Introduction
Among all Social media applications, the messenger app has been the most needed App. Either a complete app for messaging or as a part of a bigger Mobile App Ideas. If you are thinking of creating your own WhatsApp Like Apps? This is the right time to enter this industry.
In This Post, We Will Discuss How You Can Develop Your Own WhatsApp Like Applications Including Some Amazing Features
We have tried to cover a detailed list of all the features, Time to develop the App, Preferred technology, the investment required, marketing, revenue models, and everything that your startup Idea would need to succeed.
After the expeditious growth of social networks in recent years, you must be wondering how profitable is it to develop a messaging app in 2022? Well, the best part is that the messenger apps are more popular than ever and its users are constantly rising all over the world.
People use chatting apps not just to communicate with friends and relatives but are increasingly using the apps to enhance their businesses as well. These apps today have become a key method of communication with customers. This has contributed to the renewed popularity and accelerated the growth of messengers in 2022 and many entrepreneurs like you are looking for ways to Create Apps Like WhatsApp.
A Brief History Of WhatsApp and Its Role
In 2009, Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded WhatsApp (Former employees at Yahoo!). The app was launched on the App Store for the iPhone at the end of the year. There were no alternatives to the app at that time. When customers had to pay for every message they used to send, the launch of WhatsApp was a revolution in itself! People started to turn to WhatsApp all over the world to exchange messages in real-time using the Internet. Today WhatsApp is the top messaging app used worldwide and is available for all popular mobile operating systems.
WhatsApp is used worldwide to communicate with your contacts. Not just to send messages to friends and relatives, but also for their businesses. The app has also consistently worked on user’s safety and had introduced new feature updates from time to time which makes it a preferable app to use. Furthermore, the app’s simple yet excellent user interface is the reason behind its huge popularity. Thus if you are intending to build an app like WhatsApp, it is an excellent choice.
How Does The App Work?
WhatsApp and other messenger apps provide messaging service for smartphones that typically relies on internet connection. The app offers a low-cost subscription model and is an economical alternative to SMS messaging. It is more expensive to chat and send messages.
Messaging has been taken to the next level by introducing calling, group calling, Video Calling, group video calls, and all that without the restriction of Borders. Now taken over by Facebook, this messaging app enables text, image, and video sharing via messages. To anyone’s surprise, WhatsApp handles about 600 million images and over 60 billion text messages on a daily basis. It works seamlessly on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows devices, PC/Mac, and is completely free for users to use.
Core Features of WhatsApp Like Apps
Before answering the question of how much does it cost to Develop the WhatsApp Like Apps, it is vital that you pay close attention to the app’s core features. Several features like video calling, voice calling, voice notes, media sharing, messaging, and a lot more embed with WhatsApp.
You must clearly lay the features that you wish to incorporate in your messaging app. You can either get the same WhatsApp like Applications offering the same features or can also add a few more amazing features and customize it as per your business requirements. However, you should keep in mind that the more features you incorporate in the app, the better you can compete.
Let’s Give A Closer Look At Its Features:
WhatsApp first requires you to sign up to use the app. To do so, users need to download the app from the Play Store, open the app, agree to its terms and conditions, allow the app to access your contacts, enter their phone number enter a code to verify your device, enter your name and optional profile picture, and finally, you are all set to use the application.
Social Login
You can additionally sync your contacts through Facebook and connect with them using this application. Authentication in chat apps can be implemented in several ways such as phone number, email, or social media profiles.
Notifications
The chat app allows users to get a notification on any incoming call, media, or message, users will have the option to turn the notification on or off based on their preference. WhatsApp also sends you a push notification when someone else tries to register a WhatsApp account with your registered phone number.
The push notification contains a numeric code which needs to be entered to verify your phone number to continue using the app. Furthermore, you also have an option to mute chats which will ensure that you receive no notification on incoming messages on those chats.
Notifications feature should be implemented in the app while developing the MVP also, as they serve as a direct line of communication between the application and its users. These push notifications ensure that users are active within the app and also keeps them interacting with the app.
As WhatsApp is known for its chatting feature, it allows the users to send and receive instant messages over the internet. The app provides its users with encrypted chat.
Messaging
This feature of WhatsApp uses modern cryptography technology to secure chat messages from intruders and can be highly useful when your users exchange confidential information through the application. Also, messages can have statuses like delivered, failed, seen, or edited. However, this has now become a standard feature in most chat applications, letting users know the current status of their messages from the moment they send it until they’re read by the recipient.
As all chat apps have this instant messaging feature, you can make an app stand out to consider offering both private and public chats. A group chat option allows your users to create a group and chat with multiple people at the same time, invite/add new people to the group, address & choose specific members within a group, and a lot more!
Media Transmission
The chat application allows the users an easy exchange of media. Apart from sharing emojis and texts, people also share other types of media like photos, videos, boomerangs, stickers, and GIFs. Your chat application must support the exchange of heavy media files seamlessly. You can also incorporate stickers, that are also among the top monetization options for a messaging app.
Web & Desktops
The WhatsApp web and desktop apps are an extension of your smartphone. They mirror all the conversations and messages you have on the WhatsApp app on your Web Browser and allow you to see them all and reply to them all on your PC or Mac using your computer’s keyboard.
It empowers you to use WhatsApp on a Browser Tab, Push Notification and other features apart from calling everything Works seamlessly, So be you working on Word document or replying to an email, without needing to take your smartphone out of your pocket users can use WhatsApp.
Voice And Video Calls
You can allow your users to make video and voice calls that further make your chatting app more interactive. This way, your users can have an unlimited calling feature on the way users can interact and communicate with each other, without having to pay a single penny. Even if the user’s contact is in another country, the chat app offers audio and visual communication between the users freely without any cost via stable internet connection and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Group Chats
Other than voice and video calling features, the chat applications also facilitate group calls. The users can form groups, add members to the group, remove members from the group, and make multiple admins. Chat apps can also allow users to hold group conversations with both audio and video. The users can make group audio/video calls to selected desired members of the group. For example, the current version of WhatsApp can facilitate video calls up to eight participants.
Advanced Settings
The chatting app comes with advanced settings which include privacy settings (where users can change display picture, status, show read receipts, show when the user was last active, etc.) You can also stop receiving messages, calls, and status updates from certain contacts by blocking them. Other than privacy settings, the app features notifications settings, theme settings, wallpaper settings, data and storage usage, and others. The user can change his/her account settings as per their preference anytime.
Status option in the messenger app is just like the “story feature” on Instagram. It allows your users to share text, photos, video, and GIF updates that are visible for 24 hours and then disappear after 24 hours automatically. In order to watch status updates to and from your contacts, it is necessary that the contacts must have each other’s phone numbers saved in your phones’ address books.
Several messenger apps including WhatsApp come up with the “Starred Messages” feature that allow your end-users to quickly access the bookmarked messages which can include text messages, images, videos, or other content instantly. The starred messages would then be saved in a separate new Starred Messages tab. As the users mark a message as starred, the star icon appears next to the message.
Location Sharing Feature
The WhatsApp Like app allows its users to share the current location. End-users can send the map-link with a pin indicating your location, with just a tap . The users first need to allow the application to access your current location in the settings. The recent features can limit the time like 15mins, 1 hour and so for accessing the location of other users.
Extra Features That You Can Include To Make Your App Stand Out
Other than the basic features, you can include some extra features to your messenger app to make it stand out and beat the competition including:
1- Customizable Profiles
As you get your WhatsApp like apps developed, you can add customizable profile features into the app. This feature allows users to change the background colors of the chats, set passwords to open chats, set patterns, get interesting fonts, set different notification tones for chats, among others. This way, you can set customizable profiles to have a more personal touch to the application.
2- Self-Destructive Chats
You can have a secret chat feature in your messenger app in which the messages will self-destruct on both the mobile devices after a specified time after being read. This feature can be helpful for people who have confidential information to share and also useful for people who want to keep their chats secretive.
3- Schedule Messaged
As you get your own app developed, you can also add a feature to schedule a message for any time later. This feature will facilitate users to write their messages in advance and get it delivered at any time of the day without any hassle. For example, if you have an important message to send at 2 pm, users can schedule the message and enter the time when they automatically want the app to deliver the message.
4- E-Commerce Features
Adding an eCommerce solution to your chatting app can be a great way to monetize your application. As an advanced feature, you can also incorporate advertising and your customers can make purchases right from the application. The launch of WhatsApp business app is an example where the app has used different eCommerce features that helps the users to promote their business and facilitate easy transactions & payments within the application.
5- Payment Wallet
With increase in the demand of Digital payments everywhere, this feature where users can transfer funds to their contacts in just a click can boost the usage of the app. Also this can be a great revenue model.
6- Chat-Bots
As an added feature you can use artificial intelligence & add chatbots to the application while you are offline. It allows the users to set pre-generated messages and send them automatically when they get any new message from someone. This is much like chatbots that are used on other applications or websites which respond to user’s query efficiently.
Technology Stack to Make WhatsApp Like App
So how can you create a chat app like WhatsApp? Start by understanding the tech stack that you’ll need. WhatsApp’s server-side is written in the Erlang language, as it is sustainable and capable of handling huge amounts of data. Though others, like PHP or Java, could also be good options.
Erlang is among the rarest scripting languages that are behind the success of WhatsApp. This robust language helps you to build chatting apps with several concurrent users with zero tolerance on downtime.
The operating system used to withhold the millions of messages sent over the platform every day. It compiles great network stacks, reliability and possesses straightforward in managing the FreeBSD installation.
A high-performance web server that is well suited for huge dynamic-content transfer for web applications. It works with any database as of your choice and consists of two modes namely Standalone & Embedded.
Lighttpd is an open-source lightweight web server used in WhatsApp for serving larger loads while using less memory than the other servers that are deployed during high traffic loads.
The server-side scripting language helps to perform higher and faster than all other scripting languages. WhatsApp uses PHP due to its platform-independent and a high number of libraries.
WhatsApp uses XMPP protocol that provides a real-time exchange of structured data between the two or more networks written in Ejabberd.
Steps Involved In Creating A WhatsApp like Application
As You Are Planning To Create App Like WhatsApp, Given Below Are The Steps That You Must Follow.
1- Right Business Model
2- Hire a Development Team
3- UI/UX Design
4- Actual Development
Choose The Right Business Model
The first step towards building a successful messaging app is to choose the right business model for your app. Before you start creating your app, you should think of all the challenges that you may face while developing an app. First, you should determine your target audience, and research on who will be interested in your app. More often, young people use messengers more than older people. You also research how your app can be useful among companies and business people since it is secure and easy-to-use. Most importantly, you must also think of ways how you can make money from your app.
When You Create Your Own WhatsApp Like App, There Are A Few Monetization Models You May Use To Get Profit:
- P2P payments that allows the users to send payments instantly to each other, where they are supposed to pay a fixed fee for each payment. This way, you can get your percent from each transaction made through your application.
- In-app purchase: Being one of the common ways to monetize the app, you can allow your users to buy stickers. You also allow some other additional features to enrich the messenger and make it more interesting to use.
- Advertising is the most popular and commonly used way to monetize the app. However, make sure to don’t overload the app with ads. It can be annoying for users & refrain them from using the apps.
Hire A Development Team
Now that you already have a clear picture of how your app would be. What would be its business model, the next big step is to hire a development agency. In this process, you must make sure to go with a reputed company. You must find experienced developers and check their portfolio before finalizing them. As it is the quality of your code that determines the success of your app. It is vital that you choose your development company wisely.
UI/UX Design
Your app’s UX Design means the User Experience Design, while the UI design implies the User Interface Design. Both these elements work together and are crucial to a product’s success. A great UX design considers each and every element that shapes this experience. It determines how the users feel, and how simple it is for them to perform the desired tasks. Thus, Must Focus on app detailing for the UI/UX design while developing your app. It includes lovely colors, fonts, well-designed icons, among others. Before starting with the process, you must also research the similar apps and see how they implemented their designs.
Actual Development
The app development process is long which includes designing wireframes, prototypes, UI/UX development, working on APIs, adding MVP features. Finally coming up with the final product. You must discuss in advance with your app development team about how much time will it take to get the app developed. You can also break your overall development parts into several phases and monitor closely. Once your app is developed, your app is ready to be launched!
Cost and Time To Develop a WhatsApp Like Apps
Giving you an estimate of the total cost of making an app like WhatsApp. The development process can take up to 1620 hours (+2 weeks for deployment) while the average development cost can be $50 per hour. Thus, the cost of developing a WhatsApp like app can be calculated as 1620 hours x $50, which is approximately $81K per one platform. If you want to develop an app both for iOS and Android, you must add 852 hours to the total amount. Thus, the total cost of a WhatsApp like app for two platforms (iOS and Android) may vary from $110,2K to $162K including back-end.
How Can You Make Money With WhatsApp Like Applications?
There are various ways by which we can earn money with Whatsapp Like Apps-
1- Subscription Fee:
2- In-App Purchases:
3- Build-In Ads:
3.1 Banners or Display Ads-
3.2- Interstitial Ads-
3.3- Native Ads-
3.4- In-App Video Ads:
4- Freemium Model:
1- Subscription Fee:
As you plan to launch your messaging app for free. You can restrict the content or features available for a limited time. You can ask the users to pay a subscription fee to get full access and unlock it. This way, the developers can provide users with a free trial period and charge the subscription fee for access without any restrictions.
2- In-App Purchases:
Another way to monetize your app is through In-app purchases. It provides you an ability to sell a variety of virtual items directly from your messaging app. Through your app you can also allow your users to buy additional content. You can also buy services within the app to make money. In your app, if users want some extra features, you can ask them to pay. Paid stickers can be one of the main sources of revenue for your messengers, and is definitely worth a try.
3- Build-In Ads:
One of the best ways to generate revenue from mobile apps is mobile advertising. You can simply use ads on your messaging app while simply displaying an ad commercial inside your app. The Ad network will pay you. There are different types of ads that you can choose including:
3.1 Banners or Display Ads-
These ads usually appear in different sizes. It usually stretch at the top or bottom part of the screen in your mobile app. These are small and less obtrusive so users and makes sure that they can freely interact with the app.
3.2- Interstitial Ads-
These are the full-screen pop-ups, displayed at specific time frames on your app. Placing these ads can help you boost app revenue at natural transition breaks that are widely used for messaging and content apps.
3.3- Native Ads-
These ads are created to fit smoothly in the design. It appear within the app as its natural element. These are mostly sponsored content or videos that are aimed to promote a product.
3.4- In-App Video Ads:
These ads are displayed automatically in exchange for any in-app reward. Though this type of ad is less popular in messaging apps, yet some of them still use it.
4- Freemium Model:
You can follow a freemium business model while developing your messaging mobile app. Users don’t have to pay anything while downloading your app. They offered to pay for premium features and additional content. This way you can make money from your mobile application while asking your users to upgrade your app.
If you are looking for more ways to monetize your WhatsApp like app. You can read how to become a millionaire by launching a free app.
How Long Does It Take To Develop A WhatsApp Like Apps?
The total time to develop a WhatsApp like messenger, Whatsapp like Apps depends on several factors. It is including the number of features and the complexity of your project. If you want to create an app with less market time, you can develop a simple application. For instance, you can build an MVP first for the chat app.
Wrapping Up
These messaging applications are consistently shaping the way of communicating. It also represent the future of communication as they allow users from all over the world to remain in contact for free. To sum up, the messaging app market demonstrates continuous evolution. It is posing a great opportunity for entrepreneurs and businesses to build a profitable WhatsApp like App. Considering the fact that there are a lot of WhatsApp’s clones in the market. It is challenging to surpass the competition. However a great marketing strategy can help you survive the rivals and out beat the competition.
Would you like to take a demo of the WhatsApp like App, let us know.
