Your Only Guide to Adding Live Chat to Mobile App Using API

Businesses across industries are turning to live chat functionalities to engage and delight their customers. And rightly so, considering that it is one of the leading channels of digital communication, with a massive 46% of customers preferring it over email or social media. In fact, some industries have reported a 150% increase in the demand for live chat features!

This large-scale adoption of live chat is pressing businesses to rethink their mobile app designs and layouts. But before you go making any rampant changes, take a look at the most effective way to add live chat to your mobile app.

How to Add Live Chat to Your Mobile App

Stating that adding a live chat feature to your mobile app introduces a bouquet of benefits would be an understatement. And once you have a clear idea about these advantages, you may be inclined to making it an integral function of the app. However, before you start rebuilding your app from scratch, consider this lifesaver - live chat API!

A live chat API is suited to serve any type of business looking to connect with its users on the app instantaneously. This tool saves you the time, money, and resources that you would have otherwise had to dedicate to setting up the live chat feature. Moreover, these are developed by experienced developers who understand the nitty-gritty of curating a pleasing customer experience.

So whether you want a basic live chat interface or a rich and immersive one, integrating it using a live chat API can be an excellent turnkey solution that offers value from day one! You only need to contact a reliable third-party messaging solution provider to obtain the software development kit (SDK). 

Incorporating Live Chat Into Your Mobile App: A Step-by-Step Guide

Once you have the SDK package, you can follow these stepwise guides to add it to your Android or iOS app:

Integrating Live Chat API for Android Mobile Apps

Take a look at this step-by-step breakdown of how to add a live chat API to your Android mobile app:

1. Install the live chat Android SDK and add it to your project.
2. After installation, set up the authentication where users will be authenticated using their login credentials before giving them access to the live chat.
3. Once the user is logged in, you show the details of the previous conversation or set it up from scratch.
4. Enable the push notifications so that the user will know when they receive messages in real-time.
5. Cover any other function necessary for sending or receiving messages.

And just like that, you will have integrated the live chat API into your Android mobile app. You can fine-tune the settings related to contacts, customization, localization, internet connection indicator, etc.

Integrating Live Chat API for iOS Mobile Apps

Here’s an overview of the steps to follow for adding live chat API to your iOS mobile app:

1. Install the live chat iOS SDK and build it into your project framework.
2. Next is to authenticate the users before they can avail the live messaging feature.
3. Once the user is registered or logged in, you need to create conversations. These conversations can start afresh or pick up from a previous drop-off point.
4. Add the necessary permissions that will be required depending on the conversation.
5. Set up the push notifications so that even when the user is not on the chat screen, they will be alerted on the receipt of a real-time message.

The above steps cover the basics of integrating the live chat API to the iOS mobile app. You can further elaborate on these by modifying the settings on contact setup, localization, customization, and more.

Conclusion

As one can see from above, integrating a live chat API into your video or voice chatting app is the quickest and most sure-shot way of enabling real-time communication. Plus, it offers a high degree of flexibility while designing the feature so that it is in accordance with your brand voice and business objectives.

So rather than reinventing the wheel, use this formula for incorporating the live chat functionality into your app and derive the advantages of extending this feature almost instantly!