There are much several chat SDKs that you can use to create a modern messaging app. One of the best option over those all SDKs is Qiscus Chat SDK. In this article, we will summarize the features of the Qiscus Chat SDK. Here are 5 essentials things about Qiscus Chat SDK that your team needs to know:
1. More Control Over Your Own Server
One of our advantages is being able to deploy our own server. The advantages for you are:
1. The data fully belongs to you.
2. The data can be processed in accordance with your company’s needs.
3. Higher security for data integrity.
4. Easily scalable.
5. More stable, because the chat version of SDK that has been used locked.
Here is the general infrastructure needed:
1) 7 VM (Ubuntu Server 16.04):
- 1 VM for Load Balancer (Nginx)
- 1 VM for MQTT(Mosquitto, Nginx)
- 2 VM for Qiscus SDK API (Go Binary) or more if needed
- 1 VM for Qiscus SDK Admin (Go Binary)
- 1 VM for Uploader Service (Elixir/Erlang Package, ImageMagick, FFMpeg, LibreOffice)
- 1 VM for Logs Server (docker: ElasticSearch, Nginx, Traefik) → need big enough storage to store logs data
2) 3 PostgreSQL Database:
- 1 for SDK Chat
- 1 for Uploader Service
- 1 for Statistic
3) 2 Public IP:
- 1 for MQTT
- 1 for Load Balancer
4) SSL certificates for designed domain/subdomain ( for API, Admin Dashboard, MQTT, and presence API )
5) Access via SSH to all machine
6) AWS S3 and linked Cloudfront for Uploader Service (need AWS Key, AWS Secret, Bucket name, Region, and Cloudfront URL)
2. Speeds Up Development Using Built-in Message Types
If you want to build a messaging app, you must have some kind of message types to allow your users interactivity and flexibility of expressing themselves. For example, when building a chatbot using Qiscus Chat SDK, the bot may display menus such as the one below:
If you look at the three buttons below the main text, the action buttons can be customizable.
The other example is the inclusion of the carousel message type:
You can provide a more interactive menu by using carousel message types. An example (shown above) is taken from a messaging application used in an educational app. The carousel message type allows users to choose a game from a given menu.
Also read: “Build My Own VS Using A Third-Party Service: Cost-Saving Tricks I Wish I Knew“
Qiscus Chat SDK provides built-in message types to speed up your development in many instances. Qiscus Chat SDK is able to provide you with customizable and dynamic message types that are unique to Qiscus. Another example is in the use of chatbots. When a customer wants to order tickets, the bot is able to reply not just by using texts but also buttons. Customers then can directly choose the ticket of their choice. It can be more interactive than just using plain text.
The following are message types that Qiscus can provide:
- Text
- Button
- Card
- Carousel
- System Event
- Custom
3. Using Push Notifications to Boost Engagement
With push notifications, you can increase user engagement with your app. Push notifications can also help improve user retention rates of your app. This is not only beneficial for gaining new users but also gives you an added advantage of retaining old users to encourage customer loyalty. With Qiscus Chat SDK, you can easily integrate push notification services, such as Firebase Cloud Messaging, into the chat feature of your app. For more details on how to enable the push notification feature in Qiscus Chat SDK, you can refer to the respective documentation page of each platform:
4. Build Reactive Applications Using Event Handler
A modern application is always expected to work fast and be easy to use. Nowadays, users may not be tolerant of the phrase “loading” every time they carry out an action on the app. Mobile app users, especially, would demand apps which operate smoothly and does not lag between carrying out functions.
In order to overcome the challenges of creating the better user experience, Qiscus has created an Event Handler feature, which allows applications to listen for any important events from the server, such as at the completion of a delivered message, and then the applications can be notified by calling a specific Event Handler. The client, then, can do things with the data returned by the event in order to enable the client app to publish or subscribe something to Qiscus Chat SDK.
With Qiscus Chat SDK, your application will react to the above-mentioned events using the event handler we have provided. For more details on how to use the event handler contained in the Qiscus Chat SDK, you can view the following documentation pages based on your preferred platform:
5. Personalize Using Customizable User Interface (UI)
Qiscus Chat SDK can accommodate various UI chat designs based on your business needs. There are two levels of the custom UI: Basic and Advanced.
- At the basic level, you call the function that has been provided within the Qiscus Chat SDK and changes the values according to your preferences such as changing the color of the message bubble or color of the title. For more complete information about customization at the basic level, see the links below:
- At the “Advanced” level, you have more flexibility in the customisation process. You can customise bubble messages even further or redesign your entire UI (in Line or Whatsapp).
To learn more about the Qiscus Chat SDK, look out for our live chat sessions coming soon!
