Build Your Own Messenger With Real-Time Chat & Video APIs
Add instant messaging and online video chat to any Android, iOS, or Web application, with ease and flexibility. In-app chat and calling APIs and SDKs, trusted globally by developers, startups, and enterprises.
Launch quickly and convert more prospects with real‑time Chat, Audio, and Video communication
If you own a product, you know exactly how drawn-out and exorbitant it can be to build to build real-time communication features from scratch. Quickblox can help you design, create, and enter the market at a much faster rate with APIs and SDKs that shortcut product and engineering delivery. Convert your ideas into a successful product with us and watch the engagement rate rise, while you build a loyal user base.
Protect your data from hackers and unwanted modification attempts using flexible data storage options. Choose between dedicated, on-premise, or your own virtual cloud.
Secure File Sharing
Allow sharing and linking of all types of files (images, audio, video, docs, and other file formats) and enable your users to interact and engage more.
Over 30,000 software developers and organizations worldwide are using QuickBlox messaging API.
enterprise instances
applications
chats per day
requests per month
Wherever you are in your product journey, we have chat, voice, and video APIs ready to build new features into your app
Quickblox APIs are equipped to support mobile applications and websites at different stages, be it a fresh product idea, an MVP, early stage startup or a scaling enterprise. Our documentation and developer support are highly efficient to make your dream product a reality.
Chat API and Feature-Rich SDKs
Our versatile software is designed for multi‑platform use including iOS, Android, and the Web.
SDKs and Code Samples:
Cross-platform kits and sample apps for easy and quick integration of chat.
Restful API:
Enable real-time communication via the server.
UI Kits:
Customize everything as you want with our ready UI Kits.
Q-Consultation:
White‑label solution for teleconsultation and similar use cases.
Fully Customizable White Label Solutions
Customizable UI Kits to speed up your design workflow and build a product of your vision as well as a ready white‑label solution for virtual rooms and video calling use cases.
Cloud & Dedicated Infrastructure
Host your apps wherever you want - opt for a dedicated fully managed server or on‑premises infrastructure. Pick a cloud provider that’s best as per your business goals.
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Deployed and managed on your own physical server.
Docs:
Integrating QuickBlox across multiple platforms.
Support:
Quickblox support is a click away.
Rich Documentation & Constant Support
Get easy step by step guidance to build a powerful chat/messaging/communication app. Easily integrate new features using our documentation and developer support.
Do you need additional security, compliance, and support for the long-term ?
We have a more scalable and flexible solution for you, customized to your unique business/app requirements.
Insanely powerful in-app chat solutions- for every industry
Healthcare
Provide better care for your patients and teams using feature-rich HIPAA‑compliant chat solutions. Integrate powerful telemedicine communication tools into your existing platform.
Finance & Banking
Secure communication solutions for the financial and banking industry to support your clients. Easily integrated with your banking APIs with full customization available.
Marketplaces & E-commerce
Integrate chat and calling into your e‑commerce marketplace platform to connect with customers using chat, audio, and video calling features.
Social Networking
Give your users the option to connect one-on-one or with a group, using high quality voice, video, and chatbox app features - build a well connected community.
Education & Coaching
Add communication functions to connect teachers with students, coaches with players, and trainers with clients. Appropriate for any remote learning application.
Trusted by Developers & Product Owners
Communication with the QuickBlox team has been great. The QuickBlox team is a vital partner and I appreciate their support, their platform, and its capabilities.
Justin Harr, Founder, Eden
What I like best about QuickBlox is their reliability and performance - I've rarely experienced any issues with their solutions, whether I'm using their video or voice SDK, or their chat API.
Itay Shechter, Co-founder, Vanywhere
QuickBlox chat has enhanced our platform and allowed us to facilitate better communication and caregivers and care coordinators
Robin Jerome, Principal Architect, BayShore HealthCare
I have worked with QuickBlox for several years using their Flutter SDK to add chat features to several client apps. Their SDKs are easy to work with, saving us much time and money not having to build chat from scratch.
10 tips to make your online community more engaging
Anna S.
7 May 2021
User engagement is the lifeblood of any online community. A community is successful only as long as it remains interesting for the users to continue coming back and participating in its activities. Once the community loses engagement, it is as good as gone. However, there are certain tactics that can help you boost engagement and keep your community thriving.
If you are running any sort of online community – thematic, professional, entertaining, business – one of your core tasks is to keep existing members and attract new ones. This is, basically, what engagement is about, and let’s see what you can do to raise it.
1. Welcome new members
New members may be shy to actively participate in the community discussions, especially if they have just joined a large community with lots of old members. Implement a “welcome ceremony” for new members to introduce them and give them a chance to tell the community about themselves – who they are and why they thought this community was interesting for them.
This way, new members will have an easier start and will look forward to returning to your space. After a friendly welcome, they will find it easier to participate in discussions and start their own topics.
2. Encourage user-generated content
Even though it is your community, the focus should be on your members. Give them an opportunity to share their ideas, express their opinions on various subjects, give feedback and reviews.
When your community becomes a platform for its members to make themselves heard, their engagement and interest grow. In addition, it is a known fact that people tend to trust each other more than they trust companies and organizations. Any thoughts, ideas, opinions expressed by peer members will drive other community users to follow them and, as a result, return to your community again and again.
3. Balance public and member-only content
The major part of your community content should be open to the general public. This is the part that targets new potential members who browse the Internet looking for something that is interesting for them. Such users should be able to see enough of your community content – topics, discussions, announcements – to want to continue exploring and to start thinking of joining.
At the same time, there should also be a member-only part of your community that is accessible exclusively to registered members. Make the member-only content engaging enough for uses to want to register. Of course, advertise the exclusive content in the public space so that your future members have an idea of what they can expect.
4. Make entrance easy
A difficult and complex registration procedure can often be a reason for users to abandon it without completion. Make your sign-up form as short and easy to complete as possible. Of course, user registration is a great opportunity to collect data that you can use later but try to keep it simple.
A good practice is implementing social sign-up, for example, via Facebook or Google. For the user, this method is easier as they do not need to create their profile from scratch. You as the community administrator will also benefit from getting the user data that open to you from the social network. And, of course, integration with social networks will bring you greater exposure through cross-posting.
5. Use gamification techniques
Gamification is a powerful engagement technique that you can use in your online community. With gamification, you can give your community members a sense of competition, which, of course, increases engagement.
For an online community, such gamification techniques as awards, badges or special statuses may be the most successful within the context of user engagement. For example, you can introduce badges awarded for a certain number of posts or comments, or for posts that receive the largest number of likes or upvotes. In addition, you can run quizzes and competitions related to the community topics and give awards to winners.
6. Enable member communication
Of course, an online community is primarily focused on public discussions in the community space. At the same time, your members will appreciate it if you give them an opportunity to communicate with each other, either directly or in a group.
By adding a live chat feature to your online community, you will give members an option to take certain discussions out of the public space and into private channels. Members can make friendships within the community, plan offline events, and form relations that may require private communication.
If you implement live chat, that will definitely enhance the member experience and improve engagement. Members can use your online platform also as a secure and convenient channel of direct communication with people who share their interests.
7. Communicate with your members
Running an online community does not mean just giving members a platform where they can discuss things with each other. Of course, this is one of the primary purposes of any online community but your presence should be visible, as well.
There are many ways you can participate in the life of your online community. First, you can have an open Q&A channel where members can post questions and support requests, both public and private. The main thing is to always monitor this channel and respond quickly.
Second, you can suggest topics for discussion and take part in the existing ones. This way, you can boost the community interest and engagement in case of a sudden lull or steer the discussion if it becomes too heated.
Third, you can actively participate in your community live by welcoming new members, announcing member anniversaries in the community, or status changes.
Such activities give community members a sense of security and confidence. They see that the community is actively maintained, the administration is quick to respond and visible, the requests are addressed. They will be happy to continue their membership and might recommend your community to others.
8. Go offline
Even online communities sometimes need to go offline to meet face to face and have some fun. Initiate offline events for your members, by either organizing your own events or joining other events that fit your community profile.
Offline events can boost engagement greatly by taking member relations to a new, personal level. Of course, the main thing is the organization that needs to be top-notch. You can involve members who volunteer to participate in the event organizers to make the process more efficient. This is where live chat with a group communication option can help greatly when you need to send quick updates and discuss action items.
9. Collaborate with your members
No matter what your community is primarily focused on, your members may be professionals in many areas. Even if you are running a culinary or handcraft community, your members may be experienced marketing specialists, code developers, designers, event organizers. Some of them may be happy to take part in your internal projects intended to make your community better.
Such collaboration takes engagement to a new level. Members may be excited to participate in your initiatives and develop a stronger bond with the community.
10. Have fun
Even in professional or academic communities, there is always room for fun. It is up to you as the community admin to suggest entertaining topics for discussion or start fun activities – competitions, Easter egg hunts, quizzes.
Of course, make sure that these activities are properly announced in the community to encourage members to participate. If you are running a competition, think of interesting awards and announce winners.
How to implement live chat in your community with QuickBlox
As you can see, live chat can greatly improve your community member experience and increase engagement. You can use it for more than one purpose – for user-to-user communication, for communication between users and the community administration, for event organization, as a support channel.
The easiest way to implement live chat on your platform is to use a ready-made solution developed by a professional team. When you implement pre-built solutions, you can be sure that all components and integrations have been properly developed and tested and that all the required security mechanisms have been implemented.
If you are looking for a live chat solution for your online community, try QuickBlox APIs and SDKs. They are developed for easy implementation and can be used with multiple platforms and browsers. For more information, contact our team, and our engineers will be happy to help.