In just the past decade, around the turn of the century, when cell phones were erratic to consumers, text messaging didn’t see its boon.
Slowly, communities saw the importance of messaging and provider plans evolved charging a fee for every short message service (SMS). Soon, there was a transition to unlimited free texts and when this happened – a lot more happened in the US.
According to the reports of Rebtel, Americans sent over 3000 messages per day to what was just 0. 4 texts per month due to this shift.
Latez, communication styles progressed to what’s now- the giant real-time messaging. And now, SaaS products are being built atop chat platforms!
So, in the article below, let us see the factors that lead to the boom of the chat platform.
The Boom of Chat Platforms
The period of SMS messaging was short-lived because it was not quick, failed inconvenience, and was not on the go.
Noticing that it doesn’t offer many bells and whistles, was soon shadowed by the rise of mobile messaging apps and finally led to an increase in social media chat functionalities
Below is data from eMarketer that depicts the boom of “Build Chat Platform” for continued business success,
2020 Messaging App Statistics:
– Messaging apps increased social networks of users by 20%.
– 41 million messages are sent out every minute.
– Over 2.7 billion people are using messaging apps. This number is said to grow to 3.1 billion by 2023, which is nearly 40% of the total world population.
Factors that lead to the rise of chat application
Well, now that you have got hold of how important chat applications have become, businesses are thriving to implement them in their businesses as well for improved productivity, growth, revenue, and more.
And for it, the best and wisest option is to simply buy a premade chat API or chat SDK to add relevant chat, voice, and video functions to the messaging app.
Integrating chat SDKs to chat apps usually takes a week, is lower in cost, and comes with minimal license payments.
Here’s a checklist that best explains the rise of chat app:
Feature Set
Main and the prime factor in any chat application is that it offers a suite of features. Else, it is pointless to have a chat platform.
Having more is good but there should always be a line between benefits and costs.
Some of the must-have chat application features are:
– Peer-to-peer chats and group chat
– Chat moderation tools, remember automated are mostly preferred.
– UI kits
– Notifications
– Typing and Online presence indicators
– Block contacts, search, and retrieve contacts and messages.
– HIPAA and GDPR compliance
– Unmatched security
Compatibility
This is nothing but the support for varied devices across mobile application frameworks, browsers, and on-premise or cloud deployments.
The chat API or SDK that you use to build a chat platform must be compatible with Safari, Chrome, Android, and iOS chat apps.
A cross-platform or hybrid platform is a nice feature to include in a chat API.
And to achieve this feature suite, make sure to include codes built from programming languages like React Native or Flutter.
These help decrease development costs by 30 percent.
Performance
Performance is a parameter that tells how well a chat SDK runs on platforms.
It usually includes
– Stability: The chat SDK that you opt for is lag-free and stuttering free thereby not affecting the performance of chat or call.
– FPS: Frames-per-second is a simple metric that explains the smooth functioning of a video. a minimum of 30 FPS is suggested but the higher the FPS the better the video streaming.
Pricing Plans
This is the final point to consider as one must know what they are paying for before going in for a product. Few chat API providers offer to price one time (SaaP) called a SaaP model that lets the user purchase the product as a whole without providing service whenever required.
Whereas a few others offer customizations and billing monthly or yearly- SaaS model. This works well for larger companies.
The remaining lot charges fares per participant per minute. Well suited for start-ups with minimal users.
So, it is these factors that one must decide before going green.
Let us see, How messaging apps cater to different verticals?
Understanding the benefits of a real-time chat app, businesses have integrated chats into their work process.
Here, we will see the top sectors that have been using messaging apps for quite a long time.
- E-learning: Messaging apps have indeed turned out to be helpful for students during this pandemic. Indeed, it is during this period that saw its boon.
From virtual whiteboards to daily sessions to the recording option, chats are used for all upfronts.
- Healthcare: Even patients today are going the virtual way to connect with doctors or physicians.
Online appointments, consultations, discussions on diagnosis, report sharing, and many more features are included in real-time chat apps.
This chat platform suits doctors too for discussing disease diagnosis & treatment methodologies amongst other physicians.
- Customer Support: Support is the backbone of any business and many industries have been impacted by worse customer support.
The use of live chats, chatbots, or real-time chats can all boost the customer support experience of users. And, use a chat API that offers the BubbleIQ tool for handling the ticketing system.
This would directly lead to an increase in sales, revenue, and growth.
- E-commerce: Recently, e-commerce chat apps are in growing demand and so businesses are in full swing to implement tools like User feed, Octane AI, and Greyscale labs to their chat platforms.
These tools help industries to build the right products to capture leads, nurture relationships, and increase revenue.
What is the future of messaging?
Messaging apps aren’t going anywhere and when integrated into social media platforms can act as an added advantage in improving sales.
Nowadays, many SaaS products are also built upon chat platforms.
Well, this is the end of the post, if you wish to know more about chat integration, check this article out.
