How to Build an Instant Messaging App for Enterprise in 2025

Rajeshwari Published On December 18th, 2024 Engineering

Do you remember the 1990s’ popular messaging app AIM?

It used to be a simple, friendly, and fun app for messaging. 

Only for friends and teens, for a casual chit-chat. 

But things have changed now! 

Instant Messaging apps are not only for personal conversations anymore! They’ve slowly turned into a core asset for business communication. 

Particularly, businesses are catching on to the idea of building their own custom instant messaging app . Platform like WhatsApp work totally fine for personal use, but in most cases, they fall short for professional communication. They are simply not as secure as custom apps built with personalised features, encryptions, and privacy. 

And honestly, this shift to instant messaging in workplaces isn’t just a trend that will pass any time soon. It’s now tied directly to how people collaborate in a work environment. 

So, why should your company bother with a custom chat app? Here’s why it makes sense:

• You can customise it to perfectly match your team’s communication needs.
• You’ll get more control over security and can meet specific compliance rules.
• It can work along with the tools and systems you already work with.

This guide will help you figure it all out: the key things to consider, technical roadblocks that you need to watch for, and the strategic perks of building your own chat app for your workplace. Whether you’re a startup founder, a product manager, or a tech lead, you’ll find plenty of insights to help modernise how your team communicates. Are you ready? Let’s get started!

Why Your Enterprise Needs An Instant Messaging App?

A busy company is where people keep interacting and collaborating on projects. Every such interaction leads to a valuable contribution to the growth of the business. 

To streamline these communication operations, you’ll need effective tools that not only bring people together but make work easier than you could ever imagine. 

While you may wonder how a simple messaging app could change the way your team communicates, we’ve put up a quick list of the key benefits that most enterprises these days are achieving with these amazing tools. 

1. Teams Can Communicate Easily

Believe me, some organisations still use those endless email chains as their primary communication tool—which is slow, really slow! And some of them gather in person, sit for long meetings, whether they’re up to contributing or not. 

Imagine the time they’d spend (tbh waste) for a simple discussion. Hours! 

But things have changed with instant messaging apps. 

Your team can simply open a chat, type in the message, ask questions, and get their answers in seconds. How does this really help a company? This speeds up team communication, removes unnecessary delays, and helps them respond faster to challenges. Isn’t that smart? 

2. Multiple Ways To Communicate

Some people think IM platforms are only for messaging. No, not really! Even a personal communication app like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal has other amazing features beyond chat. Now, imagine the scope that is available for business communication—video calling, conferencing, broadcasting, live streaming, and whatnot.

Technology is changing, and businesses just wouldn’t want to get stuck with the basics.

3. Your Teams Will Be Super-productive

The primary reason that any business, including you exploring IM platforms now, is to make things easier for your team. If there’s one thing that can drastically improve the efficiency of your teams, then undoubtedly, you can choose to invest in a business chat app or build one all by yourself. 

By making sure that your team gets the best tool for chatting with each other professionally, you will be able to drive everyone on the same page and get things done faster than it used to be in the past.

4. Supports Remote Work

People need not have their faces straight and stern at an office and work like machines anymore. They can choose comfort, work right from their couch, and deliver the best of their work from anywhere they prefer. 

Simply put, the transition you see in the above picture is only because some company chose to give their employees the benefit of working from anywhere, knowing that an instant messaging platform could connect them, just as they used to when working from office. 

5. There’s More For Companies

Like we discussed in pt. 2, instant messaging apps offer more than just basic messaging. They provide you important business advantages:

• They centralise the entire communication that happens across your business.
• Makes it easy to track conversations and data
• Coordinates all your team members
• Cuts off costs, especially travel and maintenance charges
• Makes it compatible with any work style and setup.

Overall, by creating a custom messaging platform, your office will be able to build a powerful asset that helps your teams work smarter, collaborate better, and stay more innovative than ever before.

Key Features Of An Ideal Enterprise Messaging App

When building an instant messaging app for businesses, you need to plan carefully to make sure it’s simple to use but still has all the chat features your team need. Your goal is to create a platform where everything feels connected and works together, not like a mix of separate tools.

Core Chat Features
Communication Infrastructure 1:1 Group chat Topic-based chat Unlimited File Sharing Read receipts	2. Advanced Communication Video callingVideo conferencing Broadcasting (Audio & Video)Live streaming
Functional Features
3. Communication Infrastructure Threaded Timeline ViewReal-Time Presence StatusSmart Notification SystemMessage Exchange Capabilities	4. Contact Management Smart Contact DirectoryContact ManagementAuthentication FrameworkContact Search & Filters
Enterprise-Specific Security and Compliance Features
5. Advanced Security Measures End-to-end encryptionCompliance with industry regulationsSAML single sign-on (SSO)Multi-factor authentication (MFA)	6. User Management and Access Control Flexible user role permissionsAdministrator monitoring toolsMulti-tenant and team functionalityGranular access controls
Collaboration and Productivity Enhancements
7. Integrated Collaboration Tools Screen sharingCollaborative Document Editing@mentionsThread replies	8. Team Productivity Tools Task AssignmentTask Management Polls and SurveysWorkflow Automation
Accessibility & Compatibility
9. Cross-Platform Accessibility Mobile and desktop compatibilityConsistent user experience Push notificationsCDN storage	10. Enterprise Tool Compatibility Integration with CRM systemsProject management software Email system synchronisationAudit trails and message archiving
Advanced Communication Features
11. Intelligent Chat Capabilities AI-powered message moderationLanguage translationTyping indicatorsRead and delivery receipts	12. Flexible Communication Channels Public and private channelsSlash commands Webhooks for notificationsMedia attachment support

Steps To Build An Instant Messaging App For Enterprises

If you’d ask us the easiest way to build a instant messaging app for your team, we’d recommend you use MirrorFly chat SDK. The basic requirements you’ll need for this process will be,

• Android Lollipop 5.0 (API Level 21) or above
• targetSdkVersion,compileSdk 34 or above
• Java 7 or higher
• Gradle 4.1.0 or higher

here is the step-by-step guide to develop an instant messaging app for enterprise.

Step 1: Get Started with the Chat SDK

• Talk to the team and create a MirrorFly account. 
• Log in and find your license key in the “Application Info” section of your account.

Step 2: Add the Chat SDK to Your Project

• Open your project in Android Studio, or start a new one.
• Update your settings.gradle or build.gradle file depending on the Gradle version you’re using.

dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
        google()
        jcenter()
        maven {
            url "https://repo.mirrorfly.com/release"
        }
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
        google()
        jcenter()
        maven {
            url "https://repo.mirrorfly.com/release"
        }
    }
}

Step 3: Set Up the SDK

Add the setup code in your app’s Application class inside the onCreate() method using the ChatManager function.

ChatManager.initializeSDK("LICENSE_KEY", (isSuccess, throwable, data) -> {

            if(isSuccess){

                Log.d("TAG", "initializeSDK success ");

            }else{

                Log.d("TAG", "initializeSDK failed with reason "+data.get("message"));

            }

        });

Link your new MyApplication class to the AndroidManifest.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.uikitapplication">

    <application
        android:name=".MyApplication"  // Add this line.
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <activity android:name=".MainActivity">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                ...
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

Step 4: Register Users and Connect

Use the provided trial or live license key to register users.

FlyCore.registerUser(USER_IDENTIFIER, (isSuccess, throwable, data ) -> {

        if(isSuccess) {

            Boolean isNewUser = (Boolean) data.get("is_new_user"); // true - if the current user is different from the previous session's logged-in user, false - if the same user is logging in again

            String userJid = (String) data.get("userJid"); //Ex. 12345678@xmpp-preprod-sandbox.mirrorfly.com (USER_IDENTIFIER+@+domain of the chat server)

            JSONObject responseObject = (JSONObject) data.get("data");

            String username = responseObject.getString("username");

        } else {

           // Register user failed print throwable to find the exception details.

        }

   });

Once a user is registered, the SDK will automatically connect to the chat server and handle connection changes as needed.

Step 5: Enable Messaging Features

Create unique user IDs (JIDs) for each user.

FlyUtils.getJid(USER_NAME)

Use the available method to send messages to other users

TextMessage textMessage = new TextMessage();

textMessage.setToId(TO_JID);

textMessage.setMessageText(TEXT);

FlyMessenger.sendTextMessage(textMessage, (isSuccess, error, chatMessage) -> {

    if (isSuccess) {

        // you will get the message sent success response

    }

});

For more details or advanced setup options, check the official SDK documentation that is available on MirrorFly’s website.

Challenges In Building A Messaging App For Enterprises

While it all sounds exciting and fun, chat app development does come with its own challenges. Give me a moment to be honest about it. There are several hurdles that may come along the way, and you, if aware of them, would be able to figure out solutions easily. 

Let me list a few of them that developers commonly face when building enterprise apps. 

1. Not All Infrastructure Is Flexible

Challenge: If you are starting small and planning to scale big (especially startups), some IM platforms might not be flexible enough to support hundreds or even thousands of users simultaneously. This may slow down the app, or crash it down entirely.  

💡What should you do?

Implement a cloud-based microservices architecture. 

When you build your app on such a robust infrastructure, your app will be able to dynamically scale based on user load and easily manage unexpected traffic spikes without crashing. 

2. Your App Security Might Be At Risk

Challenge: We all know that security is important espcecillay when handling sensitive business information. But things go out of hands sometimes. 

Here are some recent attacks that businesses suffered:

November 2024: Boeing reported a cyber incident that impacted various elements of its business. The attack was initially claimed by the LockBit ransomware gang. 

July 2024: AT&T experienced a major data breach that impacted almost all of its customers. Hackers stole customer information from the company’s systems. And you know what the company had to do?  They had to pay the hackers about $370000 in Bitcoin to get the stolen data deleted.

May 2024: Dell’s system was compromised after an attack on its customer portal and details of approximately 49 million customers were stolen, including home addresses and order information, were reportedly obtained and were sold out to other hacker forums. 

Something important you must note down here is the frequency of security breaches happening even to giants in the world. And they pay huge ransoms to protect their customers. 

💡What should you do?

Go for robust, custom security solutions. 

Some companies just implement the pre-built encryptions that come with the solution they purchase. But that’s not enough at all. Your team needs extra security—additional and custom layers of security to double the protection of your business & team’s safety. 

3. Your App May Crash

Challenge: Oh, no one likes an app that works like crap. Your employees would go on for a walk to dicuss in-person rather than waiting for a poor chat app to work correctly. It would mess up things even more during critical project scenarios. 

💡What should you do?

Incorporate offline message queuing and retry mechanisms.

What happens when you do this? Your messages will be stored locally when the network is unavailable and will be sent automatically, when your connection resumes. In this case, the wise option is to choose a solution that supports Websockets.

4. Cannot Integrate External Tools

Challenge: Your team might have to switch between your IM app, CRM tools, and calendars if the platform does not support integration. They need to juggle between apps that consume time, losing focus. 

💡What should you do?

Design your app with an API-first approach

Make sure the solution you choose supports CRM integrations and adheres to standard protocols like RESTful APIs to be confident about the compatibility of your app across different systems and platforms.

5. Does Not UpdateChallenge:

Some businesses think that building an app is all. But things are not over anytime soon. Some miss out on the updates and checks, leading to outdated features and the sudden crashing of apps.

💡What should you do?

Adapt the continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) method.

This is a practice that automates most of your manual efforts, making sure that your app does not face any downtime and your team will enjoy the latest of features on your app, with regular updates and security patches. 

Time & Cost to Build an Enterprise Communication App

I know you’ll need to see the numbers to understand and conceive an idea of how much you’d likely spend on your app. 

In this case, I’ve come up with 2 different quotations. 

1. A breakdown of cost when you build from scratch, without using any pre-built solution (SDK/API)
2. A close-to-real value of the cost when you build your Instant messaging app using an SDK. 

So, here they are:

1. Development Without Using an SDK (Building from Scratch)

Component	Estimated Hours	Cost Estimate
Chat App UI/UX	50 – 100	$2300 – $5500
iOS App Development	600 – 1,000	$30300 – $50200
Android App Development	800 – 1300	$40020 – $65000
Back-end Development	500 – 800	$25070 – $40090
Testing & QA	200 – 300	$10030 – $15080
Project Management	100 – 150	$5000 – $7530
Server Infrastructure	N/A	$5060 – $10070
Maintenance (Yearly)	N/A	$10030 – $20070

So the total estimated cost would be somewhere around:

• Minimum: $87500
• Maximum: $212500

This is an approximate value when you build your app all by yourself from scratch. This may vary depending on your unique business requirements. 

Now, let’s look at how much you might spend if you use an SDK. 

Related Article:

1. Instant Messaging platforms
2. Advantages of Instant Messaging for Business

2.  Development Using Chat SDK

Component	Estimated Hours	Cost Estimate
Chat App UI/UX	30 – 50	$1560 – $2520
Integration of MirrorFly SDK	100 – 200	$5000 – $10050
iOS App Customization	300 – 500	$15030 – $25040
Android App Customization	300 – 500	$15000 – $25200
Testing & QA	100 – 150	$5030 – $7500
Project Management	50 – 100	$2500 – $5000
Server Infrastructure	N/A	$5070 – $10800
Maintenance (Yearly)	N/A	$5060 – $10000

I believe you noticed it clearly! 

The total cost of developing an IM platform when you use a chat SDK will be close to:

• Minimum: $39500
• Maximum: $70000

Development Approach	Minimum Cost	Maximum Cost
Without SDK (From Scratch)	$87500	$212500
With Chat SDK	$39500	$70000

And that’s a literal 50% difference. 

Evidently, you could halve your expenses or more if you choose to go with your chat app development using a prebuilt messaging solution like MirrorFly. 

You can check out the pricing of MirrorFly here if you’d like to see it all by yourself!

Moving on, I’d like to give you a heads-up of some of the costs you might need to be a bit careful about. 

Hidden Costs You Need to Plan For

We’ve worked with 100s of brands, and we’ve seen the best budgets can miss some often-overlooked expenses, like:

• Regular security updates to protect user data.
• Costs for meeting compliance standards (e.g., GDPR or HIPAA certifications).
• User training and materials to help employees adopt the app.
• Adding new features as business needs evolve.
• Technical support and infrastructure for ongoing issues.
• Performance monitoring to keep the app running efficiently over time.

I’d love to see you build your IM app, keeping it all under control and, importantly your budget. So, just make sure to plan it out really well before you pay your hard-earned money on any of the components. 

How Can You Keep Costs Under Control

You might know a few of them already, but it is never a mistake to remind the basics. 

• Concentrate on the essential first: Launch the app with only the essential features, then add more that you need over time.
• Implement hybrid development models: Combine custom features with pre-built solutions to save time and money.
• Reuse existing tools: Leverage pre-built APIs, libraries, or components to reduce development work.
• Work in phases: Use agile development methods to roll out features gradually, allowing you to adjust priorities along the way.

Think Long Term, Friend! 

Let me tell you—you are about to make a long-term investment. While you may be all excited about investing in an app that you’ve been dreaming about for years, it is also important to slow down a bit and make sure that you focus on

• A realistic budget that factors in ongoing costs.
• Flexibility to adapt to change as your organisation’s needs evolve.
• A commitment to continuously improve and evolve the app over time.

MirrorFly: The Smartest Choice For Building Your Enterprise Instant Messaging App 

For over 16+ years, MirrorFly has been working with 100+ Fortune 500 brands that now have teams communicating on apps built on top of MirrorFly’s custom chat solution. 

They are happy and are still with us for the quality of our messaging solution. 

If you think MirrorFly is just another chat solution, pardon me; I’m going to list down a few reasons why the solution stands as the #1 in the market. 

MirrorFly offers, 

• 100% customisable chat solution
• Full data Ownership
• Custom security 
• Region-specific compliances
• Flexible Hosting (On-premise/ On-cloud)
• White-label Solution
• SIP/VoIP Solution 
• Upload Huge Files
• Built on Microservice Architecture
• Supports Native & Hybrid Languages
• Scales up to 5 billion conversations 
• Low-Code SDKs & APIs
• Support 100+ Integrations
• 24*7 Technical Support

If you need to understand more, I’d insist you drag to the Challenges section and take a quick look at the solutions I’ve mentioned in the “What should you do?” sections. MirrorFly offers all of these solutions perfectly. 

Want to know more? Let us know about your business, and one of our experts will get in touch with you in the next 24 hrs! 

FAQ

How to build an instant messaging app in simple steps?

Steps to build an instant messaging app includes:

Step1: Determine the scope of your instant messaging app

Step 2: Register and add the MirrorFly chat SDK to your project

Step 3: Set up the SDK and register users and connect

Step 4: Enable real-time messaging features

How much does it cost to build an instant messaging app?

The cost of an instant messaging app can range between $20,000 to $50,000 approximately. However, integrating Chat APIs and SDKs is more affordable than traditional development available for monthly subscriptions and one-time license costs.

What is the primary objective of building a business chat application?

Business chat applications enable real-time communication and collaboration features such as instant messaging, voice calls, video conferencing, SIP calls, team meetings, and virtual hiring between team members and customers.

How safe is instant messaging?

Instant messaging apps are built with end-to-end encryptions and other security features to safeguard your in-and-out conversations. Based on an instant messaging chat solution provider, you can enable custom security features for strong security.