Is it time for Community Platforms to build an In-App Chat, Video-Voice Calling

A digital connection has become inevitable. In an era where almost every interaction is in binaries, it is important to understand the dynamics of how online communities function. The world has moved on to intense tweet and debate culture - including Dwayne ‘the rock’ Johnson memes. In this massive global digital phenomenon, connecting online with individuals who share the same interest is the new dating.

Social community platforms are often a place for people to exchange, discuss, or debate ideas. It is not the platform itself but the niche interest-based communities that make it even more attractive and welcoming. But they are facing a major pitfall. It has been observed that Online community platforms lack an important feature for interpersonal or one-on-one chat which proves to be crucial.  

As for recent times of the Pandemic, it has become even more important for individuals to connect on chats and have real-time intraction. Inevitably, online communities are now moving forward to integrate a real-time chat solution for community platforms.  

Why are online communities failing to connect people on a personal level? 

There are tonnes of apps out there those launch individuals into a world full of interesting communities and circles. One such app is Reddit. An experiment was carried out on Reddit on April 1. Communities on the platform were invited to contribute color pixels towards a 1000 x 1000 blank canvas which will later become an image. The end result, after 72 hours of intense experimentation and group exercises, was a chaotic mosaic of paintings, patriotic symbols, flags, and loads of other stuff.

Interestingly, Reddit observed a strange pattern in user behavior. This project needed subcommunities to constantly communicate and ideate with each other. However, people were storming off to other real-time chat platforms to have discussions about the same. It gave Reddit an upfront conclusion of this user behavior pattern that an In-App messaging in social community platforms is a must. The chat feature in these websites keeps people together rendering in more user activity which is centered within the community itself. This gives Reddit more activity, engagement, and real-time interaction. 

So what can we conclude from this experiment and derived observation?

… that building the best chat solution for community apps is cardinal!  

Information and close interactions are the spines of such communities. With the constant influx of newer members, there also comes in new data, information, and ideas. The consistent growing nature of online social community platforms asks for introducing chat rooms and one-on-one chat boxes.

Chat Rooms are also an interesting idea where there is a smaller community interaction within a larger community interaction. These are the essential components to build an online social platform without which, like the example mentioned above, people will tend to stray off from the application or website.  

Now it is not limited to the shores of these online communities. They extend to the business world too. There has been an increase in the goodwill of businesses when they introduced live chat features on their website. Customers now prefer real-time, live interaction which gives them ideas and solutions without delay, resulting in happier customer experience.  

FunFact - Live chat will surge up to 87% in the coming 12-18 months.

But why do people love real-time interactions as time moves on?

One-to-one chat empowers them for better and faster communication. It uses its qualities for better user experience. What are those qualities? 

1. Real Time Chat - Live chats help a community by consistent and increased engagement over the platform itself. People don’t need to use third-party software solutions for it. It has been found that 46% of customers preferred live chat compared to 29% who preferred email and the other 16% for social media. Live chats enable people to save conversations with the agent too. It also has a lesser wait time than any other medium of communication. Customers or people get live answers which build the bridge for them to keep coming back. This way it also leads to increased revenue. Typical examples of it would be  

• Live Chatting with a brand’s website.
• Continuous texting for an event within the community.
• Asking queries to online retailer websites via chat

2.Video - Video chats have been proven to increase customer or people’s satisfaction rates. It enables an individual to not just digitally text a person but also see them physically over the screen, in real-time. It increases the trust and goodwill of the conversation. When the healthcare industry introduced in-app video calling solutions, it resulted in faster and more efficient solutions for customers. It has been proven fruitful even in service sectors where experts can assign resources according to the nature of problems. 

3. Voice - Voice chats are extremely useful in saving time. It is fast and doesn’t hold down people to type long messages. Some ideas are exchanged better when spoken. It is even more psychologically appealing to communicate via voice than just texts. People prefer voice and video chats over chatbots who increase by the day as businesses all over the world dive into automation.

The future is here!

As with the introduction of any industry, there comes a requirement of engagement and interactions. Real-time messaging is transforming the way people do business and interact with each other or within a community. This rich feature of communication keeps growing its tail as more technology keeps pouring in to build messaging API for social community platforms. Currently, Real-time chat stands for increased customer retention and decreased cost for brands and companies worldwide.

If you are looking forward to building or integrating real-time SDK for social community platforms, then we are here with the right solutions. build easy-to-integrate feature-rich in-app chat features without the technical mayhem that comes with it. MirrorFly’s real-time messaging solution comes with technical robustness and the latest features for smooth & consistent user experience.