Video Calling App- What features should it have?

Video Calling App- What features should it have_banner

Since it is advisable to stay indoors during this ongoing pandemic, people haven’t met their friends or colleagues since long. The best way to stay in touch with everyone these days is through video calling apps. Owing to these apps, the digital world has seen a paradigm shift.

Video calling app has proved to be an optimal solution for WFH meetings and socializing with friends. Due to its ease of use and effective functioning, its popularity has gone through the roof!

According to Priori Data, global downloads of Skype, Houseparty, and Zoom each grew by more than 100% in March while the video chat app Zoom was downloaded almost 27 million times in March compared to only 2.1 million times in January!

If you’re planning to develop a video chat app, this is the best time to start making one! But what features must a video calling app have?

Let’s get through the basic features needed to develop a video chat app.

  • Registration
  • Profile Management
  • Searching Contact List
  • Video & Voice calls
  • Group Calls
  • Text Chat
  • End-to-End encryption
  • Push Notifications
  • Screenshare
  • UI/UX Design

Video chat app development- Key features

1. Registration

The first screen that pops up as a user opens the app should be a registration screen. Signing up and filling out forms can get a tad bit annoying. Hence, adding third-party authentication to the video calling app can create an engaging experience for users.

Most video calling apps use Facebook & Google to implement this feature as these popular platforms are used by anyone and everyone. However, if you don’t make it mandatory for your users to register, they’d prefer using your video calling app much more compared to the rest as it makes for a quick experience. And once they frequently start using it, they will eventually want to register to have a full experience of the video chat app.

2. Profile Management

Once your users are registered, they need to manage their data such as passwords, emails, contact lists, and so on. The scope of features to manage can vary from one app to another. But for any video calling app, there would be a payment gateway feature for customers to use extended services. It is important to integrate in-app purchase tools that facilitate customers to pay via credit cards of the payment system approved by the app market platforms- Android or Apple.

3. Searching Contact list

You can’t build a video chat app without a contact list. Users would need to search in the app for the contacts they would like to interact with. This would require two key functionalities – a search engine implementation for easy navigation and integration of contacts from the user’s phonebook. For the latter, Google’s Contacts API would be the easiest way to import existing contacts into your video chat app.

4. Video & Voice calls

This is the core of video chat app development. Not just video calls, the app should also have the capability of making high-quality voice calls. Making international calls are expensive. Providing a cheaper alternative for your users through the video chat app that allows making high-quality internet voice calls would be the cherry on the cake. Alternatively, it would be feasible for people who wouldn’t want to consume a large amount of their mobile data.

5. Group Calls

One-to-one calls are good but not enough to be a self-sufficient video chat app. The users may want to organize group conferences or have a virtual family meet up. Depending on your audience, deciding on how many users per call should be supported is an important aspect to keep in mind.

If aiming at businesses, your video calling app should at least support 50 users. If your video chat app is for everyday use for socializing, 10 people per call will be enough. But you can allow more users for a great interactive experience. Also, some key features for conference call like muting/unmuting users and inviting other users in an existing group call should also be included.

6. Text Chat

Due to poor network coverage and other reasons, it might not always be a viable option to make a video call. Including a text chat feature in your video calling app can come handy in such situations.

7. End-to-End encryption

Video chat apps must have utmost security measures in place. When it comes to security measures, there shouldn’t be any compromise. Users want their data to be protected at all times. Video chat apps like Whatsapp provides end-to-end encryption- nobody else can read the message when it’s being sent. Security algorithms like AES-256 & HMAC-SHA256 ensure confidentiality & help make the video app secure. They ensure end-to-end encryption meaning even if user data is hacked, the data would be encrypted so no one can know what the actual data is.

8. Push Notifications

A simple feature that makes life easier for many users. When the user enables this Push notifications feature, it automatically notifies the user about new messages, missed calls, and keeps them updated about new features added to the video chat app. Third-party tools like Firebase Cloud Messaging or Apple Push Notification service can help improve user engagement with minimum efforts.

8. Screen sharing

Since most people are working from home and have to continuously interact with their colleagues, screen sharing effectively facilitates the sharing of information. With users allowing other users to access their screen, information can easily be transferred and effective communication can be taking place. This not only helps makes conducting business presentations easier but also offers a better user experience. If you play your cards right, your video calling app can be just what your target audience is looking for.

9. UI/UX Design

However good your video calling app functionalities are, if your users have a difficult time using your app, they wouldn’t prefer using it again. UI/UX is a very crucial aspect of your video calling app. In order to make your video calling app successful, providing an amazing user interface & user experience throughout is of utmost importance. The video chat app’s design should have specific UI features that suit the target audience while keeping it minimalistic & clean for seamless operations.

As a leading video chat app development company, Communication Crafts has 15+ years of experience developing different types of video calling apps for clients. Our team of expert iOS developers, android developers, backend developer, business analyst, software testers, UX/UI designers, and QA engineers cater to your video chat app needs specifically. Using the latest technologies available in the market, we always aim to create an interactive video calling app that your target audience would love. Creating advanced video chat apps that provide great customer experience is our forte!

As an established video chat app development company, we provide a superior scope for your video calling app to succeed in this digital world. Create your video chat app with Communication Crafts!

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