In-App Chat or Third-Party Messengers- What’s Better to Build a Community Online?
We’ve all heard the hype around chat apps. We’ve also seen the popularity of in-app chat grow with big players like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Skype. With so many strong options available, you might wonder if in-app chat is right for you and your community.
In a world where our experiences are intertwined with digital elements, it is critical that your app has some kind of communication element. Talking particularly about the community apps, it is a must to have an advanced chat in place because one to one and real time communication are two main drivers to retaining users on community platforms.
There are several third-party chat apps like Slack and WhatsApp that facilitate communication so mostly the communities that have no chat feature are forced to rely on such apps for one-to-one, group interaction. The downside of allowing app users to go to a third party chat app is that it takes away your user engagement to their platforms.
User engagement is the most critical component of a social media app or an online community. Allowing users to communicate with each other makes them feel like they’re part of a community, which can lead to increased customer loyalty. A successful community is built of conversations and trust; a safe space to talk is all they need, in the absence of which they switch to other communication apps. To end this most of the brands try to create a chat experience within their web or mobile app at early stages, which helps them build and retain the user base from the starting point.
So what exactly is In-App Chat?
Say hello to in-app chat, a feature that lets users of your product or a platform send messages back and forth to each other instantly. They can also share their profile information, build an online network, and more! Sharing media like docs, images, files is super quick. While you can have complete control on the app, users get to enjoy the freedom of expression with community focused features.
Why is it important to develop an in-app community for your brand?
In-App communication is a huge opportunity to engage users. It allows you to leverage user generated content, which is a great motivator and the basis of an emotional bond created between you and your users. Getting real time feedback and offering quick support to users is far and away achievable with in-app chat. Also, your opportunities to monetize increase with an engaged user base, low cost of acquisition and high retention. Let’s take a look at a few more advantages of in-app chat in comparison with third party messaging apps.
Great User Experience
In-app chat is not only flexible and offers seamless experience, it is preferred to emails and forum discussions by most of the community members. Advanced features like ability to share rich media and typing indicators are more attractive to them hence the adoption time is quite less compared to other forms of communication. While getting real time replies makes them feel they are conversing face to face, they can also catch up on any conversation later by referring to threads.
Data & Insights
Chat as a feature in your app allows you to collect and analyze data. You can learn more about your community, their activity levels, interests, behavior, etc. The data you collect through chat analytics help understand user behavior and improve user acquisition. Most useful to moderate content on the platform, chat analytics can help in moderation and understanding the subjects that may create discord. To protect sensitive information, make sure your chat is end-to-end encrypted so you can build trust with your users.
Builds Engagement & Retention
When you add chat to your app, you’re reaching out to more users and tapping into metrics like engagement, conversions, and retention. Features like push notifications can drive more traffic and amplify the engagement as users feel inspired to see notifications and tend to open apps to respond to the messages as quickly as possible. The best part of having chat within a community app is that users never have to leave the community platform to communicate outside it. With this, both group and one to one chats remain inside the app and you don’t lose users to other communications apps.
Why Are Third-Party Messaging Apps Popular?
To address the issue of varied costs to the end-user, third-party messaging apps have been created. The popularity of these apps spiked due to two reasons, one, anyone can download them for free and continue using instantly via the internet, secondly the instant, real time chat with various other privacy, sharing and security features is what users need. WhatsApp is one example of a popular platform that has risen in popularity over the years — it’s the most used mobile messenger app with over 100 billion messages sent each day.
Third party messaging apps replaced SMS because these communication tools do not cost much and all you need is a Wi-Fi connection to get started. Plus there are features that can make conversations more interactive and personalized. You can share emojis, audio, video and chat between threads with multiple users. As of 2022, most third-party messengers sync with other devices- the availability of different options makes it possible for users to stay connected to their communities regardless of the device they use.
Should Community Apps Rely on Third Party Messengers ?
Despite many benefits of third party communication apps, no business or community apps must rely on tools like WhatsApp, Slack and Facebook Messenger to offer on-to-one communication. This could be the worst move for any social media app or an online community as a community thrives on more content and user adoption. Dividing their attention to two channels can be detrimental to the growth of your community. Also, you won’t have access to analytics that can be useful in improving user interactions and boosting engagement.
Third party apps do not provide user data, which is a big bottleneck. Now think of an in-app chat that comes with analytics and helps you improve the community experience based on the insights collected. From a security point of view, not all apps are secure, you can’t take responsibility for any security breach on third party apps. On the other hand, if you build in-app chat, you can choose advanced encryption to protect data from any malicious attack.
