Chat has been around long enough, that nearly all phone users have grown to have certain expectations of them, whether they are aware of it or not. This can put a lot of pressure on developers when introducing something new to the market and hoping for success.
For your chat solution to succeed, it needs to be fast, secure, and loaded with all the features that your users are used to and expect from their application.
Chat Features That Exceed App Expectations
Your community wants their communications to fit seamlessly into their lives. Your chat features should aid in doing just that. When coming up with features that are important to you, it’s best to think about your own messaging experiences. This will help you decide what it is you’d expect to be able to achieve.
Features for Control
While many apps out there come with the vague capability to chat in app, the options are primitive at best. When deciding what features to implement into your own application, you should look to include the basics that all users want. This includes things like ability to copy, edit, delete, save, and even pin messages. The easier you make it to communicate, the more used it will be.
Some additional features your community will appreciate are typing indicators, time stamps, and read receipts. These give extra information to users and allow them to know their messages have been received so they can better determine their next course of action for the conversation.
Along with messaging, having the ability to set up display profile information such as name, image, and availability status is another great feature for users. This is especially enjoyed by those who intend on communicating through your product regularly with an array of people. It’s also helpful to allow the user to enable or disable push notifications at their discretion. Otherwise, they may opt out entirely from using the product due lack of control. At the end of the day, users need to have a say in how your app notifies them.
Features for Fun
Once you’ve satisfied your users need for common chatting functions, your next step is to think about what would make their experience more enjoyable and interactive. Allowing users to send Emojis and GIFs is a great way to encourage more interaction. Who doesn’t want to throw on a quick smiley face or funny GIF that perfectly fits the conversation?
In addition to these responses, allowing users to React to specific messages is another great feature to consider. This gives users the ability to respond quickly by acknowledging a message has been read. With a variety of reaction options, users can easily display the emotion of their reaction.
Another chat feature that will be well used by your patrons is Media Sharing. This allows them to quickly share videos, images, links, and more, instead of forcing them to exit your application to do so elsewhere. If forced to regularly use an additional application, the chances of them remaining loyal to yours reduces greatly.
Features for Work
Building brand loyalty is an important part of any business. A great way to do so using chat features is to include features that bring value to a workplace. These will be your everyday users whose opinions on your product make the difference.
Professionals are likely to appreciate Group Messaging, Online Presence, and File Sharing. These tools make collaborating a breeze, enabling better use of work time and increasing productivity. The best chat APIs even allow you to create an enterprise community building. This enables employees to chat not just within their departments, but across the entire organization.
Threaded Messages is a much-loved workplace feature. It allows you to have side-bar conversations on a topic, instead of clogging the entire feed. This is great for getting additional info on a project. It stops forcing those who aren’t required to discuss to read through every message. Threaded messaging creates an organized resource to look back on, with less searching through countless messages.
Additional chat features like Mentions and Message Delivery Status make it easier for your users to drive efficiency. Another similar chat feature along the same vein is the ability to search messages. You can search locally in a single conversation or even globally, through all conversations you’ve had. This helps you find the information you need quickly so you don’t have to spend countless hours tracing your steps for that little bit of info you desperately need.
Admin Tools That Keep Everyone Protected
While the administration chat features will not affect your average users experience, they are vital to take into consideration when developing apps. These controls can make or break your product.
Admins need the ability to block or ban users that they feel are using the application improperly. Similarly, being able to mute or deactivate accounts is also important for similar reasons. Having some control on the conversation is important for creating a friendly environment. This can also be obtained by enabling chat features like profanity filters or message and image moderation. This makes it so that administrators have the ability to force approval prior to allowing content to post in channel. Additionally, admins need to have the power to freeze channels. This feature gives your admin more control over what’s happening on said channels when they need more control.
Great chat APIs will not only allow your admins to have more control over your users, but will also help keep your application safe. Compliance Reporting and Container Vulnerability Scanning are the perfect features for security.
All of these chat features are highly important for app developers. However, many developers do not have the time or team to embed all of these features into their in-app chat. Alternatively, when you choose to work with an already existing chat platform instead of building in-house, you are helping protect your business from many unforeseen complications. As well as leveraging the knowledge that an in-app chat developer has taken years to acquire.
Related: Build In-House Chat or License a Chat API
In-App Chat Has the Features You Need
When it comes to integrating chat features into your application, you have options. You can choose to build the capabilities from the ground up with in-house programming or you can outsource. There are many benefits to both options. However, if you’re looking to save money, get off the ground quick, and have a more secure chatting solution, then look no further than In-App Chat.
In-App Chat supplies you with all the great chat features your consumers want without all the added time of developing your own capabilities. Not only that, our chat follows all compliance guidelines, which helps protect you. We know the chat market and have the features to back it up. We keep your community connected with all the options they’ve grown to expect.
Are you ready to get your app off the ground and start integrating all of these expected chat features? Contact us today to learn more and get the conversations started!
Related: What is Included in a Chat SDK?
