Secret To Mastering Cost to build an app like Slack?

Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Cisco Webex Teams, or Slack- the meeting & messaging industry is growing every day. These messaging applications have entered the business domains and now they are an integral part of the organizational world. 

However, Email is not on the dead mode, it is highly used for professional purposes but the instant mode of communication and chat goes to Slack-like apps. 

The ever-growing usage of messaging and instant communication apps are growing increasingly popular. As per Nemertes Research, over 80% of the companies are collaborating with messaging and chat applications.

Among all these top messaging and chat applications, Slack is emerging greatly and if you are planning to invest in an app like Slack, it is essential to know how much does slack app cost before the final nod. 

So, let get started with everything about Slack- 

What Is Messaging App Slack?

Slack is one of the most used messaging or chat-based applications.

Answering what is slack messaging, it is the application that can be used across the workplaces and on multiple devices and platforms with a great number of features, functionality, and robustness allowing one to chat one to one. Employees can create their own set of groups for conversation and messaging. 

With the help of the application, uses can upload and share their files, and data along with integrating it with other applications and services. The setting option available into the app allows one to control everything within it. Also, the app offers various emoji along with customizable emoji.

It is a great way to communicate with the application and a handy solution for intercommunication within the office team.

The mechanism behind it is also great and works nicely. And this is what a slack messaging app does for the organization. 

Let us now understand its process of getting things done, i.e- How does the Slack app work.

How Does The Slack App Work?

Settings

From the username or the drop-down arrow rightly next to the Slack team name in order to access the settings menu. From the menu, you can simply adjust the app as per your preferences like Themes, messages, emoji style, viewing the profile, account and access Help/Feedback page, and more.

And if you are on the administrative side of the app, you can access a lot of things like team settings, billing, groups, etc. The team members can see options for accessing app integrations, customize slack, and a way to jump to the team directory.

Notifications

The bell at the top right of the sidebar assists in adjusting the notifications preferences. Through notifications, you can snooze them, put a Do not disturb schedule, and opt for more. 

Also, when you are using Slack for the very first time, several types of notification can be enabled via the app. On the other hand, the services offered by the app offer different ways of managing the task. 

The channel created into the app has individual notification preferences. For getting those settings, open the channel you are willing to adjust, then click on the name at the top of the screen and then opt for Channel notification preferences. 

Starred Messages

To understand how does the slack app works, in the application, whatever you will be starring will appear above the channels section. Stars are the best way to mark important messages and information. 

Also, not just the vital information, you can also star channels or direct messages to move them from the top left sidebar. 

So next time you will be searching for the message, the starred message will help you out. 

Channels

There is a section called Channels beneath the name of your slack team. It is nearby by the sidebar. Channels are basically chat rooms meant for conversing within the selected team members. 

You can simply name the channel chat rooms based on anything, be it topic, team, project, or other. Also, as per the requirements, you can make the channel public or private.

However, remember, whenever your channel is public, any and every person can simply join the team but it is private, only selected or invited people can join the channel. 

Direct Channels

Just below Channels, you will next get the Direct Messages section on the left side of the sidebar. It is similarly followed by the names of the person added to the slack team. 

Within the Direct channel option, you can click on any of the names added and send them direct one to one message. Also, by clicking on the + button given on the same direct channel option, a new window will open for letting you find or start a new message conversation.

Inviting People

If you are on the administrator side, you can invite people to join the team or the group. The button is available behind the option of the Direct Messages section. After clicking on the section, you will further be given three options- full members, restricted accounts along with single-channel guests. 

The full members’ option invites team members full access starting from messaging and looking into files in the public channel and team directory. Restricted account, the next option invites team members to see things partially, be it the team directory or accessing channels, files, and documents. The last and final option called single-channel guest gives limited access to the invited team members for messaging and seeing files. 

Chat Room

The left side of the Slack begins with the start of the room you are divided into Channel, direct message, starred, or other. Just after the written name, you will find out the drop-down menu for accessing various things like message archives, advanced features, channel notification purposes, and so on. Also, starring the channel is also possible.

Search 

Next way to understand how does the slack app works can be done by its feature Search. 

One of the top features of Slack is Search, meant for searching both the messages and the files. The search box there in the app, it suggests search modifiers letting users help narrow results, and figuring out what they were searching for. 

Apart from that, Slack also showcases related channels, team members, groups, search history, starred messages, and so on. 

Mentions & Reactions

You can simply add a person’s name using “@” in order to let them notify of their mention. Also, you can instantly view your mentions, messages, and other highlights just by clicking on “Mentions & Reactions” using the “@” symbol. 

Flexpane Menu

The “…”, three-dot vertical in the top right corner of Slack gives you access to Flexpane. Here, you will be seeing “all unread messages”, “channel browser”, “file browsing”, “people and user groups” and others. It is basically the amalgamation of all the features and functions you are accessing individually. 

It simply gives you a quick overview and access to everything happening into your Slack. 

Uploading & File Sharing

For uploading files like images, videos, links, documents, and others, you can simply drag and drop the file to the Slack window, copy it, and paste the image straight to the message box. Also, you got another option “+”, it allows one to select and upload files, document, image, or others. 

And there are more options available in Slack for effective and easy communication with the person or along with the team together. 

All these together result in people and organizations investing in the Slack-like app development process. So, if you are also on the track of getting started with the development process, ensure you know how to actually begin with. 

Here is how to build a messaging app like slack in the following scrolls – 

How To Build A Messaging App Like Slack ?

As we have seen, messaging applications are a great way for instant messaging especially for organizations. So, here is the procedure for how to create a messaging app like slack we follow at Appventurez for a great user experience. 

Let’s understand them- 

A Right App Development Platform

Choosing the right app development platform is the first step towards how to build a messaging app like Slack. The platforms available for one to choose from are- cross-platforms vs native app development, PWA vs native apps, iOS vs Android, and others.

Also, for choosing the platform, it is crucial to keep the target audience, demographics, locations, ideology, and others in mind. These together will pave the way towards slack app development. 

The Essential Features

As per Google Play Store Statistics, every day various mobile applications are added into the app store, and in order to succeed and make your app competitive, you need to come up with better things and freshness. 

Hence, you need to come up with what features and functionalities you should be placing into your messaging app. Come up with competitive features, way better than your competitors in order to hook users for a longer run. 

Thus, divide your app features into 2 like- 

• The obvious and basic set of features that are also competitive than other competitive ones. 
• Make your app stand out from the rest by adding features that are similar-looking yet more advanced.

The App Budget

Your messaging app will be the combination of several different things like features, functionality, designing, technology, programming language, and others that sums up how much does it cost to develop an app.

Everything that goes into your application will make you come up with how much does slack cost, thus ensuring you are well aware of the average budget your app calls for. 

The Mobile App Development Company

No matter how amazing your messaging app idea is, if you are not hiring the topmost mobile app development company, you are not leading the race in any way. 

Thus, opting for the right app development firm is crucial, meanwhile, things to ask from a mobile app development firm is equally important to get started with.

Also, if you are not willing to go ahead with the app development agency, you can opt for an outsource app development company too. 

A detailed blog about why you should outsource app development is here to help you out.

These are just the 4-way concept, there are more that goes into the messaging app development process. For a detailed explanation of it and how we work on such applications, connect with our expert.

Now, as we have mentioned about the features above, stating the importance of it and how to excel over your competitor, here are a few obvious features you should definitely add to your messaging application. 

Keeping the importance of features in mind, the next part of the blog is stating the most important features for messaging apps. 

Must-Have Top Features For Messaging Apps Like Slack

Features for messaging apps are important for any application but adding not so important and difficult features results in users leaving the app over other easier applications. Hence, here is a list of some of the most obvious features you should add other than the advanced ones. 

Easier Registration 

The long and lengthy signup process is a headache for most of the users who got attracted by the app store app core features’ details. Hence, delaying them from using the app makes users abandon the app and finally uninstalls it. Hence, it is crucial to give them ease. 

For doing that, integrate several social media platform integrations like Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Instagram, and others. Also, for a smoother experience, you can also offer them a contact number based registration.

Never deprive them of what they are asking. 

Personalization

Once they are into the app after the signup or registration process, offer them the chance to express themselves uniquely. Let them choose images, photos, nicknames, typos, fonts, and others. You can also let them change their status too. 

Also, users are willing to see who is online, and who is typing, give them what they are looking for. 

Thus, one of the top features of messaging apps is personalization. The information filled by the users and their browsing history can be collected, analyzed, and then used for offering personalized app experience. 

File Sharing

Other than communicating from the application, let your users opt for file sharing options too. Let them share files, be it- files, documents, images, videos, music, etc easily.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are the bridge between a user and the app. Pop-ups or notifications provide exclusive information to the users about any missing message, invitation, or notifications.

Also, for further ease, you can also opt for mailing notification, if in case the user missed any information. 

Settings

Settings are the next obvious feature in the messaging option to opt for. Through it, users can control and get access to several things like user profiles, accounts, chat settings, payment information, and other notifications, etc.

Voice & Video Calls

Other than letting users communicate within the application, you can enhance their experience by letting them do voice and video calls. 

By the option, users can connect with the other person or teammate, to video or voice calls.

Contact Sharing

Contact sharing is worth having into the app for more convenience. By adding this feature for messaging apps into your app, people can simply exchange the contacts along with saving the same into the contact list. 

Now that you have added features into the app, the next thing you can think of is earning money from it. 

Here is how you can opt for the monetization model. 

The Monetization Model For Messaging App

Be it the question of how to earn money by developing apps, or how free apps make money, it is crucial to come up with the monetary technique that can also make you earn money. 

So, now that you are also beginning with your messaging applications, there are a few techniques we think can help you for a longer run. 

• One of the top ways to earn money from apps is to opt to sell in-app ads. Though it does annoy users many times, it is still the main source of revenue for a lot of apps. However, for not annoying users, you can let the settings disable the ads. 
• Next in the queue is opting for a subscription model similar to Whatsapp that applies to other messengers too. 
• For earning, you can add customization like profiles, chats, games, stickers, packs, gifs, tags, and other related content.
• Sponsorships are the next stroke you can play for earning money from the apps. Sponsorship pays you an amount for certain actions taken inside the messaging app. 

The mechanism behind the messaging application like Slack is vast and strategic. However, the important part of the application is figuring out what is important and how the app will be delivering its intent and so on.

Thus the technological importance is there to know about. Let’s understand them too- 

Technology Stack To Build Slack App

Authentication

You want users to sign up and sign in to the app nicely and easily. Thus, the technology stack to build a slack app for authentication is crucial to make things smoother, easy navigating, and not so lengthy.

However, in order to choose the one, you need to know how encryption for authentication works, and which one should be trusted for handling the security part too. 

Front End Technology

Users are willing to know, explore, and get more in the application for the work processes. Thus, to get everything together, it is crucial to work on the app and web speed. 

For keeping the page reload speed work nicely, it requires a front-end framework like Facebook’s React Framework added with the back end system. This altogether doubles the amount of work involved. 

In the midst, if you want to know how things are working in your app, opt for MVP. 

Back End Technology

Messages that are sent instantly involve a lot of real-time data mechanisms as it is not possible to focus on one, converting the message and saving it into a database, and relying on the second person to the database and converting everything in a couple of seconds.

Thus to make things easy, each computer requires “subscribing” to updates from others and another person sending a message can push it out. 

Apart from that, the backend technology stack to build a slack app here is a little complex and stiff for easing the communication experiences of the users. The complex process is used by our expert developers to make the messaging app outstanding and easy. 

For ease, check out- Essential guide to mobile app backend development guide.

API Integrations

The slack’s utility lies in its integrations with lots of platforms like Giphy. Through it and the use, one can receive instant feedback and updates with 100% uptime SLA. 

The integrations are then used for various third party APIs for constantly changing needs, making it crucial to know about the changes made anytime. If you are planning to opt for the MVP version of the app, integration all the integrations is not necessary however, it depends upon the need of the users.

With it, it is now the time to crack the code- 

How Much Does It Cost To Develop A Messaging App Like Slack?

The costing part of the Slack is fairly divided into 4. Let’s discuss them in detail- 

Planning Cost

The planning cost of the messaging application defines how you want users to see and send messages. And the option behind the messaging planning cost can be made by answering the following questions- 

• How do you want to notify everyone about the message posted to a room?
• If you want a sender to receive read receipts too?
• Would you like users to communicate with each other directly?
• How do you want users to control access to a room?
• Who are the people inviting to the room?
• How would the payment process take place?

Thus, planning before getting started is definitely important. To this, the cost to the planning phase asks nearly $3,000. 

The Fixed Costing

Now the next part of the slack based messaging app costing is about the breaking down of features into the design, frontend, backend tasks, and then adding the total hours. 

• Just like the time to develop an app, the design tasks require around 144 hours and costs nearly $21,000.
• Frontend tasks demand 246 hours and cost around $36,000.
• The backend task takes 366 hours and costs $54,900.
• Site marketing costs $9,000 and takes 60 hours.

If you are into the MVP app, it will cost you around $122,400. 

Maintenance Costs

Whatever app you are developing requires app maintenance cost too. The reasons for the same are- 

• OS changing their guidelines
• Updates made into the app
• Bug fixing
• Upgrades
• New technology coming in
• Change in third party libraries
• Adding new features, functionality
• Payment trends and so on. 

“Get to know the future of the payment industry for the coming years”

Concluding everything, the cost for maintenance ranges from $3,500 to $10,000 and might vary as per the requirements. 

The Hidden Costs

Here is the list of some of the hidden costs made for messaging apps like Slack. 

• The time to promote the app, ASO strategies, App viral methods, app promoting strategies, and so on requires costing too after planning, decision making, building processes. 
• The bug fixing costing,
• Expert developers, designers, QAs, Testers, and so on, demands surging cost too.
• The app development demographics.
• App developer’s team location.
• Outsource app development company and so on. 

And there are more parts of the costing that revolve around the slack app like development cost. Also, the costing part of the app development depends upon the criteria of the app, the ideology behind it, the requirements made into it, the purposes, and so on. 

Keeping the potential of messaging apps like Slack, there are many in the competition used by organizations for easier interaction within the organization and outside it. 

Get a look at them too-

Top Messaging Apps Like Slack

• ProofHub
• Zoho Cliq
• Google Hangouts
• Fuze
• Cisco WebEx Teams
• Flock
• Mattermost
• Samepage
• Wire
• Workplace by Facebook

Conclusion

Concluding everything together, we have understood the need of a Slack based mobile application for organization, how it can ease the path of internal communication between the team and outside and how much does slack app cost. 

Now that you are ready to get started with one like Slack, it is crucial to understand some more things which we have mentioned in the beginning while highlighting the expertise of our developers and designers. 

To make your app stand in the limelight of top messaging apps in the town, let’s COMMUNICATE today!

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