If you’re an app developer looking to build a communication app or a business owner who is in search of creating a solution that can enhance engagements, then this blog is for you. To enhance engagements, communications need to be easy. While there are multiple communication options available, multiple preferences would be on an all-in-one solution that provides the former. Hence we believe that building a live video call app solution can do the trick. Video calls have always been a preferred mode of communication hence when you create Video Chat App you are making engagements more convenient.
To help you understand better the perks of building a comet live video call solution, read along.
Table of Contents
What’s an API, and why use it?
API or Application Programming Interfaces are small pieces of code that help digital devices, software, and data servers to communicate with each other. It is a software to software interface and does not require any user intervention. In simpler words, think of an application that you use every day. These applications are meant for humans to use but APIs are designed for use by digital systems and applications to interact with each
other. Like any website, a video call API for iOS also returns data, images, video, content, etc.; but it cannot return every detail in a form that humans can understand. It returns only raw data and machine-readable information to put the resources to work.
APIs allow developers to add features and functionality to the apps. With an API, developers do not need to start building an app right from the scratch. This can save a lot of their time and money. Many product teams prefer to use APIs to integrate common features but not for the features unique to their own product. Here are a few real-world examples of API categories that are used widely:
- Payment processing (Stripe)
- Customer support chat (Mixpanel)
- Sending email from an app (Mailchimp)
- Text chat (CONTUS MirrorFly)
- Video chat (CONTUS MirrorFly)
Choosing a good video chat API for product functionality, saves money and effort, as it gives the benefits of proven flexible technology. One does not have to struggle to solve technical issues that are already solved. The team can focus on their core product and their core functionalities.
The Growth Of Video Call Apps
Video calling apps have always remained a communication option but it wasn’t until the pandemic that led to its increase.
What was being used as a basic communication medium for personal uses has now become the center of attention for businesses to consider when engaging while living indoors.
As per online statistics, the growth of video engagements is bound to increase ’’ the growth of the market is projected to reach a CAGR of 11.45% in the years 2020 to 2026. Some predictions estimate it might go over $9 billion by 2026.’’
Now that video calling has become a mandatory communication medium to get work done and improve productivity, this platform will not fade away anytime soon.
Multiple live video call apps have seen a sudden rise in their usage and have become a downloadable communication choice.
If you need more reasons to believe why building a video call app is impactful in 2021, multiple existing video call providers will prove the same.
But before we can learn about them, let’s quickly give you the top reasons to build a video chat app in 2021.
3 Benefits of Building A Video Chat App
While there are multiple communication providers already available which we will learn in our next category, when it comes to features and other perks, in some ways, there is a restriction.
As app developers, the agenda of creating a comet live video call solution is to ensure that it is a complete app solution catering to all needs.
Hence building one in the first place provides multiple benefits such as:
Affordability
Build a video chat app is much cheaper than investing in a third-party application. With third-party applications, there will be multiple upgrades and additional features that will require a price to make use of it.
But when you build a live video chat app, solutions such as communication API providers offer much more to app developers. At an affordable rate, they offer more than 100+ features, built-in security options as well as pre-built components so that creating a video chat app is simple.
Easy customization
Another reason to create a video chat app is the customization option. There are multiple video chat applications available online, for an app developer like you to get into the growing market, you need to create an application that is different and unique.
Hence with communication API providers, this becomes possible as they offer customization options. In simple terms, in the video chat app you’re creating, you can add any features as needed.
Scalable with time
As the market grows, so will the needs and the demands, Hence in such cases, your creation of the comet live video call app needs to meet those needs. With the use of a reliable API provider, scaling with the growing market is not difficult.
To have a better understanding of video chat apps, let’s see the top ones in the market that have made their mark.
Top 6 Video Calling Applications In 2021
Zoom: An efficient video calling solution
Zoom has become one of the most considered and highly used video calling solutions. it’s grown popular because its free trial caters to basic needs. In the free trial, users can communicate for up to 40 minutes per meeting, conduct screen sharing as well as have video calling with great quality.
If you wish to avail more services on Zoom, you need to invest in their paid versions. Zoom has become a go-to tool for businesses to engage internally and externally as well.
Whatsapp: A free and widely-used communication platform
Whatsapp requires no introduction. From becoming a basic chat app to now catering to video and audio calling, Whatsapp is another widely used video calling application. Whatsapp is free and requires no payments to be made for any upgrades.
With the changing time, Whatsapp continues to upgrade by adding in better convenience such as clearing bugs, options to create a group better, and much more.
Houseparty: Connects social users anytime
Houseparty offers a similar video calling function like Whatsapp. It helps users to conduct free video calling engagements on smartphones or desktops. The great thing about Houseparty was that users in the app would receive instant notification for all their friends to be online so that video engagements can be conducted instantly.
However, HouseParty isn’t available to download now but it is still accessible for those who have the app.
Cometchat: Easy medium to create in-app video chats
When it comes to building an easy and instant communication platform, Cometchat should be your go-to solution. Cometchat helps app developers like you to build in-app chat conveniently. They have in-house developers that have created a wide option of in-app messaging solutions to meet the needs of app developers like you.
To name a few are chat widgets, UI kits, SDK, and APIs. They also provide multiple resources such as blogs, documentation, tutorials, and more to help app developers like to get started easily.
CONTUS MirrorFly: An all in one solution to build a video chat app
MirrorFly has always been the first preference when it comes to building a video chat application. We are a developer’s favorite software as an in-app chat solution as the former provides 150+ features along with a 100% customization option.
Our features are what you need to look out for as every feature is provided to enhance the communication platform you wish to create which in this case is video chat. To name a few are video encryption, secure and reliable live call recording, real-time active directory sync, off-screen sharing, and much more.
Agora: A scalable API provider
Agora is another great communication API provider that makes it easy to embed voice or video in any application or device anywhere. This is scales as per the demands as it provides the most advanced developer platforms. It caters to all types of industries such as education, telehealth, and more.
7 Video Chat Required When Building A Video Chat Application
Easy registration and creation of user profile
App developers need to ensure that building a user profile or signing in the application needs to be a simple step. Avoid any complex registration process.
Contact list
App developers should ensure that the contact list can be easily imported or exported. Ideally, this process is done manually and is still offered by other API providers, but to make the process simple and easy the former can be conducted.
Voice and video calling
Voice and video calling features should be provided. This includes secure recordings, encrypted chat, 1-1 group calls, and much more. Voice and video calling are highly used communication platforms and this should be given as an option when building video chat applications.
Text chat
In case if the video quality or network is compromised, app developers should let users text chat until the former is alright. This eliminates such disturbances before they can make an impact.
Security
Security matters as during video calling sessions, information will be shared that needs to be protected. Hence ensure that all security measures such as HIPAA compliant, end-to-end encryption, and more are used.
Notifications
Notifications are a great feature to add to the video calling apps. With the former, all details about missed calls and more can be easily exhibited.
Data backup
It is important to have backup storage of the data. Invest in a reliable communication API provider that has an inbuilt database and scales accordingly in the cloud infrastructure.
3 Additional Features To Add In Comet Live Videos
While the above features are needed when building a video chat app, having additional features can enhance the latter better.
To name a few are:
Screen sharing
Screen sharing is a great feature to have as an add-on when it comes to using your video call app for collaborations. With screen sharing meetings can be more insightful and data can be seen all in one place.
Virtual background
Meetings don’t have to be boring hence to make it more interesting, app developers like you can easily provide the option to change the background of video calls into images or plain backgrounds.
Filters and Masks
To enhance video calling sessions better, you can provide this feature which includes filters and masks to make video calls more fun. This is a popular concept and is being used today from popular social media apps such as Snapchat and more.
Understanding Video Chat APIs: Low-Level Apis and New Approaches
These are exciting times for online videos. Online video conferencing is a supportive means to all types of organizations. So, when you want to incorporate video conferencing software for organizational use, many questions pop. Whether should you build this functionality internally, or is it easier to use a video chat API? Also whether would you want to use a low-level API or a newer API with more features and prebuilt UIs? In this post, we will discuss what an API is and how do they function. Also, we will get you deeper into low-level API versus higher-level APIs.
Low-level vs full-featured APIs: What difference does it make?
Now that you have decided to add video conferencing to your website and use APIs, you need to know that APIs have different levels of functionalities. This is the time to narrow down your search to know what type of API, from which vendor would you want to use.
Low-Level API programming interfaces are very detailed, as it lets the programmer tweak functions within the software or within the hardware at a base level. Well-elaborated low-level APIs are very powerful. Experienced programmers like to use them since these APIs have a wide range of capabilities and efficiency. Low-level APIs are more customizable and extend free functionality to vendors.
In other words, they give you more control, but more effort goes into writing codes to create functional features. Let us understand this with an example. When we decide to build a house, there are several ways to venture into it.
Get an assembled and finished house delivered with solid warranties and servicing conveniences. Get your customizations done on the prefabricated house for the personalized effect by hiring professionals or tweaking the standard plans.
You gather a team of professionals like an architect, contractor, and electricians, etc. to build the house from square one. You take a step ahead and head to the woods to choose the trees you want to use, gather your choice of stones to set the foundation.
Hence there is a scale at which you want to work from the first option to the last one. APIs work in a similar manner, the more you inspect, and more you need to get into intricacies. And if you want to take control of each area, you may need more time, money, and expertise. A “Low-level” API resembles step 4 when you decide to pick your woods yourself or add a live video call app from the genesis.
In a full-featured API, there are pre-structured fragments to work with. Full-featured API provides the capabilities equivalent to the most advanced APIs. The user gets the advantage of full features with less development labor, testing, and maintenance. During a video call, millions of codes run from your own app to the other operating systems and network servers. All of this can be achieved by clicking the button. They can provide more functionality and are easier to use without delving deep into the technicalities.
Low-level vs full-featured APIs
Low-level code in a video call handles raw audio/video data, compression, encryption, routing, bandwidth, and connections between devices and servers.
The codes to set up connections between devices and network servers, make a video call function, are also low-level codes. Coding for the user interface of the live video chat app, buttons and controls (that are visible) to the users are higher-level codes.
Finally, your choice of API boils down to the factors like how much time, focus, resources, and expertise you want to use.
How much video chat do you want to build?
As we have seen above, there are two possible ways to build live video chat apps. The first is to build it from scratch and the other is to use a ready-to-use white-label video chat app. Choosing a
Video chat API, gives the liberty to decide how much of the coding work you want to take up? One can choose to have a low-level API or opt for more flexible, full-featured APIs or build a live video call app from the beginning. Full-featured video chat APIs like CONTUS MirrorFly lets you have a complete video chat widget with very little use of native codes. CONTUS is a noticed name in this marketplace for providing outstanding features, with a flawless user experience when it comes to APIs.
Its 100% customizable features, with end-to-end encryption, one-time license cost, high scalability, SIP/VoIP calling, high-end security, and 150+ features make it the best video chat app companion. It is highly flexible and reliable in terms of video call integrations in android, iOS, and web apps. Furthermore, whatever your business needs are, CONTUS can seamlessly embed a video chat layout appropriate for your business-specific needs. So if you want to have the best of all the worlds for your video chat app, CONTUS is the right partner.
Conclusion
Finding a vendor is about recognizing who offers an all-in-one, faultless technology that best addresses your business and its technical API requirements. APIs offer a powerful tool to help speed your business operations, and so much more. I hope that this entire article has given you some more resources on how to make the best live video calling app.
Now that you’re aware of how important video calls are and what the requirements are to create one, you can get started immediately. But before you can, we have something that can help boost this process.
As stated earlier, building an application from scratch is a tedious process, we strongly believe that solutions such as our video calling software can help in this process. From providing customization options to offering high-end built-in security, video calling software like ours can help app developers as you get started on a convenient note.
So when do you plan to get started with us?
