How To Make an App Like Snapchat?

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Source: Alphr

As per the research, more than 190 million active users access Snapchat, and its number is still growing. Snapchat seems like a game-changer among social media apps with its unique features and functionalities. This social media app offers various new features like story sharing, message disappearing, lenses, and many more. Even though Snapchat is one of most messaging and photo-sharing apps that brings augmented reality to its users in the form of filters and lenses.

Stats Related to Snapchat

  • In the fall of 2021, it was realized that Snapchat becomes the most important and featured social media platform for 35% of US teenagers.
  • In the 3rd quarter of 2020, 24% of US internet users from the age group 15 to 25 years shared photos by using Snapchat.

How To Develop an App Like Snapchat? Step by Step Guide

All of the above, you read a brief Snapchat story. No one can deny the success of this app in a very short time span. So, without any delay, read on to learn how to make an app like Snapchat and what measures you should consider in creating a similar app like Snapchat.

Step 1 – Inception Phase (Planning Stage)

The very first step to make an app like Snapchat is the inception or planning phase. This stage needs a thorough induction process where you need to ask some questions yourself; why do you need an app like Snapchat? What are the measure requirements to make an app like Snapchat? What your audience want? You have to determine the challenges you will faced in the Snapchat-like app development process.

Step 2 – Find an App Development Team

Hiring the best app development team is one of the ladder steps to getting a flawless clone app like Snapchat. To make your app development journey smooth, you need to contact app developers, project managers, and designers. You can discuss your idea with them, and they add some more dominating features as per your choice to create a highly engaging app.

Step 3 – Prototyping

This phase needs brainstorming that what are the basic features you should add to your app similar to Snapchat. Before coders start working, app designers create prototypes based on the wireframes which were crafted at the time of the inception phase (planning or discovery phase).

It requires a little bit of work to find out whether the app meets with client’s expectations or not. So, you need to check out screen size, graphic elements, app speed flexibility, and all. At this stage, you will decide what feature you need to add to your app.

Step 5 – Choose A Right Platform

You need to choose the platform, whether it is iOS or Android. This will allow you to create a flawless app like Snapchat by considering the guidelines of each OS system.

Step 4 – UI/UX Design of App

Once you have gathered the most useful data, it is time to start your app designing process. Make sure your app like Snapchat must have an interactive user interface to engage users. Sometimes at this stage, it is difficult to determine whether all the selective approaches are good enough or not. So, be ready to make further amendments after publishment.

Step 5 – Develop an App Like Snapchat

When the app design is ready, now you need to activate your app development and encourage them to create the featured app. It is strongly advised to every app developer to choose scalable technologies and prevent any scaling issues.

You need to use highly interactive, ready-to-use, and reliable technology, so it would be easy to manage a load of data and users easily.

Step 6 – QA Control/ Testing

Even though everybody thinks the app is working properly and skipping the testing stage, which is why they result in app failure. Sometimes the best app development idea gets fails due to the myriad of small mistakes or irritating bugs. So, testing your Snapchat-like is crucial. You need to fix all errors and bugs to build a better version of it.

Step 7 – Deployment

This is the final stage, where your app product is ready to launch on different OS systems. At the time of launching your app on the Google Play Store or Apple Store, make sure your app follows the policies and guidelines.

Core Features in Snapchat-Like App Development

1.      Account Login

To start using any social app like Snapchat, users need to create an account by registering. Similarly, for an app similar to Snapchat, you must have to add this feature to give users eligibility to get registered themselves and get unique credentials.

2.      Contacts Integration

Allow user to add their friend through phone numbers. Ensure your app offers an easy contact integration process.

3.      Instant messaging (chatting)

Snapchat is not only a photo-sharing app. Now, it’s getting popularity due to its messaging feature and allowing a user to do chatting one-on-one and create different groups. You can even send stickers and emojis to keep users entertained and engaged within the app.

4.      Disappearing messages

Disappearing messages is one of the biggest features that contribute to the remarkable success of Snapchat. When a user sends message to his family or friend, and the message is viewed by the person, it gets deleted or vanished from the Snapchat internet server. So, you have to add disappearing feature to your app is crucial.

5.      Face filters like Snapchat (lenses)

Almost 63% of Snapchat users used AR filters every day. It is the most distinctive feature that makes Snapchat more unique. And now, several other social media platforms also integrate such filters and visual effects. These lenses are funny, so people love to overlay them on their videos and photos. So, adding lenses or a face filter like Snapchat must be essential. It allows you to build apps better than Snapchat.

6.      Stories & Spotlight

Stories are one of the features that have made Snapchat a famous or loveable selfie app all around the globe. Like snaps and lenses (face filters), it is another core feature to integrate into your app like Snapchat. Ensure to have stories feature that allows users to share recent activities. It only comes in view to your friends and will disappear after 24 hours. On average almost 500 stories are created on a daily basis.

7.      Discover

Discover is the feature that provides the most recent news from different companies, influencers, etc. Here Snapchat downloads find the most informative and engaging content by the sponsors. And businesses used it to promote their brand services.

8.      Save Memories

Once you have decided to develop apps similar to Snapchat, ensure to add the memories feature. It lets your users store unlimited videos and photos from all of your special moments. It gives eligibility to users to edit old or new photos and send them to the camera roll.

9.      Friendship profile

A friendship profile or panel allows your users to save some special moments that you have saved together. It lets them discover new things that they have in common likewise astrological compatibility, Bitmoji, the latest fashion trends, and much more. These special profiles allow users to create unbreakable bonds with their friends.

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How To Code an App Like Snapchat?

If you are wondered about how to develop an app like Snapchat, you should know the most technical aspects to create a new app like Snapchat discussed below;

  1. Programming Languages

There are a set of languages used to regulate filter apps like Snapchat. The most common languages are objective C, C++, C#, Python, Swift, JavaScript, etc.

  1. Database

Snapchat offers unlimited data storage, so it needs to handle a large number of volumes to structure its data and manage files. So, you can use SQL to access or even manipulate a database. For those who are thinking about how to make an app like Snapchat android, so SQL totally changes the game and takes your app like Snapchat filters to a whole new level.

  1. Cloud Hosting

To improve or enhance automatic extensibility, Snapchat uses the Google Computing engine to manage overall data. So, make sure your app sets with such amazing tech stack that improves the extensibility of a Snapchat-like app.

  1. Advance Technologies

The most important and integral part to consider for an app like Snapchat is modern technology. For your app development process, you would use technologies like Augmented reality, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, face recognition, and detection. These tech stacks are used to make an app like Snapchat.

What Coding Language Does Snapchat Use

There are tons of languages used to create an app like Snapchat. But the most common ones that app developers consider the use for the frontend and backend app development process are Python, Swift, Java, Objective C, SQL, JavaScript, and many others.

Let’s read what programming language is used in Snapchat;

1.      Swift & Objective C

These two languages are widely held among the Snapchat-like app development company. For those who are looking to develop apps like Snapchat for iPhone, then Swift and objective C would be your best choice. They even let you make an app like Snapchat for macOS also.

2.      Python

Python is the most preferred Snapchat programming language that is used to build an app like Snapchat. Learning Python is not like rocket science. Once you learn about this language, you are able to create different types of programs. It lets you work more proficiently, quickly, and effectively.

3.      C++, C, and C#

C++, C, and C# are the most popular languages, and everyone knows about them. These programming languages are easy to understand and used to build apps for multiple platforms like iOS, Android, Linux, Windows, etc.

4.      JavaScript

Interestingly, every top app or website are using JavaScript to develop its front-end with some exceptions. It is one of the most popular programming languages which especially focuses on front-end development. If you are planning to develop a face filter app like Snapchat, then choosing JavaScript might be another good option.

Cost To Create an App Like Snapchat

This section is created to give an answer to your question about “how much does it cost to make an app like Snapchat?”

The cost of building an app like Snapchat depends on various factors such as the size of your app and the cost of hiring experienced app developers, and it is even based on the platforms you choose such as Android or iOS. Even the cost estimation for a filter app like Snapchat also depends on its design, per hour time, and the complexity of your app.

It is assumed that the cost to create an app like Snapchat would be around $50,000 to $70,000. It is a rough estimation. Sometimes it can be increased or decreased as per the features and the complexity of your app.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are lots of factors that determine the cost of creating an app like Snapchat such as app size, the platform you choose, team, features you add, and app design. So, the cost to make an app like Snapchat ranges from $50,000 to $70,000.

The programming language used in Snapchat is Python, JavaScript, C++, C#, objective C, SQL, Swift, PHP, and Cocoa.

Yes, you can make an app like Snapchat. First, you need to conduct research, then create a list of top features you need to add to your app, consider your budget, and check out which platform is perfect (Android or iOS or both) for your Snapchat-like app.

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