Top 10 Best Programming Languages to Build a Chat App [2025]

Krishi Shivasangaran Published On December 19th, 2024 Tech Talks

Which programming language is best for a chat app? No one, we mean not only one! It differs from the requirements and use case. Let’s see.

When building a chat app, whether it’s for Android, iOS, or web-based, there must be a large tech stack to power up the conversations. 

You must have heard of these two terms: Frontend programming language and Backend programming language. 

Front-end programming languages build how your chat app looks, 

while Back-end programming languages build how your chat app works.

Both these languages must interact with each other to create a fully functional chat app. 

But which is the best programming language for messaging applications?

Throughout this article, I will brief you about the various coding languages used across different operating systems. The context intends to give you a full-fledged insight so that you will be able to get a better understanding of which languages best suit your chat application.

Front-End vs Back-End Chat App Programming Languages: What’s the Difference? 

Front-end languages in the messaging app are used to create everything that a user is able to see directly on his chat screen. It includes the structure, design, styles, images, buttons, colors of the chat app (client side components). These languages completely take care of the responsiveness and performance of the chat client, which your customers use to send messages back and forth.

Similarly, Back-end programming languages in the chat app are used to build the server-side your chat app. This part is used to construct the business logic of the app and it cannot be directly accessed by the users. Authentication process, API routing, and Library creation are few examples of the operations that can be done using the back-end programming languages.

Best Front-End Coding Languages To Build A Chat App

The front-end language you choose will largely impact the user experience and performance of your app. Every front-end language in software development has its own unique advantage. I’ve listed them out based on the platform they are used.

Top Languages Used in Android Messaging App Development

The most popular languages used to build an android chat app are Java or Kotlin. These languages are used in the development toolkit containing SDKs, emulators, and debuggers.

These languages are used in the development toolkit containing SDKs, emulators, and debuggers.

These languages are also supported by Android’s Gradle build system which allows developers to add third-party libraries to their apps using a Gradle package directive. This makes sure that both Java and Kotlin are highly compatible with third-party components, making it easy to build apps with plug-and-play features. Web development companies often recommend these languages for their flexibility and ease of integration.

Let’s take a deeper look at the Android Programming languages you can learn in 2025 to develop your app:

10 Best Programming Languages to Build a Messaging App

The Top 10 Best Chat App Back-End Programming Languages are Java, Kotlin, Objective-C, Swift, JavaScript, React, Angular, React Native, Ionic and Capacitor.

1. Java

A Versatile Choice for Building Scalable Messaging Apps!

Java is one of the most preferred languages of choice for building a chat app in android platforms. Here are a good number of reasons why developers choose this language to build their messaging, voice, and video chat apps. 

• Java is a general-purpose object-oriented programming language, meaning it can be used to create a wide range of apps, without any limitations.

• A Java Virtual Machine (JVM) running on the OS plays a major role in tuning the performance of the apps that use low latencies. This gives developers the opportunity to optimize the speed at which your users can send and receive messages.

• Java is highly portable. It can run on any system by means of a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). This makes the app development process highly scalable and saves huge development costs. 

• Since Java is object-oriented, you can build unique objects for each component of your instant messaging apps, which can flexibly interact with other pieces of codes inside your program.

Chat apps built with Java

• Slack is a popular internal collaboration software, and the initial backend development was built with Java.
• X (Formerly called Twitter) – Online and social community software. Its Android client is built on Java. 

Checkout the Tutorial: If you’d like to use Java for your app development, you may find this tutorial on how to build a chat app using Java quite helpful!

2. Kotlin

Modern Language for Building Secure Android Messaging Apps!

Another “official” language to build any Android chat app solution is Kotlin.

Here are the reasons why developers choose Kotlin for their chat app development:

• Kotlin has both object-oriented and functional programming features making it more viable for developing unique functional app components.

• Concise than Java, Kotlin is a statically typed language that performs checks at compile time. This minimizes the runtime errors which means, any issues with the code are fixed before they can be compiled so that when the app runs, the performance is optimally maintained.

• One major feature of Kotlin is its interoperability – the ability to call java functions while java can call kotlin functions. It can also be used as an alternative for Java.

• Kotlin is null-safe. It minimizes app crashes due to null pointer exceptions.

Messaging Apps built with Kotlin Programming Language

• Netflix – On-demand OTT platform built on Kotlin for product reliability and delivery speed.
• Trello – Leading project management and team collaboration software built on Kotlin for managing tasks and communication. 

Checkout the Tutorial: If you’d like to use Swift for your app development, you may find this tutorial on how to build a video chat app using Kotlin quite helpful!

Top Coding Languages Used to Build a Custom iOS Chat App

Pro Tip: According to Simpalm, a iOS app development firm, when you plan on building a chat app for iOS, iPad OS, tvOS, macOS, watchOS, I recommend 2 native programming languages for developers: Objective-C and Swift. Here is the narrow down of the details of why you should opt these languages::

3. Objective-C

Language for Modular and Reusable Code for iOS Chats!

Objective-C is a sophisticated object-oriented programming language used in major Apple platforms with a concept of code for real-time objects and frameworks. Below are the list of reasons why developers should try Objective-C for their chat apps.

• Objective-C is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language used in the iOS platform to build apps with modular components and reusable codes.

• Adds automatic garbage collection, an object memory management system in development. The garbage collector within your program identifies the objects referred by other objects and destroys the unused residues.

• This language uses its syntax from the C program and object-oriented messaging application features from Small-talk, allowing you to build expressive chat features. These syntaxes appear to be easy to understand as in the natural language.

• In order to support the nested coding style, several legacy codes are included in this language.

Chat apps built with Objective C

• Snapchat – a leading social media app built with a blend of Objective – C for better user experience.
• Uber – rental cab services implemented Objective C as in the chat and messaging functionality.

4. Swift

Develop High-Performance Chat Apps with Swift’s Intuitive Syntax!

Swift is a compact, easy-to-use, open-source programming language that’s evolving as the first choice of developers to build a chat app in iOS platforms.

There are several reasons why you must consider Swift to build your iOS chat app:

• Swift is a general-purpose programming language that is flexible with iOS frameworks like Cocoa and Cocoa Touch.

• The codes are simpler and faster than any other programming language. It includes features like inference, closures, memory management, stack overflow prevention and generics.

• Swift is a statically typed language, making it trustworthy to render an error-free chat app at runtime. It also has a native error handling functionality, where the compiler identifies code ambiguities instantly.

• Contains in-built memory management techniques that are easy to implement and require less maintenance. This makes building chat apps with large volumes of storage capacity more optimal.

Chat apps built with Swift Programming Language

• LinkedIn – With over 830 million members, this professional network is built with Swift for its iOS apps.
• Slack – Swift supported the iOS version of its application.

For Swift Tutorial: Here is a free tutorial on how to build a chat app using Swift.

Best Web Programming Languages & Frameworks for a Chat App

5. JavaScript

Create Dynamic and Engaging Web Chat Experiences with JavaScript!

Javascript is a lightweight, versatile, platform-independent language that is used to build apps with a dynamic backend and rich user interfaces at the frontend.

Let’s check out why developers use Javascript for their web application  development:

• JavaScript is a high-level language that is used for scripting the client-side of web pages.

• This is a reusable code – which allows programmers to focus more on creating rich user interfaces than writing codes from scratch.

• Offers the flexibility for developers to typically run apps in other environments and compile codes in a wide range of development languages.

• It supports dynamic typing where you can use a single function to handle a different number of objects at the runtime.

 

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6. React

Build Responsive and Real-Time User Interfaces for Chat Apps!

React is an easy-to-use programming language used to build desktop apps with highly flexible and modular UI components.

Need reasons to try React as your development language? Here is our list:

• The codes are reusable – which means programmers can make use of the pre-written codes, modify them and use it to build app functionalities. This increases productivity and reduces the time for development.

• React has plenty of open-source libraries which can be exploited by developers to build a react chat app with numerous functionalities.

• The portability of the language is an added advantage. It allows easy transition to a react native environment.

• Adapts the concept of ‘Virtual DOM’ which allows the app libraries to keep a UI prototype in memory and sync with a real DOM.

7. Angular

Develop Feature-Rich Messaging Apps with Powerful Data Binding Features!

Next in the row is Angular, which is again one of the most popular languages used to build apps for web platforms. The reasons ahead

will support the above statement:

• Angular has pre-built UI components that can be directly used within your programs to create a rich look and feel of your app.

• The TypeScript feature of this language allows developers to build chat apps with a clean and readable code.

• Highly preferred to create lightweight chat apps due to its capability to lazy-load your app modules.

• With Angular, it is easy to spot errors in the code and rectify them with ease.

 

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Best Cross-Platform Coding Languages for Messaging App

The chat app you build must be able to operate across different devices, platforms, and operation systems. In order to make it more flexible, your apps should be built with single code that can run on multiple platforms. The solution here is – Cross-platform programming languages.

With no further ado, let us discuss the finest languages for app development.

8. React Native

Build Cross-Platform Apps with Native Performance & Flexibility!

First on our list is – React Native. As the name indicates, React Native is built with codes that operate with the native UIs easily. Below are the few reasons why React native is a reliable programming language to build cross-platform apps.

• Your code can be reused when written on React Native. This allows you to make only a few changes in pre-written codes and establish new functionalities for the app.

• It follows a modular, component-style architecture making it more organized and easy to use.

• It has native UIs that are flexible enough to be interpreted and presented to the user.

• Uses Javascript to communicate with the native functionalities of the app at runtime.

9. Ionic

Rapidly Build Cross-Platform with Rich UI Components!

Ionic is a highly versatile framework which runs on top of Apache Cordova. If you’d ask why you must use ionic for your chat apps, here is my list of reasons:

• Ionic helps the development of hybrid mobile apps that can transit user experience from a web app to a native app.

• These frameworks contain a plethora of native compatible tools that’s essential in building apps with dynamic features.

• Since the framework closely relates to the front-end components, they are flexible to add in frameworks from React, React Native, Vue or Angular.

• It takes care of the UI development of your chat app.

10. Capacitor

Elevate Cross-Platform Chat Experience with Web & Native App!

Similar to Ionic, the capacitor is another framework employed in the development of cross-platform apps. Let’s take a deeper look at its benefits:

• You can easily convert any web app into a native app using the capacitor framework.

• Capacitor is commonly used when apps need access to the native features of a mobile device so that the apps can perform certain functionalities in association with the device features.

• Though created by the same team, Capacitor can function without the need of ionic.

 

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Best Back-End Programming Languages for Instant Messaging

As addressed earlier in this article, the languages that you use in the backend highly comprehend the logic and ideation of the app. This marks the serious role played by the codes at the backend to develop the core functionalities of your app. This section will give a brief insight on the development languages used to build chat apps:

11. Erlang

Building Fault-Tolerant Instant Messaging with Concurrency Model!

Erlang is a backend programming language that has lightweight threads used to create a complete process. It’s unique features are as below:

• Erlang is a general-purpose programming language – which means it can be used to create a wide range of app functionalities.

• It is a concurrent programming language. It can handle different processes that run simultaneously within your app.

• Since it has the capability of restarting apps when crashes due bugs or errors, it makes your messaging app and programmable chat apps more reliable and hassle-free.

• The scalability of the language makes it more preferable for building large chat apps.

12. Ejabberd

The Robust Backend Solution for Real-Time Messaging Apps!

Ejabberd is a free messaging server that uses a programming language called Erlang. It’s built to handle real-time messaging apps reliably.

Here are some of its key features:

• Ejabberd isn’t just for regular chat, it works as a highly secure messaging server that can handle many types of real-time communication.

• It takes advantage of Erlang’s ability to handle many tasks at once, making it capable of managing thousands of users or connections at the same time without breaking a sweat.

• The server is highly reliable. If something goes wrong with one part of it, it can fix itself without affecting the whole system.

• Developers can easily customise and expand its features by using plugins and modules, so it can be tailored to fit the needs of specific applications.

Conclusion

Selecting the right programming language for building an chat app isn’t always a straightforward process. It solely depends on the needs of your project and your business requirements. 

This article covered everything about how to choose the best language for your specific goals. By knowing both the strengths and weaknesses of each language, you can choose a language that perfectly matches your technical needs and long-term plans. 

To go in further, we suggest checking out more resources and guides for specific frameworks.

That way, you’ll have all the tools to fine-tune your strategy and build amazing apps for your business:

• How to build a chat app in Kotlin
• How to build a web chat app in JavaScript
• How to develop an iOS chat app in Swift

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Which language is used to build a chat app Like WhatsApp?

Erlang is the main programming language used to create WhatsApp. It’s great for chat apps because it can handle many users and messages at the same time without slowing down. WhatsApp also uses tools like React Native to work on multiple platforms and a customized XMPP protocol for sending messages. However, Erlang is the main backend language that keeps the app’s communication system strong and reliable.

2. What programming language is the best for cross-platform application?

The best language for cross-platform is JavaScript, which is known for its flexibility and popularity. Besides, you can also use Dart (with Flutter) that speeds up development, C# that pairs well with the powerful .NET MAUI framework, and Kotlin that simplifies cross-platform mobile development.

3. Which backend language is best for web development?

The best backend language is JavaScript that is super flexible and powers most websites. Apart from this, some of the other reliable backend languages include Python is easy to read and efficient, Java is highly secure, Go is fast and scales well, and Flask works well for smaller projects.

4. What is the Ionic framework used for?

Swift is the primary programming language used for building iOS apps. Apart from Swift, you can also use Objective-C.

5. What are the best programming languages for chat app development?

The best language for chat app development is purely based on the platforms.

• For Android: Kotlin, Java, etc.
• For iOS and MacOS: Swift, Objective-C, etc.
• For web apps: React, Java, Javascript, etc.
• For multi-platform: React Native, Flutter, Angular, etc.

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Further Reading

• How to Build A Flutter Video Call App in 2025?
• How to Build a React JS Video Chat App in 2025?
• How to Build an Android Voice and Video Calling App Using Java?
• Communication APIs: Top 7 In-app Chat, Voice & Video APIs

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