Can you WhatsApp me your details? Ohh please share your location on WhatsApp…Connect with your client through WhatsApp, it is more convenient.

These are some of the most common convo-exchanges to be heard around us. And this convenience bubble is beautifully crafted by one of the most incredible social messaging apps, none other than WhatsApp.

“WhatsApp has more than 2 billion people using it every month”

It sounds quite enticing and engaging at the same time, to know WhatsApp messaging, has such a huge fan-following. And this numerical stat leaves many out there gaping and yearning for creating a chat app like WhatsApp.

To help you get a glimpse of the secret ingredients involved in the making of WhatsApp development, we’ve brought you this post. So you can be on a quick tour to get on a successful journey of WhatsApp development.

Let’s hop onto this journey with us, and spill the beans of WhatsApp success story and what is the cost to develop an app like WhatsApp, with this post further…

A quick synopsis of WhatsApp:

Do you think the WhatsApp application, became this huge overnight? Or does it strike to you ever, that how much does it cost to develop an app like WhatsApp?

If the question; when did WhatsApp start, is revolving in your mind constantly, that you should know that it took more than a decade and started in 2009, when its founders, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, quit Yahoo in 2007 to pursue other ventures.

To bring the action into place, Brian Acton applied for a job at Facebook in 2009, and in parallel, he was in the process of developing one of the most popular chat apps – WhatsApp.

Sadly, his job application was rejected by Facebook. And surprisingly, just after five years- 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, since it turned out to be one of the most popular chat apps.

In the very initial year, Acton and Koum raised $250,000 and raised a seed funding round from Yahoo colleagues.

Let’s take a quick tour of the WhatsApp growth.

WhatsApp grew exponentially in just four years from the launch date;

It got 419 M monthly active users;

This growth was much faster than Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and Skype combined.

No doubt, there are many apps like WhatsApp in the market, but why WhatsApp gained success?

It could only be possible due to an incredible set of features integrated within it. So if you want to duplicate that success, you need to make sure that your features are solid and robust enough.

Further, the planned strategy will help you to control costs to develop an app like WhatsApp, & penetrate the global market in an effective way, just like WhatsApp.

How does WhatsApp work?

To start with, you should know that WhatsApp works with an Internet connection, and is a cost-effective alternative to traditional SMS messages.

WhatsApp is a secure, reliable, and private platform that connects one user to another with a simple set of steps to be followed, such as:

Download WhatsApp from the PlayStore / Apple Store

Add your phone number

Let the contacts to be synced

And you are all ready to use the app!

Further, users can set status with a predefined image, or users can write their own status.

The status can also be set as:

Active

Away

Do not disturb

Invisible

Customized

To take the user-engagement to the next level, WhatsApp status supports photos, videos, GIFs, and emojis. You can hire a WhatsApp developer team to include engaging functionalities, to bring user – personalization with an impeccable experience.

What are the benefits of WhatsApp?

Indeed, there are many benefits involved with the WhatsApp portal, such as:

WhatsApp Pros:

It is completely free for use;

Users can send a message to anywhere in the world;

It has Voice & Video calling available;

Easy to send document files up to 100Mb such as PDF, Slideshows, etc.;

Reliable to make WhatsApp calls;

Delete option available to remove messages within one hour;

After importing contacts from users’ phones, updates how many contacts are using WhatsApp;

It is easy to share location, photos, status, images, documents, videos with other contacts;

Gives the option to share Live Location for 15 minutes, 1 hour and 8 hours;

Has end-to-end chat encryption.

WhatsApp Cons:

Yeah, it is very sad to know, but WhatsApp has some disadvantages as well.

WhatsApp misses face filters;

There is no virtual assistant available;

WhatsApp Calling is not available in all the counties;

Contact number has to be there to reach another user;

No sign-out option available.

WhatsApp Features:

The process of building one of the applications like WhatsApp requires a series of features. However, there can be multiple features that can be a part of your mobile, but to make an MVP model for your app, we have accumulated some of the features for your chat app concept.

So you can control of cost to develop an app like WhatsApp, much before proceeding further. Just take a look further…

1. Instant messaging

WhatsApp instant messaging is an incredible feature that is the soul of this very platform. Instant messaging is the name suggests, does work with an Internet connection, so there aren’t any SMS fees involved.

This is one of the best WhatsApp app features, that lets the users access, even if a WhatsApp user is offline and has no connection, still, they would receive the incoming message as soon as they are back online.

With this feature, users can also send photos, videos, audio files, and documents to each other effortlessly.

2. Geolocation integration

The “Live Location” helps the users to share their location with contacts in real-time.

Yes, you heard me all correct!

It means now you don’t need to feel lost or insecure, and simply with a click, you can inform your loved ones, your whereabouts.

3. Video chat

Another exciting feature WhatsApp has got to offer is the video chat option.

Here, users can chat through video and the most engaging factor here suggests that it is absolutely and works similar to Skype or Facetime.

4. Group chats and calls

The group communication has never been easier than before. With the help WhatsApp app, users can communicate in groups.

And this group chat is further added with different sets of features, where users can send text messages, images, and videos with each other.

Further, the group chat can be added with up to 256 users in one group and can be customized, such as name, mute chat or profile pic, or background image. And this feature must be added into your app, without being worried about the cost to develop an app like WhatsApp.

Also, users can add four participants in the video call.

5. VoIP phone calls

VoIP stands for “voice over Internet protocol,” and is very much part of WhatsApp, which facilitates phone calls.

It means that WhatsApp calling works via the Internet, using Wifi connection or the user’s cellular network data plan.

Further, these calls are charged from the mobile network plan or with WiFi. You should know these calls can only be made to other WhatsApp users, not to any ground-line.

6. Calendar sync

WhatsApp lets the users connect their phone’s calendar, and it only requires users to grant permission.

With the help of this feature, users can simply add a message by clicking on the message and add it to their calendar.

7. Chat encryption

Did I mention about security?

Security is one of the most important factors and it cannot be given as a second priority by any chat app development company. For an app like WhatsApp to grow popular amongst the users, it is all due to the safety, it offers to them, with the end-to-end encryption.

The chat encryption means the people who have access to messages through this platform are the people involved in the conversation.

And it means, even the WhatsApp developers can’t read the messages.

So you must ensure to use the end-to-end encryption within your app.

8. Multimedia File Transfers

The multimedia file transmission is one of the standard features of WhatsApp. And it allows the users to share every type of file and data via a mobile app.

The type of files that can be transferred are:

Video

Image

Voice

Animation

Documents

Contacts

Location

GIFs

9. Cloud Services

Not many of us know, that WhatsApp utilizes cloud services in various ways. WhatsApp doesn’t store messages on its, yet it allows the users to store everything.

This is done with the cloud service synchronization, which makes it easier for the users to back up the app’s content to the cloud.

Steps on how to create a chat application like WhatsApp:

When you decide to hire a WhatsApp developer, to create an app like WhatsApp, you need to follow below-mentioned steps:

1 – Select a well-planned business model to build an app like WhatsApp

2 – Hire an experienced team from a leading mobile app development company

3 – Consider the team’s location

4 – Craft app’s wireframe

5 – Ensure to select MVP features to create your own WhatsApp

6 – Choose an efficient app design for your WhatsApp-like app

WhatsApp Tech Stack

Language – Erlang

OS – FreeBSD

Virtual Machine – BEAM

Servers – Ejabberd, YAWS

Stack – LYME/LYCE

Database – Mnesia

Offline database – SQLite

WhatsApp Cost Breakdown:

Ahh, finally you have got the full-fledged information about the features to be integrated into your WhatsApp like app portal.

But the bigger question bangs here, and that how much does it cost to build an app like WhatsApp?

Well, you must know that the cost of development varies from one app to another, and no two apps’ cost can be similar unless they both are the same inch by inch.

However, the cost of the WhatsApp app, with basic features will be around $10,000 to $40,000 for a single platform. If you want to develop on both platforms, then cost may go up to $55,000.

However, this very aspect is very much a controversial factor, since the cost to develop an app like WhatsApp, does not depend on any of one factor, but multiple facts stand along with it.

An app is not just about coding and there is much involved in it than meets the eyes. In this quest, multiple things are involved in it.

The number of features, type of technology & functionalities, location, users’ demand, and many other factors is responsible for building the app. Even you must know that WhatsApp development cost in the USA varies from the WhatsApp development cost in India, due to different reasons.

Therefore, you need to take care of every ingredient integrated within the app, to get the accurate numerical figure for your app.

Still to help you get an hourly breakdown of WhatsApp cost would somehow look like this.

Registration and address book: 50 – 60 hours

Messaging: 180 – 200 hours

Multimedia file transmission: 40 – 45 hours

Location: 25 – 30 hours

Contact sharing: 65 – 70 hours

Voice and video calls: 170 – 200 hours

Settings: 80 – 100 hours

Design (UX/UI): 55 – 75 hours

Conclusion

However, you must not forget that these mentioned figures are just a rough order of magnitude, and it can be anything more or less than this, related to cost to develop an app like WhatsApp.

Further, the duration of the development mentioned for each phase can also be anything lesser or more.

If you want to get an accurate figure for your mobile app development, then you must reach out to the team of experts and hire a mobile app developer team to help your mobile app to grow immensely.

Popular FAQ:

How much does it cost to develop a chat app like WhatsApp? However, it is hard to decide the cost to develop an app like WhatsApp, without knowing multiple aspects, such features, functionalities and much more. But on average the total cost of WhatsApp-like app for two platforms (iOS and Android) may vary from $20000 to $60000 including back-end. You must remember this cost is just a rough estimation, and it can be anything above or lesser than his cost bracket.

How many active users of WhatsApp around the world? As officially declared by WhatsApp in mid-February 2020, it is now being actively used by more than 2 billion people worldwide.

Which countries use the WhatsApp most? There are over 340 million WhatsApp users in India alone, making it the leading country in terms of WhatsApp audience size. Second-ranked Brazil has 99 million WhatsApp messenger users.