Lately, video calling apps faced one of the biggest breakouts in the app histor industry. Due to COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, people had to start using video-calling apps for their work and personal use. These apps are Skype, Hangouts, Zoom, Meet, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other.
Along with top performers like Skype, Hangouts, Zoom, all video calling and conferencing apps have at least doubled their downloads within the past 6 months.
Video chat apps seem to solve many challenges of the remote work and keeping connections despite the obstacles. Users get an access to apps with high-quality connections, group or one-to-one video calls, file-sharing, creative stickers and filters, security, etc.
Such a popularity made some developer to think about building their own apps for video – calling and conferencing.
How to make an app like Skype?
Building your mobile app for video meetings is not that easy. First thing you need to do is to make a list of basic features for your app. There are the essential ones:
1. One-to-one video calls. Personal video chats and calls are important for closed tet-a-tet meetings at work or keeping connections with someone particular in your life.
2. Group video meetings. The video calling app need to provide a feature for group meetings of more than 2-3 people. Skype has the limit of 50 participants, Hangouts’ limit is 100. Not that much, right?
3. Text messaging. Apart from video or voice calls, the app need to include a simple messaging. It can be useful before and after video meeting.
4. File-sharing. It is more convenient for everyone: sharing files, images, presentation during the conference without switching to other apps like messengers, email, cloud service.
5. Personal security. Users need to be sure they get secured while making calls and meeting. No personal data can be leaked. Most popular apps and services face this issues. Like it happened to Zoom in 2020 after leaking meetins, passwords of the users.
Apart from that, you need other tools to get higher retention from users and more popularity. These can be screen recording, screen sharing, filters, and something else.
How much does it cost to make an app like Skype?
Developing a video meeting app like Skype will cost you $20,000-$120,000. The real price depends on the team your have (developers, marketing specialist, designers, project manager, IT consultat, etc) and the country of your residence. For example, developing an app in India might cost you 3-4 times less than in the USA.
Cutting some features of your Skype alternative app can also save some money. As well as hiring not a professional team, but freelancers with all possible risks (low-quality work, missed deadlines, etc).
Despite a huge trend towards video calling apps, you still risk to lose investments. To avoid that, you need to find your own niche. Don’t blindly follow Skype, Hangouts and other existing apps. Come up with something fresh and new.
Can you make an app like Skype for Free?
There is no need to waste months and thousands of dollars to make Video Calling app. At least when we talk about making a protoype.
You can build an app like Skype by using one of the online App Builders for both Android or iOs. We advice you to consider Android as the first choice since it’s the largest app market and its simple process of registration. App Builders allow building mobile apps for free or for a minimal cost without coding within a few minutes.
To make a video calling app, you need to find an approiate app template. It should include features we talked about before:
- individual video calls,
- group video meetings,
- text messaging,
- file-sharing,
- security.
For example, the Video Call app template on AppsGeyser offers a possibility to develop an Android app without coding for free. This app includes all main features (one-on-one video chats, group video conferencing, voice calls, text messaging, file-sahring) and extra features like stickers, filters, synchronization. It uses end-to-end encryption to provide security of users (no one can read messages or listen to calls). And it takes only 5 minutes to create such an app: add content and images, choose the right name, make the perfect description, upload the icon.
One of the benefits of such an app – it’s free to use for everyone. There are no fees to use it. But all apps are built to earn money. So to monetize app it’s enough to join monetization program and make money by showing ads in app.
Now is the best time to challenge Skype and provide an engaging app for video meetings on the Android market.