How to Build A Chat App From Scratch: Beginner’s Guide (2024)

With the advent of emerging technologies such as generative AI or ML, customers’ interaction with businesses’ services or products is completely transformed. Therefore, businesses keep finding ways with digital technology— from online car shopping, building chatbots, and automated customer service support to leveraging self-service— to enhance the customer experience (CX). Moreover, organizations can go beyond social media to understand the customer — who they are, what they want, what job they have to do, and even how they feel about themselves. They can leverage chat and messaging apps to make the interactions more personalized, engaging, and intuitive.

Chat application or a messaging app that enables a user to connect and message another person through the use of their computers or mobile device. For instance, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, WhatsApp, and many more. It not only offers a clear and quick communication channel but it does more. Businesses are getting a boost from users interacting with chat apps, whether to streamline operations or to foster customer engagement and interaction. So, if you’d like to build a chat app and know how much it costs to build a messaging app for businesses to grow your customer base and strengthen community building, this blog is for you.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

Step-by-Step Tutorial: 7 Steps To Develop Chat App From Scratch

Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to build a chat app from scratch in 7 essential steps:

#1 Establish Objectives and Use Cases

The first step is to assess your current business requirements and decide the main objective of your chat app and the list of features you want to integrate. Features can be personal messaging, team collaboration, or customer care. Consider functionalities of the app such as live chatting, audio and video support, sign-up forms, alerts, and others.

#2 Choose the Right Technology Stack

A well-chosen technology used for app development sets the future of your app and eventually makes or breaks your chat app. Think through options such as scalability, real-time performance, cross-platform availability, or developer-friendly or not. Some popular options such as Node.js combined with Socket.IO for real-time communication, React Native for cross-platform development, and Firebase delivering backend services for quick and smooth app development services.

#3 Design the User Interface (UI)

An engaging, intuitive, and user-friendly UI is the only way to keep users focused on the chat experience and allow for interaction with ease. Develop a clear and receptive UI that displays sending messages, view contacts, and settings conveniently with fewer tapping. Also, pay attention to all these factors – aesthetics, typography, color schemes, iconography, etc. – that can impact the look and feel of your app design.

#4 User Authentication and Security

Without a doubt, modern app security resilience is paramount with the growing security breaches and scams as we are dealing with sensitive information. Implement robust security measures such as user authentication methods such as OAuth, JWT, or biometric verification. In addition, using encryption techniques like SSL/TLS to encrypt messages and data would help ensure user privacy.

#5 Build the Backend Engine

This is the base that manages the main workings of the app like user authentication, message storage, and live communication protocol. Some platforms allow you to build from scratch or use Backed-as-a-Service (BaaS). It might seem to be more challenging but gives you full control and requires strong knowledge of programming. BaaS platforms are available as a product that has predefined solutions for solid functionalities so development will look easy.

#6 Integrate Multimedia Features

Incorporating various types of media (e.g., images, videos, interactive charts, and maps) and embedding additional features (e.g., surveys, quizzes, social sharing tools) to make the app more engaging and interactive. Make your chat app users enjoy it even more by adding multimedia support to it and then integrating photos, videos, and file-sharing options in it. Add other features like group chats, emojis, stickers, voice messages, and read receipts to the app to ensure it is entertaining and diverse.

#7 Test, Launch, and Iterate

Evaluate and test your chat app for different devices, platforms, and over internet conditions to achieve optimal performance and improve user experience in an app. One way to do this is to seek advice from beta testers and early adopters to identify any issue or area that needs improvements and implement corrections based on their suggestions. Fix bugs, if any, and make the app function flawlessly by addressing any glitches and usability issues before releasing it to the public eye.

Also Read: How to Build Engaging Mobile App

Looking forward to customized chat apps to make your business communication seamless & effective? We can help, get in touch today

5 Factors that Influence Your Chat App Development Costs

We’d like to clear this up: a chat app development cost depends on a lot of factors such as features, third-party integrations, or UI designs. Taking these factors into consideration, a messenger or mobile app development cost varies from $30,000 to $70,000.

Here are 5 key factors that will impact the cost of developing your chat app:

1. Features and Functionality

• (Low Complexity): This includes text messaging, contact management, and basic user profiles. Estimated Cost: $10,000 – $30,000.
• Advanced Features (High Complexity): Adding features like voice/video calls, real-time translation, location sharing, and robust security significantly increases development time and cost. Estimated Cost: $50,000 – $200,000+

2. Development Team and Location

• In-House Team (More Expensive): Hiring a dedicated development team in-house offers the most control but comes at a premium. Rates vary depending on location and experience but expect to pay senior developers $100+ per hour.
• Outsourced Teams (Variable Cost): Outsourcing app development companies can offer a more cost-effective solution, with rates ranging from $20-$50 per hour. However, the development cost can vary depending on location, with teams in North America and Western Europe typically costing more than those in Asia or Eastern Europe.

3. Platform (Native vs. Cross-Platform)

• Native Apps (Higher Cost): Developing separate apps for Android and iOS provides a more optimized user experience but requires a larger development effort.
• Cross-Platform Apps (Lower Cost): App development frameworks like React Native allow you to build one app that runs on both platforms, reducing development time and cost.

Know the Difference: Cross-Platform vs Native App Development Services

4. Design Complexity

• Simple, Clean Design (Lower Cost): A clean, intuitive design is essential but doesn’t require extensive animations or custom graphics. It can be anywhere between $10,000 to $30,000
• Complex, Feature-Rich Design (Higher Cost): If your vision involves a highly customized interface with complex animations or illustrations, expect to pay more for design expertise. Anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000+.

5. Backend Infrastructure

• Simple Backend (Lower Cost): Basic chat functionality might rely on simpler backend solutions with lower costs.
• Scalable Backend with Advanced Features (Higher Cost): As your app grows and incorporates features like real-time chat and large file transfers, you’ll need a robust and scalable backend infrastructure, which can be expensive.

Read More: Offshore App Development Trends

Essential Features for Successful Chat App Development

Messaging apps or chat applications are certainly indispensable for everyone, be it for businesses, social connections, or customer support. If you also want to dive into app development, you should also know what features or components your app must have for it to work flawlessly and engage your user. App development can be overwhelming, but with a solid and well-defined approach, it’s doable. Here are a few features you must implement in your app:

• Easy sign-in and registration
• Integration of contacts
• Cloud storage and backup
• Voice and video calls
• Dark and light modes
• File sharing
• Messaged editing and deletion
• AI assistants & Third-party integrations

Know More: Stages of App Development Process

Wrapping Up

Having a good customer service team is essential to nurture business and consumer relationships. Additionally, it’s more helpful if your end users can reach you where you are and the time they want or vice-versa. After all, showing that you are willing to adapt to various changes to land potential clients and boost brand loyalty. To facilitate quick interactions and boost engagement with their customers, chat and messenger apps are a great medium.

However, it’s challenging to maintain the balance between a unique, customized chat product and one that feels familiar and intuitive while performing reliably. Thus, in this blog, we offer a comprehensive guide to chat app development. We discussed the best practices for building a chat application, mentioned its benefits, and also explored key factors that impact your chat app development costs. A chat application can offer a lot of advantages for businesses and when you seek a top app development companies for assistance, your app development journey can reach the next level. Along with a dedicated team of professionals, build capabilities to suit your needs—and deliver a live chat app 3x as fast without skimping on features.