Cost And Features To Develop Social Networking App Like Snapchat

Social Media App Development has made it immensely easy for people to chat with one another without any disturbances in between.

All such social media apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, and Snapchat have gained an astonishing amount of popularity. And their number of users is in billions. There is no doubt in the fact that such social media app development has great scope in the time to come as well. And this is because nowadays online communication is an integral part of our lives.

The demand for social media apps is so much that even though these large scale apps such as Facebook, Snapchat are making great business, there are still others in the market as well. And moreover, the clones of such well-established chat apps exist as well. All of this shows there is a tremendous demand for these social media chat apps. And so if you are looking forward to creating a chat app of your own then don’t hold back. It seems quite obvious that you will succeed. One reason to support this can be the fact that users welcome new innovative offers with open arms. You might need to use social media app development solutions for this but all the hard work will pay off.

So, here let us take an example of one of the most famous social media chat app Snapchat. We will take a look at its history and story, understand exactly what Snapchat is? And then we will look at the features that should be incorporated in such an app, plus what are social media app development solutions that were used in it or what are the tech requirements of creating such an app. Lastly, we will estimate how much can it cost to build an app like Snapchat. So let us begin.

What is Snapchat, what is its history and story?

What is Snapchat?

Snapchat is one of the most popular social media chat apps. At present, mostly teenagers comprise the users of Snapchat but it is not limited to only them. The audience of Snapchat spreads across various demographics as well.

Snapchat lets its users capture photos, make videos, share them on their account or keep it private in their ‘my eyes only’ section. They put caption over it or upload them as “stories” which can be viewed for the next 24 hours from the upload. Plus, users can chat through it as well, either through multimedia messages or via visual communication. Both the technically advanced mediums of communication have been made available on the App. The special feature of Snapchat is that the pictures and videos that people shared with one another, self-destruct few seconds after the recipient has viewed the sent media.

Another notable feature is that it renders quite distinct and numerous filters to its users for capturing videos and photos. Snapchat is mainly famous due to such features. Another reason could be the fact that teenagers prefer to communicate visually rather than textually.

History and story of Snapchat

Snapchat was founded by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown in the year 2011. These were then students of Stanford University. They simply developed a photo messaging application that their peers rejected. Several years after its launch it gained so much popularity that Big names like Facebook and Google tried to purchase the app with 3 to 4 billion dollars. And after another 3 years, the application was worth 20 Billion dollars.

And this was possible only due to the unique features that they inculcated. The idea of pictures and video self-destructing after a few seconds was quite new to the world and it was readily accepted. Plus when Snapchat came three big names in the world of the internet were in power, namely Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. So trying to make a mark at that time was quite a risky thing to do. But their unique idea and features enabled them to stand tall and compete against the other three. The result is in front of everybody, they succeeded, they made a mark among the big names. And now almost every other person uses Snapchat.

Next, we will find out the construction of Snapchat that made Mark Zuckerberg try to purchase it though only to be let down by Snapchat.

Language and Features of Snapchat

Here, we will first give brief information about the language that snap or Snapchat users use and then we will enlist the various features that Snapchat has and you should incorporate into the app you are building.

Snapchat Language

People who use Snapchat regularly must be well acquainted with these terms. But if there is a new user he might not know. So let us see some of the common terms used by Snapchat users. These are mentioned below:

1. The most common of all is “snap”, it means a photo or a video they clicked or recorded. Sometimes, the word is also used in place of the Snapchat app.
2. Next is the “story”. A story as stated earlier is available to viewers for a period of 24 hours unless the uploader removes it himself.
3. “Snapback” as quite clear from the word is a response of a user to a snap.
4. “Score” is the total number of pictures and videos that you sent or received from your fellow in any chat. This score is shown right next to the name of your friend in the contact list.
5. “Snapchatters” is the term used to refer to people who use Snapchat.
6. “Here” is an option that lets the Snapchatter get a live video when they are online.

Read the blog- How to Enhance Social Video Content? Follow these 10 Tips

Similarly, your app can also have such kind of terms and options that seem relevant to you. And the one you think might appeal to your audience as well. Now it's time to see some important features of Snapchat that make it unique and pleases its users.

Features Of Snapchat

Features are the most important part of any type of application. People or developers use services like Big Data Cloud Solutions to curate the best possible application. Thus, pay special attention at the time of inculcating features into your application. Listed below are the features that can be immensely useful to you for creating and developing an app like Snapchat:

1. Capturing and sharing snaps

This is the main aspect or feature of your app. The ability to take amazing pictures and then share them. In order to create an app like Snapchat, you will need to focus on the number of options that it renders to the users regarding the photos and video recording. Plus not only Snapchat but also Facebook Whatsapp, and Instagram let their users use a number of filters while capturing pictures or recording a video. Along with this, they can also add textual captions and draw on pictures. These options have become quite common and come under the basic features now, but you can add more options here as well.

2. Self-Destruction Feature

Do not forget that this is one of the main features of Snapchat, self-destruction of pictures and videos once they are viewed or after a few seconds. As you are trying to build an app like Snapchat so just like the previous one this feature is a must to add that has now become quite common and basic as well. But it does not matter how common it becomes, it will be a feature much in demand for the time to come. So make sure your Social Media Web Portal Development includes this feature.

3. Lenses

This is yet another specialty of the Snapchat. This feature of Snapchat let its users use numerous goofy type of filter on their pictures. This is distinctive and even Instagram has adapted now. So this also falls under the category of common and basic features now. Make sure the Lenses that you develop in your application are different than what is offered now by the prevailing social media photo messaging applications. You might need to take the help of the latest artificial intelligence development technology to give the best of quality to your audience.

4. Geofilters

You might wonder what is distinctive about this feature that it is separately mentioned. We will tell you what is different. These types of filters are available only in certain regions. And they are made according to that particular region as well. Such as a filter made specifically for India. These types of filters can appeal to the audience of different locations. Plus it can be helpful if you want to target or acquire an audience of a particular region to increase the number of users you have. You might need to make use of the Cloud Computing Services for this purpose to acquire the required information and data.

5. Adding Friends

There is no need to say that this is an important feature. Because people will definitely need their friends on the platform or application they are using. Otherwise, who will view the stories and pictures that they post? It is true that it can be public and available for everyone to view but there are certain people who wish to make their posts available to only certain people and not everyone. Besides sharing photos people will communicate as well and with whom will they communicate? Their friends. This is the reason why it is a common and basic feature.

The next important thing to note about this feature is that Snapchat enables people to add their friends in their account with the help of Snapcodes. These Snapcodes are QR code which people can scan through their phone to add one another into their accounts as friends. Your developers may use big data solutions to include such features.

6. Chat

People use Snapchat not only for sharing photos and videos on their profile with their friends but also for chatting with them. Why they use Snapchat and not regular messaging facilities? They use Snapchat for the purpose of chatting mainly because of the exciting stickers that it provides. Recently, Snapchat added 200 more new stickers to their app. Similarly, you also need to make the chat feature of your application interesting and engaging for the users. You can make use of artificial intelligence development for making the chat feature of your application an interesting medium to express oneself.

7. Video and audio

Almost every chat app renders its users the option to make an audio or video call to whomsoever they wish to. This feature is available in Snapchat as well. Plus while people are on a call they can send images simultaneously as well. Snapchatters also have the option to send audio and video clips to their friends over a chat. All these features were added to Snapchat not too long ago. Therefore, they are still new and trendy as well. Though the audio and video call facility has become somewhat common. Your developers might need to use Social Media Web Portal Development to add such features.

8. Stories

Another significant feature is “Stories”. Stories are uploaded by users for their followers to view them. One story is available for 24 hours for the followers to see. Plus the users can also see who has viewed their story. The viewers can skip stories as well by swiping left plus can see any story over and over again as well. These days people are more interested in viewing stories rather than anything else. It enables them to view or share apt content in just a few seconds for many people to see. With improvements in its story feature, Snapchat now records around 7 billion views per day of many different stories. Hence this is one of the major and interesting features to be included.

9. Discover

With the help of discover feature people get to check stories and posts of major publishers. In Discover, people get to see the stories posted by big companies or news channels such as Cosmo, CNN, etc. The stories are made available by filtration according to the user done by the editorial team. This feature is helpful to make money out of apps like Snapchat.

Read the blog- Pro Tips To Improve Engagements On Social Media Platform

10. The Nearby Function

This is another feature with the help of which people can add other people into their accounts who are currently near their location and have turned open the Add nearby option. The device will scan and let you know who all are near to you using Snapchat.

Cost to develop a social networking app like Snapchat

Now as you have decided to make an app like Snapchat, therefore, you must be wondering about the cost. And the cost is the main significant factor behind the curation of anything. So here we can give you an idea of the cost that would be needed for the required development. The exact cost can be calculated only when you have planned the development procedure thoroughly and are now spending as you develop the app. This is because the cost depends on many factors. So below we have mentioned the factors that could influence the cost and estimation of their price as well.

1. Team

The team is the first and foremost one on which you will need to spend money. And this depends on the location of the team. For example, if you hire a team from the US then their per hour rate could be from $60 to $200. And if you hire one from Eastern Europe then you might get the same work done with the same quality level at the cost of $25-$50. Therefore, choose wisely and according to your budget.
And the smallest team would at least consist of two developers, one project manager, one designer, and one engineer. Now depending upon the complexity of the application that you want to create you will need to hire more people.

2. App platform

A platform is the most significant decision when you start with your project. It is basically ideal that you make your app available on all the platforms yet it is not feasible in the beginning. So, you can at the first start with just one platform and then move on to other platforms as well once you have gained success. The two most popular platforms of today’s time are iOS and Android. And if you go for iOS then you might need to opt for Cloud computing services as well. Choose the one that fits perfectly with your budget and aim.

3. Design

The design of your app is surely an important part. And this depends entirely on the complexity of your application. The more complex application you want more time will be spent in creating it and thus the cost will increase as well. So it depends on the type of quality that you want to give your app and how much can you afford to spend on it.

Summing it up

Based on the information we have provided here the cost as per the features can be as given below:

*Considering Price= $50 per hour

Therefore, on the basis of the above-estimated data, we can assume that the total cost can be around $70,000 or more depending upon the type of structure and quality you choose.