Challenges and Benefits of The React Native Video Chat App

Gomathi Ramachandran Published On January 12th, 2024 Insights

In this modern world, people look for a fast, reliable, and easy communication mode. Relatably, real-time chat, voice, and video apps are some of the best ways to communicate at ease.

And in a fast paced environment,  React and React Native are technologies that help you build a chat app within a short time. 

Further in this blog lets dive deeper in understanding the concepts of Adding video chat APIs vs creating one, Challenges of creating video chat solution and benefits of React Native video chat app. 

Adding Video Chat APIs vs. Creating From Scratch

Video chat APIs (application programming interfaces) can be integrated with your app of any tech stack or size to add video calling functionalities and features to your app.

Whereas creating from scratch requires you to start with your project requirements, creating a development team with technical expertise involves time, money, and effort.

Advantages of Adding Video Chat APIs vs. Building from Scratch

Based on your project requirements, technical team expertise, and investment plan, you can choose the right method for including video calling functionalities in your app.

Challenges of Creating a React Video Chat Solution

Creating video chat solutions with ReactJS is a viable option, but it still comes with certain challenges, as mentioned below.

• Real-time communication: Managing WebSockets or different communication protocols to enable smooth video streaming to implement real-time communication can be a challenge.
• Cross-browser compatibility: Due to differences in browser support for WebRTC and other technologies, ensuring consistent performance and user experience can be difficult.
• Media device access: It might be difficult to manage user permissions and guarantee that cameras and microphones are properly accessed, particularly on devices with different operating systems.
• Bandwidth and latency: It can be difficult to handle various network conditions and maintain a seamless experience with fluctuating latency and bandwidth.
• Session management: The application logic becomes more sophisticated when handling situations like lost connections, reconnections, and controlling the duration of a video call session.

These are a few challenges faced while creating a React video chat solution. If you are planning to build a React video call app from scratch, look at these challenges and act accordingly.

React Native Video Call App Building is Easier

Building React Native video call apps is much easier than building native apps on each platform. React Native supports cross-platform apps with near-native performance.

Here are the reasons why building video call apps with React Native is easier.

1. Code Reusability

You can save a lot of time and work during development by writing a large amount of your codebase only once and using it for both iOS and Android platforms.

2. Large Developer Community

React Native has a rich and active developer community. You can easily find solutions for adding even more complex features to your video calling app.

3. Hot Reloading

React Native provides you with a hot reloading feature that allows you to see the changes you make in your code directly reflected in your app in real-time. This reduces your development time

4. Pre-Built UI Components

With pre-built UI elements, you can easily set up your video calling app’s UI at ease, no matter the time. Instead of coding for a while, you can drag and drop it in a few minutes.

5. Native Performance

The best thing is that apps built with React Native for cross-platform compatibility perform like native apps as they use native components.

Final thoughts!

Hope you have enough information to build a React chat app using Firebase. If you have any further queries, you can post them in the comment section below or talk to an expert who can solve your queries in real-time.

You can also check the feasibility of your app with our React and React Native video chat SDK by booking a quick, free demo.