2020 brought a true challenge to conducting business and sped up people going online. Online video calls now became the primary means of business and work communication, especially for companies that provide services. Working from home completely changed the usual workflow.
As the demand for video calls increased, so did the supply. The competition in the video chat apps market became really tense. It may seem hard to build an app that will gain popularity, so let us show you the complete strategy of making a custom video chat app that will be able to compete on the market.
Video chat apps market trends and insights
Video is steadily becoming the most popular way of online communication, especially in a business environment. The market already has some big players like Skype, FaceTime, Google Duo, and Zoom, but it doesn’t stop its growth. Zoom, actually, only recently became so famous: In 2020, they managed to reach 300 million users. It proves that the market is expanding.
In today’s remote reality, video conferencing helps improve the workflow. Several studies by Lifesize state that:
- 94% of businesses increased productivity with video conferencing
- 89% of respondents say it reduces time spent on tasks
- 89% of people feel more connected with video communication
Moreover, businesses do not limit themselves to one video conferencing platform: Owl Lab discovered 89% of companies use two and more apps of that type.
Also, this business area accumulates quite a lot of money. In 2020, the video conferencing market reached $7.87 billion from the previous year’s result of $3.85 billion.
What are the leading video calling apps?
We already mentioned some of the big players on stage, now let’s look at them in more detail. Looking at the market leaders and the analysis of competitors will be useful for building your own development and marketing strategy.
?Zoom
Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service. This app gained most of its popularity during 2020, and it doesn’t seem to slow down in the near future. Its simplicity and efficiency made it one of the best choices for education and business. The app provides 40 minutes of free conferences for up to 100 participants. More calls and viewers will require buying a plan.
?Skype
On the contrary, Skype is one of the oldest and one of the most famous video conferencing apps. The number of systems and devices that this app covers is immense. Apart from video and audio calling, Skype allows users to share files and send text messages.
?Discord
Discord is the best video chat app for building communities, especially when we talk about video games. In this app, a user can have a group call with friends, share their screen, or create a live stream so all the participants can watch what is going on in the game.
How to make your own video calling app that succeeds
Whatever type of video chat app you want to put on the market, the general building strategy would be the same. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Find your target audience
That is how all product development starts. At the very beginning, you need to define who will use your future product. What devices will be the most suitable: Android, iOS, or desktop? Or all together? Does your audience belong to boomers or gen Z? Do they need it for work? Ask yourself all these questions and get to know your audience as soon as possible.
2. Define your features and value
The next step after finding your audience is shortlisting the necessary features. We already made a list of chat app features that will be necessary for a successful chat solution. Some of them are easily applicable for a video chat app, but calls and the visual form of communication require additional functionality.
3. Create a business plan
A business plan will define all the key elements of not only development but the whole product lifecycle.
4. Choose the platform
An important part of a business plan is choosing the right platform for your application. If web and desktop versions may pass without saying, a mobile platform can become a hard choice to make.
5. Develop!
The business plan is ready, so it’s time to start the development process!
6. Test
The last step before release is to make sure your code functions as intended. Errors may appear in different parts of code and cause security issues or failure of some functions, and that is why QA matters.
Read the full article via the link: https://yellow.systems/blog/how-to-make-a-video-calling-app
