Integrating real-time chat functionality has now become easier thanks to the user-to-user chat APIs. These APIs consist of a set of protocols that allow developers to incorporate chat into their websites and applications. There are many such APIs available in the market today. To help you pick the right solution, we will discuss the 3 most prominent APIs, namely, MirrorFly, SendBird, and CometChat.
Let us get started then!
Features
All three platforms primarily emphasize user-to-user chat functionality, with Mirrorfly offering slightly more advanced features. These platforms allow developers to build and manage chat groups. Such groups can prove to be beneficial to add community features within your app. MirrorFly has the ability to provide chat, video call, and voice call SDKs that can speed up development work and improve overall user experience on the app or site.
The SaaS and self-hosted SDK provider presents a wide assortment of powerful functionalities to create a comprehensive chat system. Its suite of offerings is equipped with more than 150+ features for video, voice, and chat. Options like sticker-based revenue, in-app Ads, in-app notifications, subscription based model, and in-app payment make this real time chat API a preferred solution for developers looking for monetization potential. In terms of features, MirrorFly has a better advantage than other solutions.
SendBird and CometChat are comparable to MirrorFly in terms of a robust set of features but the sheer number of features sways the decision in favor of MirrorFly on this front.
Ease of use
We now see the ease of use offered by the three solutions. Here, we see equal performance by all three APIs. They are easy to set up and configure. The SDKs are compatible with Android, iOS, JavaScript, .Net or Unity. This offers a large pool of accessibility for developers working on their respective apps or websites.
The SDK offers a comprehensive set of resources, including APIs, documentation, and libraries of codes. They help accelerate development time and shorten the overall time-to-market. One noteworthy difference is the overall UI/UX of MirrorFly. It offers an easy to understand flow and structure so that even amateur coders can harness the full potential of the SDK and integrate powerful in-app chat capabilities with it. So, if you need a Chat API for iOS or an SDK for Flutter chat app, then this is a good solution to go for. Also, the documentation provided by MirrorFly is slightly more extensive than the other two options, which gives it a slight edge over SendBird and CometChat.
How to Implement?
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This section is beneficial for newbie coders who want to integrate the SDK into their apps or site development projects. Let us see how to implement these APIs into a React js chat app.
MirrorFly
Step 1: you need to commence by signing up on the MirrorFly Console page (https://console.mirrorfly.com/register). This way, you can build a free MirrorFly account for your needs
Step 2: Now, you can feed in details like name, organization details, work email, and contact number
Step 3: This will help you enter your MirrorFly account. You can go to the ‘Overview page’. A licensing key and the Api base Url should be visible here. You'll also need to obtain the JavaScript SDK files in addition to these ones.
Key Requirements
Install the peer requirements listed below with their unique versions before integrating MirrorFly into React Native.
Node - 14.20.0 npm - 6.14.10 react-native - 0.69.12
Npm package dependencies Integrate the Chat SDK# {
"@react-native-async-storage/async-storage": "^1.17.7",//Any version
"react-native-get-random-values": "1.7.1",//must use version >=1.7.1
"react-native-document-picker" :"8.1.1",// must use version >=8.1.1
'realm': "^10.8.0",
'react-native-fs': "^2.18.0",
'@react-native-community/netinfo': "^8.0.0",
'moment': "2.29.4",
'rn-fetch-blob': "^0.12.0",
'react-native-compressor': "1.6.1",
'react-native-convert-ph-asset': "^1.0.3",
'react-native-mov-to-mp4' :"^0.2.2"
}
Integrate Chat API
Step 1 - Update the packages.json files as the first step.
Step 2 - If your packages aren't working with iOS, step 2 is to check for duplicate files.
Step 3 - Copy every file that was extracted from the dist folder.
Step 4 - Inside your project, make a new folder and put all the copied files into it.
Step 5 - Create the SDK.js file in step 5 to export the SDK objects. Additionally, you may import the SDKs using the scripts shown below.
CometChat
Now, we look at the steps encompassing Comet Chat integration in a React project.
Step 1: You can commence by making an account and configuring your app.
Step 2: Next, you can integrate the Comet Chat React library with the below code:
npm install @cometchat-pro/chat
Step 3: Afterwards, you can import the library in your React component and initialize it. Check out the below example of how to integrate Comet Chat in a React component:
import { CometChat } from "@cometchat-pro/chat";
const appID = "APP_ID"; const region = "REGION"; const appSetting = new CometChat.AppSettingsBuilder().subscribePresenceForAllUsers().setRegion(region).build(); CometChat.init(appID, appSetting).then( () => { console.log("Initialization completed successfully"); // You can now call login function. }, error => { console.log("Initialization failed with error:", error); // Check the reason for error and take appropriate action. } );
The below is the code to make and log in a particular user with CometChat
let authKey = "AUTH_KEY"; var uid = "user1"; var name = "Kevin";
var user = new CometChat.User(uid); user.setName(name); CometChat.createUser(user, authKey).then( user => { console.log("user created", user); },error => { console.log("error", error); } )
CometChat.login(uid, authKey).then( user => { console.log("Login Successful:", { user }); }, error => { console.log("Login failed with exception:", { error }); } );
You can also utilize the pre-built UI kit. For this, you can clone the GitHub repository and that's it. You can render it in React as below:
import { CometChatUI } from "./CometChatWorkspace/src";
class App extends React.Component {
render() {
return (
<div style={{width: '800px', height:'800px' }}>
<CometChatUI />
</div>
); } }
Next, you need to import the library in the React component for initializing it. Here is an example of how to integrate SendBird in a React component:
SendBird
Here are some steps to get going with the integration in the React project: Step 1: Set up a new account and configure it on the SendBird website Step 2: The next step is to deploy the SendBird JavaScript library. The below code will help npm install Sendbird Step 3: The next step is integrating SendBird in a React project import SendbirdChat from 'your_path_to_sdk/sendbird.js'; import { GroupChannelModule } from 'your_path_to_sdk/groupChannel.js';
const sendbird = SendbirdChat.init({ appId, modules: [ new GroupChannelModule(), ], });
Step 4: Initializing the SDK needs to be done via the below coding import SendbirdChat from '@sendbird/chat' import { OpenChannelModule, SendbirdOpenChat } from '@sendbird/chat/openChannel';
const sb = SendbirdChat.init({ appId: APP_ID, modules: [ new OpenChannelModule(), ], }) as SendbirdOpenChat;
Step 5: then, you should establish a connection with the SendBird server to get started.
MirrorFly overview
MirrorFly is one of the most premier solutions to let developers integrate world-class chat APIs when developing websites or applications. With its power-packed features, boosting engagement becomes simplified. When users can collaborate and interact with each other, your app engagement and retention become a rewarding experience.
The user-to-user chat API helps you handle on-demand tickets, customer context, and various notifications. These features let you drive 24x7 support. The robust security features ensure that every chat and every message is well-encrypted from external breach attempts. Its Geolocation advantage makes it feasible across major countries like the USA, UK & EU countries. Its biggest USP is the suite of 150+ modern-day chat features that amplify outcomes from your customer interactions and collaboration objectives.
Developers creating iOS, Android, or web apps can seamlessly integrate into various development platforms. Server-side integration can happen across major programming languages like Angular, Swift, Javascript, Kotlin, React Native, and Flutter. The result is that you can integrate chat features in less than 20 minutes and propel 10x engagement on any web or mobile app.
Pricing
MirrorFly has one of the most reasonable pricing structures among the 3 APIs. It starts from $360 for 5000 monthly active users (MAU) for the basic plan and $900 for the premium plan. SendBird has a bare-bones free plan with just 100 MAU. Its paid plan costs $399 for 5000 MAU. CometChat’s plan starts from $379 for 1000-10000 MAU.
If we compare the plans on similar MAUs, then MirrorFly emerges as the best alternative.
The Verdict
We had a look at the key features and pricing of the 3 major user-to-user chat APIs, i.e., SendBird, MirrorFly, and CometChat. Based on the in-depth analysis, we can see that MirrorFly has a distinct advantage over the other two APIs. If you need to add the best face-to-face iteration capabilities in your apps, then MirrorFly should be your first choice of messaging API, with its cutting-edge features, nominal pricing, and enterprise-grade security
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