With the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic across the world, staying in has become the new normal. Companies are letting their employees work from home, they have no choice but to adjust to this new normal. Now the question arises, how will people manage communicating with their coworkers working from home? The answer to this question lies in incredible Video Chat Apps like Zoom.
According to a report by App Annie, Video Chat Apps were downloaded more than 62 million times in a single week of March for both personal and business use.
(Source: Techcrunch)
(Source: Statista)
If you are a growing entrepreneur who has plans of entering this industry with your own Video Chat App, you are going absolutely the right way. This is probably a billion dollar idea (quite literally) at this time.
In this article, you will learn everything about creating an app like Zoom, the process, features required in a video chat app like Zoom, and tech stack. So, let me help you get started.
The Process of Developing an App like Zoom
Zoom is a redefiner when it comes to meetings. To create an app like Zoom, you will need a lot of aspects like business analysis, project management, app development, back-end development, and a good marketing strategy. If you want to develop a video chat app like Zoom, it will not happen overnight. It will take time, persistence, and great planning. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. Let's learn about all that is needed to build a video chat app like Zoom:
Filter Your Ideas and Jot Down Your Goals
By filtering your ideas, I mean you need to do a thorough market research and analysis. See what marketings your competitors abide by and the scope of your own marketing strategy. Figure out if the market is filled with the same kind of strategies/products, or if there is a scope for your app to embellish. Once you find these facts, decide which vertical you would want to step in. Video chat app industry is divided into various verticals. It is important you add a special element in your app that makes it stand out. Based on these ideas, you will then find your target audience and can design your app accordingly.
Create an Attractive Design
This step seems basic but is the most critical part when developing a video chat app like Zoom. After you have decided upon a vertical, you now need to set a great UI/UX for your users. If you are designing your app for Millenials, it is essential you create designs that attract them, and use the colour scheme accordingly. Likewise, if you are designing your app for business owners, use a colour scheme that is business appropriate. In case, you aim to to design your app for a wide group of users, keep your app simple yet attractive.
Get the Back-end Ready
Once you are finished with making the internal UX/UI, start working on the external ones. The application server, web server, and the database – comes under the backend development for an app and these components will set the core of the backend based on which you can add several functionalities in your app. You can either develop the backend of your video chat app from scratch or hire experts to create a Zoom clone script. While developing a video chat app from scratch will give you more flexibility, Zoom clone app development will save you time.
Start Development
Before you go ahead with the development of your video chat app, you must have a clear idea of what features you would want to integrate into your app. There are plenty of SDKs and APIs online that could assist you in the process of the development of your video chat app; you simply have to get in touch with the right team that is able to combine all things for you. Of all the technologies you might need, WebRTC is the most common and convenient protocol used for video chat app development. The top most benefits it provides are high stability and browser support. It is also a secure protocol, which is why we recommend using it for your video chat app development.
Test Your App Precisely
You need to ensure that each line of your code functions properly before launching your app. There should be no room for data app leak. Most video chat apps don't succeed because they fail at providing their users the desired data safety and privacy. Zoom lacks in this area too, so make sure there is no such mistake while you test your app. You will learn from the feedback you get from the users and developers will fix these issues too, but the fewer the bugs, the more the odds of your being successful.
Must-Have Features for Building a Video Chat App like Zoom
Now that you have read about the entire process of how to build a video chat app like Zoom, it is vital I tell you about its must have features as well:
Registration
To tempt your users, make sure that your registration process is as simple as it can be. A convenient and simple registration process acts as a great present for users that install your app. You must give them both the options of registering in your app using social media or manually. The user authorization process should also be simple.
User Profile Management
At the time of making a user profile, keep in mind to follow these basic principles:
- Keep the data on the screen minimal, don't overload it
- Give permission to the user to leave some information private
- Organize their information in a structured way
- Let your user edit their profile whenever they want
End-to-End Encryption
This is the type of encryption where devices of sender and user are the final travel points and no one in between can read the messages being sent. Using end-to-end encryption technology is always a good idea, especially if your users are looking for complete privacy. End-end encryption can guarantee privacy to your users.
Voice & Video Calls
Well, what is a video chat app without these two functions? Absolutely useless. These are the top most important features of a video chat app. In order to set this up, you will need a publisher-subscriber pattern which can be derived through WebRTC. Most video chat apps use WebRTC to integrate video call features. The user should be able to view video in HD quality and the sound should be loud and clear.
Group Calls
While one-on-one calls are important, make sure your app allows group calls too. Businesses nowadays are relying upon video conferencing apps for their conferences, without this feature, your app will not be a success among business owners.
Push Notifications
This feature will solve most of your users' problems. It will inform your user about the new/unread messages, calls, and update them on new features of your app.
Screen Sharing
This feature again is an absolute requirement for any video chat app. This feature is very valuable for streaming games, giving tutorials online, etc. It is critical for all kinds of video conferencing apps, does not matter if you are developing one for businesses or millenials.
Tech-Stack for developing a video conferencing app like Zoom
Once you know all about How to Make a Video Chat App like Zoom, you are pretty much left with what technologies you want to use during development of your app. There is a large range of technologies used in developing a video chat app, you can become aware of the most important ones here:
| Android Development | Kotlin |
|---|---|
| Android Studio | |
| Android SDK | |
| iOS Development | Swift |
| Apple Code | |
| iOS SDK | |
| For Prototyping | Proto.io |
| Sketch | |
| Illustrator | |
| Frameworks | NodeJS |
| Spark | |
| DataBases | My SQL |
| Oracle | |
| SDK and APIs | Twilio |
| Firebase | |
| Streaming Protocols | Proto.io |
| Sketch | |
| Illustrator | |
| SaaS Solutions | Krisp |
| PubNub | |
| OpenTokRTC |
Estimation Cost to Develop a Video Conferencing Clone App Like Zoom
Now that you are aware of what features to integrate into your video chat app, let us talk about the cost of developing such an app. Just like other apps, the cost of developing a video conferencing app like Zoom will vary depending on its ramification and features you want to integrate into it; not forgetting the number of hours put into developing the app. The development of the basic features alone will take around 1000 hours, and might cost you somewhere around $17,000. Besides this, the designing, back-end development, and testing fee would be different. The cost of app development also depends on your location. It highly depends on the expertise and the hourly rate of the app developers you decide to hire.
Wrapping Up
Even though some aspects are difficult, app development has an easy solution. You can consider using white label scripts of Zoom and all you need to do is customize the script according to your requirements.
There are a lot of companies that offer Zoom Clone Script, one of them is ours. Get in touch with Cypherox to help you get started.
