Online communication is widespread today. It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t use social networks or chat applications at least once daily. As a result, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and their analogs are gaining great popularity. Therefore, creating such an app can bring you many benefits. This article analyzes what makes up the cost of Snapchat development.
Snapchat Essence and History
Snapchat is a popular chat app. Its main feature is sharing and editing photos and videos. After a certain time, all files are automatically deleted, which increases data security. It was initially used mainly by teenagers, but as a social network has evolved, it is gaining popularity among all age groups.
Snapchat history
In 2011, Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel launched the app. Self-disappearing photos and various lenses helped Snapchat to stand out among the top social media apps. A year later, they received an offer from Mark Zuckerberg to sell Snapchat for $3 billion, but they declined it. This decision was right because, by 2014, an app was already worth $10 billion. Today Snapchat has about 450 million users and is predicted to reach 500 million by 2025.
Features to Add in Snapchat-Like App
If your drive to make an app like Snapchat, you should include a particular set of features typical for such applications. These include:
Snaps
Snaps are photos and short videos which users can share with friends. They disappear after viewing. Users can edit them, use different filters, draw, etc.
Lenses
With many filters and AR masks, Snapchat is gaining popularity among users of all ages and makes the app more fun.
Geofilters
These filters are available to users only in specific locations. The feature is also a great way to monetize an app.
Friends
To communicate conveniently, users need a friends list. Therefore, to add new friends, besides the standard search by nickname and synchronization of the contact list, developers created a Snapcode – a QR, allowing one to add a friend by scanning it.
Chats
Of course, your app also needs the classic text messenger. You can also add some stickers to make chats more interactive.
Calls
Snapchat also added the ability to make audio and video calls. Moreover, users can continue to create snaps during a call.
Stories
A story could be a photo or video available for 24 hours. Other users can view it an unlimited number of times during this time. The author of the story will see everyone who has viewed it.
Discover
With this screen, users can see stories from media personalities or various news outlets.
Steps to Make an App Like Snapchat
Building a Snapchat-like application usually involves a few basic steps:
- Finding a software provider. The first step is to choose a reliable technical partner to make a high-quality application. You can turn to outsourcing vendors, to find qualified specialists at affordable prices.
- Solution Phase. After the first contact, your software provider helps you determine the project’s general requirements, basic quality attributes, approximate time, and cost.
- Discovery Phase. At this stage, the team forms a precise development plan. The vendor provides you with a detailed feature list, design concepts, estimates, etc.
- Development and QA. Once all the documents are ready, developers can start writing code. As a rule, they build an app in several sprints. Each of them is accompanied by quality assurance. Finally, the QA engineers do the regression testing when the project is ready.
- Release and maintenance. Once the app is created, your technical partner helps launch the app on App Store and Google Play. But the partnership doesn’t end here. The Snapchat-like app requires technical support, including updating and adding new features.
Which Monetization Strategies Does Snapchat Use?
Snapchat actively employs three monetization models:
- Advertising. A reasonably common strategy – you can sell ads to other companies. For example, Snapchat offers ads in the Discovery section, charging 15 cents per view. The views are usually between 500,000 and 100,000,000.
- Sponsored content. Snapchat implemented this strategy after Geofilters appeared. For example, McDonald’s paid to create a unique filter available only in their restaurants.
- Advertising APIs. This strategy is new and implies ads in stories. Snapchat provides promotional tools called “Snap Ads.”
You can use any of these strategies for your application or any others that seem appropriate.
What Makes up the Price of a Snapchat?
App development cost depends on several factors that you should consider when planning your budget:
Software provider
One crucial factor is the chosen region’s hourly rate. For example, Western Europe or the US charges $100 to $200 per hour for software development services. However, Central and Eastern Europe have lower hourly rates – from $40 to $60 per hour.
Choosing a platform
Also, a substantial factor is the choice of platforms to cover. For example, building native apps for iOS and Android simultaneously will be more expensive than just one of them. However, you can consider cross-platform development on Flutter to cut costs.
Design
Depending on the design complexity and your requirements, the UI/UX design process can take from 50 to 600 hours, affecting the price. Also, due to strict guidelines, creating a design for iOS will be more expensive.
Number and complexity of features
Equally important is how complicated your app should be. So, if you want to create a complete Snapchat analog, developing all features can take up to 1400 hours (depending on their complexity). However, if you want to reduce the initial investments and launch the product faster, you can start by creating a Minimal Viable Product that will include only basic features. Later, you can expand the app’s functionality.
Total Cost to Create Snapchat
Considering the above factors, the cost of developing an application like Snapchat can vary greatly. Nevertheless, here are a few examples you can base your budget on.
So, the total development time for an MVP product will be about 500 hours; for a more advanced one, it will be about 1400 hours. So the cost in the United States (taking into account the average hourly rate of $150) will be between $75,000 and $210,000. For Central and Eastern Europe (at an average rate of $50), the price will range from $25000 to $7000.
You can get a more accurate estimate from your software provider after determining the main scope of work.
Wrapping Up
With the popularity of Snapchat, people are also showing interest in its counterparts. You can create your chat app to get the most out of their favor. Share your idea with an experienced software vendor who will help you to turn it to life.
