Jan 22, 2017 Obviously yes, you can make a video chat app or any other app for that matter using android studio. But before taking into account whether you can make it on Android Studio or any other IDE, it is really important to design an application. Build A Complete Chat App With Private and Group Chat Functionalities Using NodeJS, SocketIO, MongoDB, Express. Android Development iOS Development Google Flutter Swift React Native Dart Programming Language Mobile Development Ionic Kotlin. Build A Full Web Chat App From Scratch. With “Building a Chat App for Android from Scratch“, you will learn everything about chat apps, even if you’ve never build one before! The full course has several video lectures, divided into several chapters. Each chapter will give you a new level of knowledge in chat app development. I graduated from Whitworth University with a B.S in Computer Science in 2009. After graduating college, I worked for a company, building Android and iOS mobiles apps as well as web applications. In late 2014, my wife inspired me to start teaching online. Up to that point, I.
Well, that’s a tremendous idea to create an app like WhatsApp, But you have to get to know the technologies and features used to build it.
Now let us get back in the days when the first chat room came enticing users for those stirring small talks. Then, the social networking sites pierced into the mundane life to offer over the horizon connectivity. At the minute, instant messaging keep us engaged throughout by delivering a swift response. Moreover, we heightened fall for the convenience and comfort offered by the instant messaging app.
As we are very much enlightened of the chat app like Whatsapp surging into popularity. It is found that most of the people prefer to develop a chat app offering real-time interaction which adds a personal touch experience to the user.
Now, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get down to business in developing yet another stupendous chat app like WhatsApp.
Evolution of Modern Chat App
In view of, a modern chat app must possess noteworthy functionalities which can be adaptable to any type of chat solutions. In recent times, it has been found that creating chat app like WhatsApp companies experimenting with headway technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Bots. An ideal chat app has the potential of offering solutions to Enterprise-level Communication, Personal Chat, Business Development communication and e-Commerce chat solutions.
Since, due to the success of WhatsApp, and it’s no surprise that investors and developers be in pursuit of replicating WhatsApp success. Identically, Contusat its core has all-encompassing technologies to develop a chat app like WhatsApp — Contus Fly that draws new features according to your expectations on various platforms such as Android and iOS. Though WhatsApp may run the messaging market still there is space for your chat app that prospers the particular feature that WhatsApp doesn’t have.
Considering to your objective business, it’s not about developing a traditional version of WhatsApp but ending up in building a modern chat app that will be identified distinctively by your users and ideal to any chat solution.
Have You Ever Wondered What technologies Makes So Perfect to Bring a Splendid Chat App like WhatsApp?
Here is the architecture Contus Fly equipped with backend components to build a real-time chat app possible similarly like Whatsapp:
Erlang: This is the chief programming language used to develop the epic chat app Whatsapp. The Erlang programming language was most appreciated for its performance reasons, speed and scalability. Contus Fly is built on Erlang where the garbage collector allows updating the code instantly for different functional optimization. The programming language implemented in Contus Fly helps to have a high volume of short messages processing in very low latency.
Ejabberd: Contus Fly uses open source jabber resembles (WhatsApp clone) to enhance the operational efficiency which is optimized for the anticipated results. It uses XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) protocol to handle the message delivery system over on any local area network or the Internet. The Ejabberd server is developed using certain pluggable modules which enables wide features such as:
- One-on-one Chat
- Contact actual and presence listing
- Store and forward (Offline messages)
- Personal Event Protocol (PEP) and Message typing specification
- Multi-User Chat (MUC) — Group Chat
- Privacy Setting and Account Spoofing
- Message Archive Management (MAM)
FreeBSD: WhatsApp, which has sent over billions of messages every day on its platform, has been built on FreeBSD. Contus Fly opted FreeBSD operating system due to its delicate network stack and extensive reliability. The FreeBSD being a single distributor have many advantages with Installation and provided easy creation of binary packages.
YAWS: (Yet Another Web Server) is written entirely in Erlang. Contus Fly uses embedded mode where YAWS runs as an embedded web server on the combination in another Erlang application. YAWS system has the ability to handle concurrent processes in an efficient way and possesses high performance.
Lighttpd: Lighttpd is an open source web server optimized for Contus Fly for a higher performance. The lightweight web server is deployed on WhatsApp to acquire a secure, flexible, fast and compliant feature.
PHP: Contus Fly using PHP open source language for its performance and reliability. In combination with AJAX, a powerful web development technology to display data from the database using Ajax to develop responsive real-time chat app.
BEAM: BEAM is a virtual machine to run the Erlang. It is a bunch of built-in functions such as if-simple network interface tool. Contus Fly uses BEAM interface to support the functions — Schedulers, Processes, Message passing, Memory Management and Multi-core etc.
Custom XMPP Server: Contus Fly encoded XMPP server to its functionality by reducing the byte of the keywords. The technology is used to enable message exchange in a real-time. The XML format is a human-oriented and it’s not meant to be read by any machine learning.
HTML5 WebSockets: The WebSocket is a feature in HTML5 used to establish a solid connection between the web browser and the server. The WebSocket data are directly sent over a socket which provides faster and persistent communication between the server and web browser.
Mnesia DB: This is a real-time database management system written in the Erlang language. Contus Fly uses the Mnesia, which is a soft database that allows for store the messages, files, images, videos, documents and the rest multimedia files that running on your app. This is a kind of technology that goes beyond your expectation that has the potential to store any amount of data.
Successful Features of a Chat App:
Now, Let us take a good look at the inbuilt features offered by a comprehensive chat app:
#1. VOIP Phone Calls:
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is the classification of technologies to deliver the voice communication and multimedia sessions over the Internet Protocol.
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is the classification of technologies to deliver the voice communication and multimedia sessions over the Internet Protocol.
#2. Video Chats:
Lets to make calls directly to communicate with a personal touch experience with voice/video without an intermediate connection.
Lets to make calls directly to communicate with a personal touch experience with voice/video without an intermediate connection.
#3. Group Calls:
The chat app allows the user further to connect with other users with the facilitation of group conversation through Video/Audio.
The chat app allows the user further to connect with other users with the facilitation of group conversation through Video/Audio.
#4. End-to-End Chat Encryption:
User safe encryption to secure from third-party infiltration. Prioritize in user private data security through advanced premium encryption technologies.
User safe encryption to secure from third-party infiltration. Prioritize in user private data security through advanced premium encryption technologies.
#5. Cloud Service Sync:
Cloud Resource Platform synchronization to monitor, update, store and scale the hosting environment.
Cloud Resource Platform synchronization to monitor, update, store and scale the hosting environment.
#6. Multimedia Support:
File transfer of various data formats such as video, images, Gifs, voice note, animation, documents, contact, and location.
File transfer of various data formats such as video, images, Gifs, voice note, animation, documents, contact, and location.
#7. Self — Destructing Messages:
Lets to send a whisper by tapping on the recipient name in a group where the messages can’t be seen by other persons.
Lets to send a whisper by tapping on the recipient name in a group where the messages can’t be seen by other persons.
#8. Geolocation Integration:
Enhanced geolocation integration makes quite an effective flow of interaction on a real-time basis.
Enhanced geolocation integration makes quite an effective flow of interaction on a real-time basis.
#9. Calendar Synchronization:
Calendar sync provides a thorough knowledge of the events and tasks that will appear where you are yet to plan your day.
Calendar sync provides a thorough knowledge of the events and tasks that will appear where you are yet to plan your day.
#10. Multi-platform Chatting:
The cross-platform messaging will allow you to be engaged within your reach while at a desk or on the go.
The cross-platform messaging will allow you to be engaged within your reach while at a desk or on the go.
#11. In-app Purchase:
Choose your right monetization strategy to sell your app on the digital store to increase your app’s revenue stream.
Choose your right monetization strategy to sell your app on the digital store to increase your app’s revenue stream.
#12. Payment Integration:
UPI — Unified Payment Interface is one of the payment modules which is more secure, user-friendly and allows instant payment.
VPA — Virtual Payment Address will use the email address which is registered in the particular bank account that can be shared publicly instead of a bank account number and IFSC code.
MPIN — Mobile banking Personal Identification Number is a 4–6 digit security code used to authenticate all types of money transferred via UPI
Dynamic features that WhatsApp Doesn’t have:
Apart from these in-built features, Contus Fly has the potential to incorporate beyond the features according to your expectations and type of chat Solution.
- Configure user access and manage the user accounts:
-> User Invitation-only
-> Open Access
-> Admin-verified access - Engage your active users by notification through any preferred platform:
-> Push Notification
-> Email & Email Digest
-> SMS - Create a Customized Chat groups based on your needs:
-> Anyone can create groups
-> Only admins can create groups
-> Users can view and ask to join a group
-> Users cannot view the groups as they aren’t in the relevant circle
Through the Monetization of Chat App Solution, Contus Fly provides a varied source of features to Minting your Money:
1. Entirely Free
2. In-app payment
3. Mobile Advertising
4. Sponsorships
5. Subscriptions
2. In-app payment
3. Mobile Advertising
4. Sponsorships
5. Subscriptions
“Every new comer (Chat app) still have a room in the Future”
If you are about to build a chat app like WhatsAppenhanced with additional modern features, then you are on the right path to bring out your chat app with dynamic features.
by Sudheesh Shetty
Messaging apps are surging in popularity. The past few years have brought apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and Line.
People seem to prefer chat-based applications because they allow for real-time interaction. They also add a personal touch to the experience.
I recently attended a workshop conducted by the Free Software Movement Karnataka in Bangalore where I mentored a group of college students.
During the interactions, I observed certain things:
- Despite encouraging students to interact with the mentor, communication was always one-sided.
- Students often felt too shy to ask questions during the sessions.
- They were more comfortable asking questions and getting feedback in one-on-one conversations.
So we had to find a solution to break the ice between mentors and students. A local chat application came handy in this situation. People love to be anonymous, which gives them more power to express themselves and ask anytime anywhere. This is the same mantra used by most of the popular forums on the internet, such as Reddit and 4chan. These are just a few giant examples of semi-anonymous apps.
So I started thinking about this idea. I came up with some of the basic requirements and features.
- Users register by giving a handle, which is unique to every user (a dummy name). Only the handle will be revealed to other users. So people are free to choose any handle and hence they stay anonymous.
- A member can see other members who are online. They have an option to go public, which broadcast the message to all online members in the chat.
- For private messages, the sender should first send a request to the other member. Other members upon accepting the request can have private chat with them.
Technology, Tools used
- MEAN Stack(Mongo, Express, Angular, Node).
- Sockets to enable one-on-one communication in real time
- AJAX for sign-up and login
So how do you create a simple chat application?
In this tutorial, I’m going to help you create your own chat application. You can later integrate as a widget into any project! This tutorial won’t concentrate on the complete development of a chat application. But it will help you build one.
Pre-requisite : You need to know some basic knowledge of MEAN Stack, as we are making use of it to build one.
First, create a directory structure something like this.
Install Node.js and MongoDB.
We’ll be making use of AngularJS 1 for this tutorial. Download the AngularJS library from here and copy it to the lib folder in Client directory.
If you like to beautify the application you can download any CSS libraries and copy them to lib as well.
Building the Server
Step 1 — Start the project :
Go to Server directory and run this command:
![Building a chat app for android from scratch download free Building a chat app for android from scratch download free](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126156132/266330773.jpg)
This will start a new project. Provide all the details required. The package.json will be created and will look something like this.
Step 2 — Install the dependencies.
- socket.io — is a javascript library for real-time web applications. It enables real-time, bi-directional communication between web clients and servers.
- express — is a Node.js web application framework. It provides the set of features to develop the web and mobile applications. One can respond to HTTP request using different middlewares and also render HTML pages.
This will install required dependencies and add those to package.json. An extra field will be added to package.json which will look like this:
Step 3 — Creating the Server
Create a server which serves at port 3000 and will send the html when called.
Initialize a new socket connection by passing HTTP object.
Event connection will be listening for incoming sockets.
Each socket emits disconnect event which will be called whenever a client disconnects.
- socket.on waits for the event. Whenever that event is triggered the callback function is called.
- io.emit is used to emit the message to all sockets connected to it.
The syntax is:
Create a server with name server.js. It should:
- print a message to the console upon a user connecting
- listen for chat message events and broadcast the received message to all sockets connected.
- Whenever a user disconnects, it should print the message to the console.
The server will look something like this:
Building the Client
Create the index.html in the client directory, style.css in the css directory and app.js in js directory in the client.
index.html:
Let us write a simple HTML which can take our message and also display it.
Include socket.io-client and angular.js in your HTML script.
socket.io serves the client for us. It defaults to connect to the host that serves the page. Final HTML looks something like this:
css/style.css:
Give it some styling so that it looks like a chatbox. You can make use of any libraries.
js/app.js:
Create an angular.js app and initialize a socket connection.
- socket.on listens for a particular event. It calls a callback function whenever that event is called.
- socket.emit is used to emit the message to the particular event.
Basic syntax of both are:
So whenever the message is typed and the button is clicked, call the function to send the message.
Whenever the socket receives a message, display it.
Yahoo App For Android
The JavaScript will look something like this:
Building A Chat App For Android From Scratch Download Pc
Running the application
Go to server directory where our server is present. Run the server using the following command:
The server starts running on port 3000. Go to the browser and type the following url:
How to improve the same application
You can design a database to save user details and messages. It would be good if the design was scalable so that you could add more features later.
You need to install Mongoose or a MongoDB module to make use of a Mongo database:
or:
Here’s the documentation to use mongoose and the mongodb module.
Here’s what my schema design looks like:
App For Samsung
Here, the status of each member can be:
- Friend: Stating that the member is a friend.
- Pending: If the member has not yet accepted.
- Blocked: If the member has blocked the other member.
Suppose the member has rejected a chat request. The sender can then send a chat request again. A user can also save the messages by creating an extra collection. Each document will have the message, sender, receiver, and time.
So design your database according to your specific needs and how you want to handle messages.
2. Create REST APIs to serve the client. For example, an endpoint that sends a home page, from which users can make other requests.
Few of my API endpoints are:
3. Think of some cool additional features and implement them.
I have created a chat application of my own:
sudheeshshetty/Chat
Contribute to Chat development by creating an account on GitHub.github.com
Contribute to Chat development by creating an account on GitHub.github.com
Here’s a quick glance at my chat application:
Please do look at it, and give it a star at the top right if you like it. There are many ways I could improve this application. If you have any suggestions, send them to me at [email protected]
You can follow me here on click the green heart if you found this helpful so that more people will see this. You can also follow me on GitHub and twitter.