization is offered.
Furthermore, WebRTC possesses an in-built open-source wrapper library named OpenTOK (a cloud PaaS platform) which helps you to build robust and intuitive cross-platform apps on WebRTC API basis, rendering hi-tech services.
#Quality Assurance & Testing
Without being quality assured in your product, no app can be delivered to the client. Verification and validation checks are essential for product testing which must assure quality proof in the developed software application.
An optimal number of tests performed should maintain a golden mean between the tests/checks and software quality. For mobile development following QA checks are not to be ignored:
- Smoke Testing
- Regression Testing
- Performance Testing
- A/B Testing
- Retesting
A checklist of mandatory features of Video Chat App is as follows:
- Speed of app
- Battery usage and backup
- Install/Uninstall
- Authorization
- Updations
- Internet/WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity
- Data Bandwidth
- Video Image quality
- Occupied space/memory
With all of that, the launch of the application completes its web server deployment, complying with the platform requirements, defined time, and business needs. After the release, the wait is for the success and profit which is expected out of the video chat app.
However, the race isn’t complete yet. Post-deployment, it becomes necessary for you to strengthen your software application by timely updates and releasing its modified versions for its growth and smooth working.
