Fueled by mobile internet and the availability of smartphones, messaging platforms have provided an easy and cheaper alternative to text-based SMS. To put things in perspective, a recent report suggests that the most popular platforms like WhatsApp deliver around 100 billion messages a day! The message is clear: instant messaging tools are here to stay.
However, merely enabling instant messaging online is not enough. In the age when cybercrimes damages are expected to cost as much as $10.5 trillion per year by 2025, companies need to focus on creating a secure messaging platform that protects user information.
Unfortunately, creating a complete ecosystem that supports secure messaging is a time-consuming and costly affair. That is why companies prefer using a secure messaging API to ensure an instant messaging tool that boosts your omnichannel strategy and user experience in a protected environment.
What Is a Secure Messaging API?
Most real-time messaging systems have a secure messaging API that contains Cryptographic Message Syntax for creating a safe messaging application. It is a group of classes that lets you offer comprehensive security for your online messaging service irrespective of its scope and complexity.
With this API, you can transfer data electronically in a secure and compliant way as well as:
Encrypt or decrypt data
Verify and digitally sign data
Authenticate data
Most real-time messaging systems have multiple APIs that combine several components like multi-tenancy, elastic environments, inter-app permissions and can connect with various communications tools, including SMTP, FAX, and Direct Protocol. This helps in creating a robust communications platform.
The Drawback of Using Public Online Messaging Systems
When you use a public messaging app, you allow third-party messengers access to your users’ private information. Since most of your data will be hosted on public messaging platforms, there is a huge risk of liability, risk, and litigation.
If this isn’t enough, you cannot truly authenticate a user during public chat messaging sessions. In contrast, if you create your integrated messaging app, you can:
Authenticate every user.
Protect data and assure privacy and security.
Moderate communication for any profanity.
Provide a valuable solution with multiple features like file and location sharing, encrypted chats, group chats, etc.
However, building chat and messaging apps are easier said than done. It involves costs, including development, maintenance, and time, which often spills over due to other project priorities of the development teams.
On the other hand, buying an instant messaging API-based solution involves comparatively lesser cost and timely delivery of the product.
How API Providers Mitigate the Above Risks
An API or SDK solution provider focuses on not only building the foundational framework but also myriad front and back-end integrations that offer the best and safest user experience. Also, since messaging API is a truly pre-packaged solution, it provides a much detailed level of customization at a much lower cost.
A word of caution: while evaluating any message API providers, always understand the various nuances, pricing structure, and hidden costs. For example, a sudden surge in the number of monthly active users can potentially trigger overages. Therefore, it is critical to have a customized plan built as per your current and future.
Benefits of Using a Secure Messaging API
The benefits of using a secure messaging platform are invaluable for companies. These include:
1. Quicker Go-to-Market
Since your app is built by a team of experts dedicated to getting the job done within a given service level agreement, you can ensure a quicker time to market for delivering modern messaging experiences.
2. Scalability
Most instant messaging platforms providers can easily accommodate millions of active users per month.
3. Messaging Essentials
Messaging APIs let you connect to various sources for deploying delivery and read receipts, message count of unread texts, meta-array API, quick reactions and emojis, share multimedia and other files, etc.
4. Get the Best of Messaging World
Based on your online messaging service provider, you stand to get advanced features such as translation, content moderation, encrypted messaging, and essential profanity filters.
5. Provide More Value
Since your application development team doesn’t need to use any complex communications infrastructure or invest time in things like message delivery and rate-limiting, your team can focus on more strategic, urgent tasks.
Final Thoughts
With instant messaging becoming the new norm, companies must prioritize privacy for their online messaging platform.
To create the best messenger application, businesses are leveraging leading messaging API and SDK companies, which offer solutions that build a comprehensive, integrated messaging app and take the user experience to the next level.
