Things to Consider Before Building A Video Conferencing App Like Zoom

Ashely John
8 min readOct 20, 2020

Ever since the world was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been only one app about which we have been hearing again and again. As the entire world struggles to adapt to lockdowns and social distancing, Zoom is one go-to application that people rely upon, including both individuals and businesses. The sudden rise in the popularity of video conference apps like Zoom has to do with more organizations trying to adapt their business operations by using video conferencing tools to manage their employees working from home. Video chatting apps like Zoom helps employees of an organization to take part in online meetings.

What are the benefits of video conferencing?

Video conferences simplify online business communication by reducing unnecessary travel of employees to different places to attend meetings. Many organizations leverage online video chatting on a regular basis to manage their business meetings efficiently and to maintain a competitive edge in the industry by adapting to modern technologies. Studies predict that the global video conferencing market will reach $8.35 billion by 2026 witnessing a 9.6% CAGR.

Video conferencing facilitates organizations to connect and collaborate with different members and conduct online video meetings effortlessly. With the video conference app Zoom, you can connect with people across the world on cross platforms too.

In fact, video chatting is expected to be the preferred business communication tool in the future as well. Now, what are the benefits of video conferencing? Let’s look into the advantages of video conferencing apps in depth.

Improved productivity

As already said, online video conferencing reduces hectic business-related travel considerably which helps to reduce the related costs as well. If you can save this traveling time, you can improve the productive time for your employees by channelizing their effort and time in other significant areas of your business. Better productivity helps to accelerate project execution and completion so that your organization can achieve the business goals easily. The ability for internal team members, managers, and IT personnels to attend client meetings without leaving their offices to drive business productivity. Facilitating the hiring process through video calls can improve and simplify the process and improve productivity as well.

It improves attendance and connects the team efficiently

It is often difficult to coordinate team members due to their busy schedules for in-person meetings. Online video conferencing gives the flexibility that can improve meeting attendance rates and also allows non-attendees to view the recorded sessions later. Video conferencing also simplifies coordination and connecting remote teams. The vast distance doesn’t matter anymore as you can bring your team members together via video meetings either for occasional online meetups or for regular business meetings.

Improves the scalability of your business

Gone are the times where businesses had to set up video meetings bearing an expensive setup. Today, modern technology allows organizations to arrange and conduct 4k quality video conferences affordably. Best business video conferencing solutions also allow you to accommodate a large number of participants in your video conferences. Choose video conferencing solutions that allow you to conduct video meetings with a large team more efficiently and effortlessly.

Better employee retention

When you offer the flexibility of working from home and the convenience of attending important business conferencing online through efficient video conferencing solutions, it improves employee satisfaction and helps with employee retention. Less business travel leads to better productivity and results in great work-life balance so that employees choose to stay with your company for a long period.

Organized meetings with improved communication

As team members attend the video meetings from different locations, the meetings would be properly structured. The start and end times would be agreed upon before the video conferencing, which allows for a more organized and productive discussion with less time wastage. Instead of discussing important things over telephone and email, participants can take cues from the body language of the fellow participants making video meetings via Zoom video conferencing app the closest thing to face-face meetings.

Sustained competitive advantage

Business video conferencing brings a strong competitive advantage for your organization. With the right online communication and collaboration system, you can maintain a strong position in the market through business productivity improvement and effective collaboration.

Features that make apps like Zoom unique

When you are looking for how to build a video conferencing website, you must integrate features that make the website stand out and beat the fierce competition in the industry. Here are some of the features that make video conferencing apps like Zoom unique.

Virtual background

Users can choose the background display to choose for branding purposes and to avoid any kind of clutter background. Users can change the virtual background to help them look presentable.

HD audio and video

When you build your own video conference system, make sure to offer high-quality audio and video to your users, just like Zoom does. The high quality of audio and video make the virtual meeting easy to conduct without any interruptions.

Scalability

When developing services similar to Zoom, you must be thoughtful about the availability of the app. Your video conferencing app must allow you to accommodate up to 1000 people to participate in virtual meetings at a time. Scalability is one factor that you must consider when developing a video conference app zoom.

Calendar scheduling

The ability to schedule the online video conferences in the calendar of the app is a useful feature that works like a personal reminder for users.

Real-time chat

Integrate real-time chat in your business video conferencing. The interface must be built in a way that facilitates one-chat and group chats effortlessly.

Transcription and recording

Video conferencing services similar to Zoom must allow users to record video meetings and transcribe the content for future reference.

Screen sharing

Screen sharing is one important feature that allows users to share their screens with other team members. This is one of the important factors you must include when considering how to build a video conferencing app.

Hand raising

This feature allows users to virtually hand raise if they want to express the response to any action. This gives users the same feeling as if sitting in a room together while video conferencing.

Note-taking

Allow the participants to take notes during a video conference. This will not only improve the user experience but also make it convenient for users to do everything on the same platform instead of switching between applications and tabs.

Safety features

Integrate essential security features like allowing users to create their profiles before using the video conferencing app. The security of your user’s confidential data is the utmost priority to any video chatting app. The data must be saved in the back end and protected with end-end encryption.

Choosing the development platform

As communication plays an important role in every business aspect, video conferencing helps your business to grow to bigger heights. It is recommended to customize your video conferencing app by choosing a white label video conferencing solution to build great audio and video quality video conferencing apps.

Before starting to build your own video conference system, decide on the type of target platform you would be using. This is essential as it helps in determining the tools and overall costs required in the development process. You must also consider the platforms where you want your video conferencing application to run- Desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.

You can choose a couple of platforms or all of these platforms to host your video conferencing app. You must go with an approach that is best suited for your app’s requirements, the resources available at your disposal, and according to the budgetary locations. You can also consider going web-based or native as well.

The future of the video conferencing market

The future of the Zoom video conferencing app looks promising and profitable. On one side, there is a growing need for people to socially connect with each other and on the other side, businesses have to connect with clients and customers. The growing emphasis on the increased need for work from home for businesses, also calls for the need for video conferencing applications.

Video conferencing apps not only help to support the need for communication and collaboration and being up-to-date. Considering the need for real-time collaborations helps the team members to stay connected with each other which cannot happen over the one-one class. Video conferencing apps like Zoom is an essential addition to any organization that relies on both intra and intercommunication.

It is quite natural for any aspiring startups to capitalize on this new wave of business that has transcended to new heights since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though the market might seem saturated, there is always space for new players with innovative ideas. With in-depth market research, you can create video conferencing apps that capitalize on a specific niche with features that are helpful for your target users.

Cost to build a video conferencing app like zoom

Another important thing to consider when building a video conferencing app like Zoom is the overall cost. Calculate an estimate of how much you need to spend on the development. If you buy the solution without any right planning, you might have to pay more for features you don’t even need.

Developing a video conferencing app from scratch is an expensive affair and would take a lot of time and effort. Another recommended method is to use a ready-made solution that can be customized according to your specific requirements thereby reducing the cost considerably. The overall cost to create a video conferencing app like Zoom can range anywhere between $20,000- $50,000 or even more depending on the average cost of developers and the customizations you require. Whereas developing a Zoom like app using a clone script would cost you just $699-$1499 making it a more viable option.

Conclusion

Video conferencing apps like Zoom have transformed how people meet and connect with people across the globe. Video conferencing apps are enabled without disrupting their normal flow of operation. Considering the impact of video conferencing on business, you must choose the video conferencing solution that suits your unique business needs and goals.

After shortlisting the video chatting solutions, do in-depth research to understand the solution that offers the best value for the price you pay. The future for video chatting is constantly evolving as the technology evolves facilitating more engaging video conferencing experience.

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