Make An App Like WhatsApp | How Does WhatsApp Work? | STT
What contributed to WhatsApp's success? How does WhatsApp work? What should you keep in mind when making an app like WhatsApp? These are the questions answered in today's video.
With 1.5 billion users, WhatsApp has one of the greatest number of active users globally. competing with the likes of it’s owner Facebook and YouTube. As the number of mobile users increases, the number of active users is set to increase for WhatsApp, making it the most popular chatting app.
Why is WhatsApp so successful?
1. Mobile as a platform
In the late 2000s, Skype was a desktop application. As smartphones gained momentum on IOS and Android platforms there was a gap in the market for a chatting app on phones. WhatsApp took advantage of that And became the first Mobile-first application. WhatsApp soon implemented VoIP.
2. User onboarding experience
Users were frustrated with Skype's long login. Instead, WhatsApp introduced one-time logins associated with phone numbers. This in turn brought all the contacts on the user’s phone on WhatsApp too. The phone-specific IDs offered trust too.
3. End-to-end encryption
WhatsApp was the first platform that introduced an end to end encryption for user’s privacy. Privacy was not a big concern back then.
Thus, with innovative features, WhatsApp attracted new audiences and increased user engagement. Thereby dominating all others.
The key takeaway is privacy, cross-platform compatibility, and user ease for building an app like WhatsApp. Here is a look at the technology stack:
1. Security
Today privacy of the user is the main focus, so security features are essential. WhatsApp has partnered with Open Whispers systems to build an end-to-end encryption system. This means that all communication happening in the app is secure which even WhatsApp cannot decrypt.
2. Authentication
Authentication is the need to protect users from spam and fraud. This can be done through a third-party API. Nexmo API can be used for authentication through phone numbers.
3. Back-end
For a chat app, it is understood that you will need to store a lot of data. This includes images, text messages, videos, gifs, and so on. Thus, the back end needs to have infrastructure like RESTful API, databases like PostgreSQL, notification services, file storage services like Amazon S3, messaging protocols like XMPP, web servers like Nginx, etc.
4. Chatting
A chatting app involves processing thousands of messages without any delay for ongoing communication. WebSocket is the connection between the server and app. It offers fast, direct, and continual communication.
5. Notification
Essential to retaining a user and keep them coming back to the app. This is a must solution that can be attained by Firebase Cloud Messaging technology for Android and for iOS Firebase, or Apple Push Notifications.
6. Video Calls
Video calling is crucial for the success of any chat app. Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is the technology that is used to exchange voice calls and multimedia sessions on the internet.
Technology stack for an app like WhatsApp:
For mobile development
1. Programming language – Android – Cotlin and Java; iOS – Swift and Objective-C
2. Local Storage – Android – Core Data; iOS – SQLite
3. Social authentication – Android – Facebook SDK; iOS – Twitter
4. Preferences – Android – UserDefaults; iOS – Shared preferences
5. Chat – Android – Starscreen; iOS – OkHttp
6. Video & Voice Calling – Android and iOS – WebRTC
For backend development
1. Programming language – JavaScript, Ruby, CSS3, HTML5
2. SQL data Storage – PostgreSQL
3. Automation frameworks – PhantomJS, Capybara, RSpec
4. Web server and application server – Puma, Nginx
5. Key-value storage – Redis
6. Hosting – Amazon Web Services
Sometimes all it needs is one exclusive feature to make it a success. You have to carefully study what the user’s need next.
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Fintelics is an AWS Advanced Tier Consulting Partner. The company has also been awarded 'Best FinTech Consultancy - Ontario' and 'Leading Expert in Fullstack Omnichannel Software Development' by Wealth & Finance Magazine.
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