Video chat describes visual, remote communication between two or more parties, each equipped with a camera and microphone to see and hear the other participants.
Video chats are commonly delivered through smartphones or computers and will typically incorporate other features such as a chat conversation window or ‘whiteboard’.
When building video chat, you'll want to ensure your app can scale and work in real time to handle any number of users to provide true real-time engagement.
Here are a few factors to keep in mind in order to accomplish this.
Functionality: Having real-time functionality that your users expect like a lightning fast chat and emoji reactions.
Scalability: Ensure you have a robust backend that can support users and devices interacting simultaneously.
Security: Safeguard your video chat with end-to-end encryption for messages and utilize access controls and chat filters for moderation.
Integrations: Check that your video chat has the ability to work with third-party integrations so that you can easily add new real-time capabilities as needed.
Incorporating engaging features into your video chat can create a memorable user experience which can ultimately lead to increased customer loyalty and retention.
Below are some common features you can implement to boost engagement:
Direct & group chat
Viewer reactions
Live comments
Online/offline presence detection
Typing indicators
Chat history
File attachments
Emojis & reactions
Live trivia or polls
Push notifications
User & content moderation
PubNub specializes in in-app chat. However, customers can take advantage of one of our strategic partnerships in the video communications space to deliver an end-to-end video chat solution.
If you want to learn more about getting started with video chat, book a demo.