Video conferencing app development boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The uncertainties brought upon us in 2020 forced individuals and businesses across the globe to stay at home and work remotely. Back then, video conferencing software helped us stay in touch and ensure business continuity.
According to TechCrunch, there were 62 million downloads of video conferencing apps in the first week of March 2020 alone, both for business and personal uses. However, apps like Zoom became the platforms for conducting daily business operations and stayed with us in the post-pandemic times, as many businesses adapted to hybrid work
The industry has ample room for entrepreneurs who want to enter with their own video conferencing tool, as these are more increasingly being developed for niche industries and communities. If you’re considering building one, you’ll be entering a tough market that offers a high growth potential.
What is video conferencing software?
Let’s take a closer look at Zoom. The streaming app allows you to conduct audio and video calls and supports up to 1,000 participants in a single meeting. People from all around the world can join in as long as they have an internet connection and a meeting link – they also have the option to turn off their camera or microphone at any time.
Zoom wants its customers to get the most out of its features so that the virtual meetings are as close as possible to traditional conferences. Group video calls, screen sharing, file sharing and text chat are some of its key features.
If you’d like to get a better understanding on how a video conferencing app like Zoom works from a technical perspective, take a look at our guide to building a video streaming application.
Video conferencing app market perspectives
There are many reasons for investing in a custom video conferencing app development. Here are some of them:
- According to Global Market Insights, video conferencing services is an ever-growing market (CAGR 10%) with increasing valuation, which will exceed $95 billion by 2032.
- Audio calls are never as effective as a video conference. Face-to-face interactions between the team increases collaboration, and the speedy knowledge transfer increases overall work efficiency, especially in remote teams.
- Schools and universities were restricting entry to their campuses during the pandemic, and many of them continue to offer online courses today, leaving plenty of room for new companies to enter with dedicated video conferencing apps. They are being used by colleges, too!
What are the must-have features of a modern video conferencing app?
As the video calls app market continues to grow, we can observe more robust platforms emerging across different industries. Here’s what your solution should include to remain competitive:
Video and voice calls
No surprises here! Your Zoom alternative should allow users to easily interact through HD video with clear sound on both sides. To achieve it, you should best rely on the WebRTC protocol that follows a publish-subscribe pattern and supports real-time transmission at minimal latency.
Group video calls
Video conferencing apps like Zoom are all about group calls that connect users all over the world. These apps are commonly used to facilitate team meetings for remote teams and streamline conferences with participants working from home in remote locations.
Call recording
Especially in the work environment, teams may want to record meetings for their archives and to allow team members who weren’t able to participate to familiarize themselves with the discussion. Ideally, the recordings are stored in the cloud.
File sharing
Users must be able to quickly and easily share files with each other. This feature is crucial for improving collaboration and knowledge sharing with participants dispersed around the globe.
User registration and profile management
Make it simple for the user to register with your service and to later manage their personal profile. There’s no need to collect too much data here, so do not overload the screen with unnecessary information. Definitely allow them to add a profile picture, but ensure the personal information remains private.
App onboarding
Since every digital tool has its learning curve, it’s good to include an onboarding process within the app that will be launched once a user completes the registration process. Bear in mind that a good onboarding process demonstrates how to use the key functionalities of the tool in a succinct way.
Encryption
Conversations must be encrypted for security and privacy reasons – there is no compromise in this case. For extra security, admins can apply end-to-end encryption (E2EE) of meetings, but that will have certain functionalities disabled. In the case of Zoom, cloud recording, live streaming, breakout rooms and other functions are taken out.
Text chat
The chatting functionality will be used by participants to support meetings and conversations – they can ask questions or share links to documents, etc. There are different third party options that you can integrate with your video conferencing app like Zoom, e.g. Twilio or Firebase.
Screen sharing
This feature allows a user to display their screen to the video call participants in real-time. It’s required for presentations, online tutorials and more. Screen sharing comes in handy when remote teams need to collaborate on a document or project.
Push notifications
Push notifications are a great way to keep users engaged and informed – they can be prompted about an upcoming meeting or a new incoming message or call. They can also help businesses with announcing new features or necessary software updates.
Noise block
Present-day video conferencing software leverages AI technology to make the video conferencing experience more hassle-free. The noise blocking function can divert disruptive sounds, such as paper shuffling, whispering or keyboard typing. It can also recognize when someone isn’t speaking at a given moment and mute the mic. (Read more on this and other chat app development trends).
Virtual background
This feature is already a standard in video conferencing apps. It enhances the video conferencing experience by allowing users to choose a relevant background or even upload their own photos. It’s also useful for presenters when they want to create a non-distracting view for the audience, or a branded one, for that matter.
Virtual hand rising
You can improve communication in a group call by allowing participants to raise a virtual hand when they want to speak. In this way, you will prevent many people from speaking at the same time and improve communication.
Polls
This feature allows hosts to create a poll and share it with participants in a meeting to swiftly gather responses from them. It can be used to e.g. find a suitable date for a next video conference call or to gather participants’ opinion about a specific topic.
To understand how you can differentiate your app like Zoom from competitors, take a look at our earlier text where we outline the must-have features and those that add a competitive edge.
How to build a video conferencing app like Zoom in 6 steps?
The process of building apps like Zoom won’t be much different than creating any other piece of software. Of course, you will have to make tech stack considerations that are specific to video conferencing solutions, but other than that, the procedure follows a standard software development process.
Step 1: Research the market for a rock-solid idea
When developing a new video conferencing platform, it's important to research the current market to ensure you build something that’s truly competitive. You may find that existing Zoom alternatives do something better. The competitive analysis gives you an opportunity to add special features to your Zoom-like app and make them stand out from others. Also, find out as much as you can about your target group – the style and functionality of your app should be adjusted to their needs and preferences.
Step 2: Design an alluring UI/UX
Attractive user interface will be more appealing to people. You might create video call apps for millennials, for the corporate executives, and for college students. The UI design has to be adjusted to that group to make the user experience better. While consumers are intelligent enough to quickly understand how something works, it's also important that the functionalities are not too difficult to find. From an interface perspective, your design needs to be simple, intuitive and easy to use. If you’d like to dig deeper into this topic, we’ve written an entire ebook about building products that sell.
Step 3: Focus on the architecture
The back-end development process includes many stages. It involves selecting the right tech stack, working on servers and the database. In fact, an app like Zoom will require more advanced techniques for building its own server from the ground up. You will have to select a relevant queueing system, streaming protocols, storage and Content Delivery Network, among other things. For more details, check out my other article where I discuss the architecture of a video streaming app in detail.
Step 4: Start the development
You should have a good understanding of the functionalities you would like to include in your Zoom alternative before you begin developing it. SDKs like Agora, Sinch or MirrorFly are available online to assist developers in video conferencing app development. When selecting a video conferencing app development company to cooperate with, check whether they have experience in creating similar projects.
Step 5: Test the app
The testing phase comes after you create the video conferencing app. By examining all of the algorithms and removing any problems, testing ensures that the application will perform as expected for users. In this way, your app like Zoom will function and be as effective as you expected once it is released.
Step 6: Pick the right monetization strategy
There are many ways to make money with a video chat app, here are some ideas:
- In-app advertising: one of the most popular monetization strategies, the video chat app can be monetized through in-app advertising.
- In-app purchases: you could provide users of your video conferencing service an opportunity to buy premium features such as additional number of participants or customizable themes at an additional charge. Zoom offers numerous cool add-ons, including Otter.ai (live meeting notes), Krisp (noise cancelling tool) and many others.
- Subscriptions: these can be offered at different tiers, e.g. priced according to usage.
For more inspiration on monetization strategies, check out our article on SaaS pricing models.
Video conferencing app development cost
The cost of creating an app like Zoom is determined by a number of factors. You'll need to consider things like:
- Video conferencing app development features and functionalities
- Platforms on which the app will be available
- Technologies to be used in the project
- Video conferencing software development complexity
- Chosen engagement model
Truthfully, there are more aspects you should think about when determining the cost of your video conferencing service. Zoom is an example of a complex video conferencing app that incurs high costs when it’s developed from scratch. A similar app may cost you $50000 or more depending on the desired services and features.
Building a Zoom alternative with RST Software
It’s a good time for video conferencing platforms. Online meetings and virtual conferences became a standard in the post pandemic times. If you’re looking for a partner to support you in video conferencing app development, we’ll gladly apply our expertise in the subject matter to help you release a usable tool with a high selling potential. Just reach out to us via this contact form and we’ll get back to you to discuss the details.
People also ask
What is Zoom video conferencing app?
Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service that allows users to virtually meet, collaborate, and communicate through video, audio, and chat. It is widely used for virtual meetings, webinars, online classrooms, and other forms of remote communication. The platform supports screen sharing, recording, and collaborative features like breakout rooms and polls.
Core features:
- Video and audio conferencing: provides high-quality video and voice communication across devices.
- Screen sharing: lets participants share their screens with others.
- Chat: a built-in chat feature allows users to send messages during meetings.
- Breakout rooms: allows the meeting host to split participants into smaller groups for discussions.
- Webinars: a specialized mode for larger-scale presentations, often used for online events.
- Cloud and local recording: users can record meetings to the cloud or locally.
- Integration: works with various calendar and productivity tools like Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, etc.
Technology behind Zoom video conferencing app
Zoom uses WebRTC for real-time peer-to-peer communication over the web. WebRTC is an open-source project that enables audio, video, and data sharing between browsers and mobile apps without requiring additional plugins.
Zoom also leverages its proprietary technology to enhance performance, especially when it comes to video compression, processing, and large-scale data transmission. This helps the app achieve low latency, high-quality video, and audio even in challenging network conditions.
What are the steps in the video conferencing software development process?
Video conferencing software development is a complex process that involves multiple stages. To create video conferencing app like Zoom, you’ll typically have to follow the following steps:
Step 1: Planning and requirements gathering:
The first step is about defining the project scope and objectives, identifying target users and their needs, determining key features and functionalities and setting project timelines.
Step 2: System architecture design:
Once the groundwork is laid, the focus shifts to system architecture design. This stage involves choosing the appropriate technology stack and designing the overall system architecture. Considerations for scalability and performance are paramount, as is the decision between cloud infrastructure or on-premises deployment.
Step 3. UI and UX design:
With the technical foundation in place, attention turns to the user interface and user experience design. This creative phase involves crafting intuitive and user-friendly interfaces that will make the software accessible and enjoyable to use. At this stage, we create video call app wireframes and mockups, and responsive design principles are applied to ensure the software works seamlessly across various devices.
Step 4. Core functionality development:
The heart of the video conferencing app development process lies in implementing the core functionality. This involves building the real-time audio and video streaming capabilities, developing signaling and session management systems, and implementing network traversal techniques. The integration of codecs for audio and video compression is also a critical part of this stage.
Step 5. Additional features development:
As the core functionality takes shape, additional features are developed to enhance the user experience. Apps like Zoom may include screen sharing, chat and file sharing capabilities, recording and playback functions, virtual backgrounds, noise cancellation, and integration with calendar systems for easy meeting scheduling.
Step 6. Security implementation:
Security is a paramount concern in video conferencing app development, so the next step focuses on implementing robust security measures. This includes end-to-end encryption, user authentication and authorization systems, and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.
Step 7. Backend development:
The backend creation phase in video conferencing app development involves setting up the server infrastructure, developing APIs for client-server communication, and implementing database management systems to handle user data and meeting information efficiently.
Step 8. Frontend development:
Simultaneously, frontend development progresses, focusing on creating the client-side application for web, desktop, or mobile platforms. This involves implementing the designed user interface, ensuring responsive design, and integrating with the backend APIs.
Step 9. Testing and Quality Assurance:
Once the software starts taking shape, rigorous testing and quality assurance begin. This comprehensive phase includes unit testing, integration testing, performance and load testing, compatibility testing across different devices and browsers, and thorough security audits.
Step 10. Optimization:
Following testing, optimization becomes the focus. This involves fine-tuning audio and video quality, improving latency, reducing bandwidth usage, and enhancing overall performance and user experience.
Step 11. Deployment:
The deployment phase then commences, where the production environment is set up, the application is deployed to the chosen infrastructure, and monitoring and logging systems are configured to ensure smooth operation.
Step 12. Beta testing and feedback collection:
Beta testing follows, where a limited user group is given access to the software. Feedback is collected and analyzed, leading to further improvements and refinements based on real-world usage.
Step 13. Documentation and training:
As the launch approaches, comprehensive documentation and training materials are created to support end-users and administrators in effectively using the software.
Step 14. Launch and marketing:
The official launch marks a significant milestone, accompanied by marketing efforts to promote the product and attract users.
However, the journey doesn't end with the launch. Ongoing maintenance and updates become a continuous process, involving regular bug fixes, implementation of new features based on user feedback and market trends, and continuous monitoring and improvement of performance and security.
Step 15. Ongoing maintenance and updates:
Throughout this entire video conferencing app development process, agile methodologies are often employed, allowing for iterative development and frequent feedback loops. This approach ensures that the development team can adapt to changing requirements and consistently deliver a product that meets user needs effectively.
Remember that the specific steps may vary depending on the project scope, team size, and chosen development methodologies. However, this overview provides a general framework for video conferencing software development.
