How to Build a Real-Time Chat App with React Hooks and Socket.io

If you’d like to jump straight to the point or just want to get an overview of what we’re going to build, you can check out the app in action.

Live demo: https://socket-io-react-hooks-chat.herokuapp.com/

Source code: https://github.com/pixochi/socket.io-react-hooks-chat

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1. Overview

We’re going to create a web app for sending messages between multiple users in real time. Client(browser) uses React for user interface and Server runs on NodeJS. To achieve real-time communication, we’ll establish a WebSocket connection between Client and Server with Socket.io .

WebSocket 101

The app uses WebSocket for an instant exchange of messages sent by users. Let’s look at some steps how a WebSocket connection is created.

1. If Client wants to use WebSocket instead of traditional HTTP, an HTTP GET request must be sent with special headers asking Server for connection upgrade.
2. If Server supports WebSocket, the response confirms possibility of connection upgrade.
3. Once the handshake is finished, the connection provides a way for bidirectional communication. Both Client and Server can emit and listen for events until one of them closes the connection.

Upgrade from HTTP to WebSocket

#socketio #chat-app-development #nodejs #react #react-hook

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How native is React Native? | React Native vs Native App Development

If you are undertaking a mobile app development for your start-up or enterprise, you are likely wondering whether to use React Native. As a popular development framework, React Native helps you to develop near-native mobile apps. However, you are probably also wondering how close you can get to a native app by using React Native. How native is React Native?

In the article, we discuss the similarities between native mobile development and development using React Native. We also touch upon where they differ and how to bridge the gaps. Read on.

A brief introduction to React Native

Let’s briefly set the context first. We will briefly touch upon what React Native is and how it differs from earlier hybrid frameworks.

React Native is a popular JavaScript framework that Facebook has created. You can use this open-source framework to code natively rendering Android and iOS mobile apps. You can use it to develop web apps too.

Facebook has developed React Native based on React, its JavaScript library. The first release of React Native came in March 2015. At the time of writing this article, the latest stable release of React Native is 0.62.0, and it was released in March 2020.

Although relatively new, React Native has acquired a high degree of popularity. The “Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2019” report identifies it as the 8th most loved framework. Facebook, Walmart, and Bloomberg are some of the top companies that use React Native.

The popularity of React Native comes from its advantages. Some of its advantages are as follows:

• Performance: It delivers optimal performance.
• Cross-platform development: You can develop both Android and iOS apps with it. The reuse of code expedites development and reduces costs.
• UI design: React Native enables you to design simple and responsive UI for your mobile app.
• 3rd party plugins: This framework supports 3rd party plugins.
• Developer community: A vibrant community of developers support React Native.

Why React Native is fundamentally different from earlier hybrid frameworks

Are you wondering whether React Native is just another of those hybrid frameworks like Ionic or Cordova? It’s not! React Native is fundamentally different from these earlier hybrid frameworks.

React Native is very close to native. Consider the following aspects as described on the React Native website:

• Access to many native platforms features: The primitives of React Native render to native platform UI. This means that your React Native app will use many native platform APIs as native apps would do.
• Near-native user experience: React Native provides several native components, and these are platform agnostic.
• The ease of accessing native APIs: React Native uses a declarative UI paradigm. This enables React Native to interact easily with native platform APIs since React Native wraps existing native code.

Due to these factors, React Native offers many more advantages compared to those earlier hybrid frameworks. We now review them.

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REAL TIME CHAT SOLUTIONS SERVICES FOR MOBILE APPS

Build a Real Time chat application that can integrated into your social handles. Add more life to your website or support portal with a real time chat solutions for mobile apps that shows online presence indicators, typing status, timestamp, multimedia sharing and much more. Users can also log into the live chat app using their social media logins sparing them from the need to remember usernames and passwords. For more information call us at +18444455767 or email us at hello@sisgain.com or Visit: https://sisgain.com/instant-real-time-chat-solutions-mobile-apps

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How long does it take to develop/build an app?

With more of us using smartphones, the popularity of mobile applications has exploded. In the digital era, the number of people looking for products and services online is growing rapidly. Smartphone owners look for mobile applications that give them quick access to companies’ products and services. As a result, mobile apps provide customers with a lot of benefits in just one device.

Likewise, companies use mobile apps to increase customer loyalty and improve their services. Mobile Developers are in high demand as companies use apps not only to create brand awareness but also to gather information. For that reason, mobile apps are used as tools to collect valuable data from customers to help companies improve their offer.

There are many types of mobile applications, each with its own advantages. For example, native apps perform better, while web apps don’t need to be customized for the platform or operating system (OS). Likewise, hybrid apps provide users with comfortable user experience. However, you may be wondering how long it takes to develop an app.

To give you an idea of how long the app development process takes, here’s a short guide.

App Idea & Research

_Average time spent: two to five weeks _

This is the initial stage and a crucial step in setting the project in the right direction. In this stage, you brainstorm ideas and select the best one. Apart from that, you’ll need to do some research to see if your idea is viable. Remember that coming up with an idea is easy; the hard part is to make it a reality.

All your ideas may seem viable, but you still have to run some tests to keep it as real as possible. For that reason, when Web Developers are building a web app, they analyze the available ideas to see which one is the best match for the targeted audience.

Targeting the right audience is crucial when you are developing an app. It saves time when shaping the app in the right direction as you have a clear set of objectives. Likewise, analyzing how the app affects the market is essential. During the research process, App Developers must gather information about potential competitors and threats. This helps the app owners develop strategies to tackle difficulties that come up after the launch.

The research process can take several weeks, but it determines how successful your app can be. For that reason, you must take your time to know all the weaknesses and strengths of the competitors, possible app strategies, and targeted audience.

The outcomes of this stage are app prototypes and the minimum feasible product.

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Drive Engagement and Interaction Voluntarily via Team Collaboration Chat Apps

Emails are almost extinct. The need to stay glued to your office desk is no more a necessity to stay connected with teams. Chat applications are here and are changing the way teams collaborate and communicate with each other with increased mobility.

Chats have gone a long way from being reserved only for socializing purposes to hosting important team discussions and meetings where ideas are born and rolled out. Team chat apps built for iOS and Android devices are the new collaborative tools that business people thrive on.

Chat apps solutions are seeing technical teams in technology companies, be it startups or an enterprise-grade companies as early adopters as they have started realizing the benefits of flexible and frictionless communication that these chat solutions power.

Advantages that Pose Real-time Instant Messaging Apps as Convenient Alternatives for Group or Team Communication Over Conventional emailing Systems

1. Ad-hoc Conversations
Apart from bringing employees together chat apps pave way for grouping teams for ad-hoc conversations where technical people can discuss over tasks, brainstorm and come up with ideas.

2. Epicenter of Tasks
Through an array of integrations that chat applications offer, teams, especially those involved in product development, can centralize their accounts on other collaborative platforms like GitHub, Jira into the chat application itself creating an ecosystem that caters to all collaboration purposes.

3. Record Keeping and Easy Search
Key developments that happen over a verbal discussion need to be noted down else chances are more likely for losing a crucial breakthrough achieved over a brainstorming session. Team collaboration chat apps record every improvement and contents that dates back to any time can be fully searched.

4. Switch Over Devices Based on Convenience
Multi device compatibility ensures that your employees are connected with teams no matter what devices they are using. If on-the-go connectivity is your preference, get things done on smartphone. If convenience matters the most, switch over to your desktop and continue from where you left.

5. Multiple Communication Medium
Text messages, voice calls, video calls, VOIP calls, direct messages, group chats on iOS and Android extend the modes and medium through which you can get to communicate with your peers, teams and entire organization for that matter.

6. Everything Else that Count
Adding to these, features like file sharing (multiple file types), video conferencing, opinion generation through polls, task delegation, followups, update, personalized notification settings, reminders, to-do list creation and much more can be done through real-time team chat applications.

However, the limitations of team collaboration chat apps end here only if you think so. With every other team, apart from development teams, like those that operational level, management level, marketing level etc can also get to reap the benefits of chat apps. Read on to know the

Instances Which Chat Apps Prove Useful for All Teams in an Organization

Why restrict the benefit of real-time instant messaging chat app to only technology teams into development and designing. Every other team in your office or organization can get a fair share of its advantages.

Here are some of the instances where chat apps can be useful for other teams.
Human Resource team can build employee engagement programs. HRs can get fast response from employees, build a powerful relationship with them, conduct opinion poll for decision making. The hardly-used suggestion box in office premises can be replaced by a chat app for a more effective and instant feedback.

An organization’s system administration team can stay connected with employees on the go and be there on time to resolve issues. Moreover, notifications on breakdowns and other technical issues can help in saving the downtime. Alerts and reminders on instant messaging applications can contribute towards proactive care.

For marketing professionals and sales executives, chat apps on multiple platforms like iOS, Android can reduce series of mail threads into chat logs that are easily searchable. Live video calls and voice calls can help them build better client relationship and both pre and post sales support can get more livelier and personalized with chat apps.

At operational level, chat apps can connect an organization’s representative with many third party vendors to keep up on timely delivery, maintenance, bill payments and more.

Group or Team collaboration applications are the new age communication tools that can contribute for successful communication between employees of an organization in multiple angles. From initiating an idea to getting works done, real time chat apps have started helping organization at many instances which are tough to handle when done conventionally.

If you are into an organization but still have not got a chat app on board, it is high time that your build a chat app on iOS and Android.

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How much does an iOS & Android chat app cost to make?

Messaging is one of the most essential functions that smartphone users want to have at hand. Smartphone won’t be a must in our life if it has no chatting function. There is no one that doesn’t have WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat or Snapchat installed on his device. AppClues Infotech has a relevant experience crafting different messaging apps with top-notch technology stacks behind them, and we want to share our insights with you.

We have a team of professionals who are highly talented Chat App Developers, experienced Whatsapp clone app developers who works hard on simple as well as complex problem and give their best out of it. Our Chat highly experienced app developers design an application which are elegant, feasible, easy accessible and capability to generate high traffic towards your website.

Ideal features in a Chat app:

• Instant Messaging
• Real time connectivity
• Multimedia file transmission
• Security
• Push Notification
• Quick search
• Group Chat
• Video and voice calling
• Social Integration

The Cost to build an Chat app is between $15 to $30 per hour. The Cost is depends on complexity of a product and feature we need in chat app. The following three factors affect the final cost:

• Technical complexity
• The number of devices and OS
• Custom designs and animations

Benefits with AppClues Infotech:

• Steady Mobile Chat App Development Service : Our chatting app development services aim at kickstarting and concluding the app development tasks reliably.
• Affordable Chatting App Development : It is our vision AppClues Infotech to concentrate on the chat mobile app designing and development in the most affordable way.
• Guaranteed WhatsApp Chat Clone Security : The specialization of our experts lies in securing the apps with some of the most robust features.
• Quick Client Support : We at AppClues Infotech take it as our responsibility to provide quick client support in any of the ways required to them.

With its years of expertise in developing messaging/ chatting apps, the AppClues Infotech team of developers has now endeavored into chatting app development. Our sole aim with the messaging apps development is to bring people closer with instant messaging facilities. The app developers at our company have helped us achieve the goal with utmost delicacy.

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