7 Best Chat APIs for Web, Mobile, and Desktop Apps

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Emily Roberts

A chat API is a fast, convenient way to incorporate real-time messaging and advanced chat features into your app. By paying an ongoing license fee, you gain access to ready-made chat functionalities, cloud hosting, and technical support. Using a pre-packaged vendor can reduce development time and cost and give you the flexibility to scale as your user base grows.

Essential Messaging API Features

Seventy-five percent of API professionals agree that developers who work at API-first companies create better software and integrate with partners faster. Of course, being API-first means knowing what chat features you need to benefit your business. Here are a few must-have features for an in-app chat API provider.

Global Edge Infrastructure

High latency can negatively impact the user experience, such as delayed response times for sent and received messages. Choose a messaging solution that uses a global edge network — a distributed system of servers placed in various geographical locations — to close the gap between the cloud and your users. This will help reduce latency and ensure a better chat experience for your users no matter where they're located.

Advanced Moderation

Choose a service with advanced moderation and filters to prevent users from sharing malicious text and images. This feature is particularly useful for gaming, where an estimated 7.9% of cyberbullying occurs through live multiplayer interactions.

Moderators and admins can flag and remove potentially dangerous, offensive, and spammy content using moderation tools. They can also use profanity filters and block lists to remove offensive language and prevent known offenders from entering a chat space. AI moderation can automatically scan and flag suspicious images, too.

Support For Millions of Users

Most vendors have limited monthly active users (MAU) and concurrent users. Choose a vendor that can reliably scale to support your growing user base and ensure your app can scale comfortably. Do you expect your user count to be in the millions? Pick a vendor that can handle a high volume of MAUs and concurrent connections.

7 Best Chat APIs for 2024

With so many solutions—from Twilio and Stream to TalkJS—choosing the right one can be difficult. Here's a collection of the best chat APIs to make the choice easier.

1. Stream Chat

Stream's real-time communication APIs let you design, build, and integrate chat messaging functionality into your apps. With its user-friendly UI kits for Sketch, Figma, and Adobe xD, you can create a customizable chat experience for various use cases.

With Stream, you can rapidly build a feature-rich and fully customizable chat platform. The platform can support up to 5 million concurrent users on a single channel. Plus, the chat global edge network provides a low latency chat experience and a 99.999% uptime guarantee.

Key features:

• Pre-built Stream libraries and components
• Full multi-tenancy support
• Unlimited participants
• AI-based AutoMod
• PIP and background calling
• Robust security and compliance
• 99.999% uptime guarantee

Price: A free plan is available for up to 100 monthly active users (MAU). Paid plans start at $399/month.

Integrations: Eight backend clients and nine SDKs.

Security and compliance: Stream includes compliance for HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2 Type II, ISO27001, ISO 20243, and SSAE 16.

Free trial: 30-day free trial period

Platform, language, and tech stack: React, Android, React Native, iOS, Flutter, Unreal, Angular, Unity, and UI Kits.

Best for: Real-time chat messaging for billions of users in EdTech, FinTech, dating, fitness, Telehealth, gaming, job recruiting, delivery apps, transport, logistics, and real estate.

2. Agora Chat

Agora Chat SDK lets you integrate private and group messaging into your applications. Features you can integrate include chat analytics, media messages, read receipts, and more.

Agora Chat also supports third-party extensions, including GIFs, emoticons, and stickers to personalize the chat experience.

Key features:

• Profanity filter
• Chat analytics
• Auto message translation
• Rich media messages
• Channel and user management

Price: From $349/month.

Integrations: Support over 50 third-party integrations, including HTC Vive, Nexplayer, and Okta.

Security and compliance: Identity and access management, data protection and encryption, and network geo-fencing. Compliant with ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27017, ISO/IEC 27018, and SOC 2 Report.

Free trial: Free for up to 500 monthly users.

Platform, language, and tech stack: Supports Android, iOS Objective-C, iOS Swift, Web, React Native, Flutter, Unity, and Windows.

Best for: Message translation and customized messaging experiences

3. PubNub Chat

PubNub allows you to build and integrate real-time chat capabilities into your applications. With PubNub chat, you can build a chat app from scratch or integrate one into your existing applications.

There are two ways to create a chat with PubNub. You can either use the Chat SDK to call the PubNub API through a range of predefined methods or use the PubNub Components in React or React Native.

Key features:

• No concurrency or channel limits
• Serverless functions
• 24/7 global customer support
• Demos and tutorials
• Message moderation features

Price: Starting at $49/month.

Integrations: Up to 56 third-party integrations, including OpenAI GPT, Microsoft Power BI, and more.

Security and compliance: Support compliance for regulatory environments such as ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2 Type 2, and CCPA.

Free trial: Free trial for up to 200 MAUs or 1 million monthly transactions.

Platform, language, and tech stack: React and React Native.

Best for: Real-time streaming and secure file sharing.

4. Twilio Conversations

Twilio has sunset its programmable chat API but offers a Conversations API for businesses to interact with customers through voice, SMS, video, chat, and email. Twilio also provides other products such as Twilio Segment (a customer data platform) and Twilio Trusted Activation (for user activation, authentication, verification, and secure online transactions).

Key features:

• Multichannel messaging
• Message persistence 
• Cloud-based archives
• Web and mobile SDKs
• Cross-channel orchestration
• Participant management
• Scoped webhooks
• Media support
• Delivery statuses

Price: You can pay $0.05 per active monthly user by usage, and if you want to allow your users to add photos, video, and other file types to their conversations, you pay $0.25 per GB of stored media per month.

Integrations: Twilio's Conversations API has limited integrations.

Security and compliance: SOC2 compliant and HIPAA-ready.

Free trial: Yes, you can gain access to Twilio for free.

Platform, language, and tech stack: Javascript, Android, and iOS.

Best for: Apps looking for affordable and transparent monthly usage billing.

5. CometChat

CometChat lets you integrate a range of versatile and feature-rich chat SDK and UI kits into your app.

With CometChat, you can incorporate one-on-one direct messaging and public and private group chat into your app. It also supports all types of messages, including text, audio, gifs, and reactions.

Key features:

• Direct messaging and group chats
• Rich media previewers
• Message translation
• Image moderation and profanity filter
• In-depth analytics

Price: From $119/month per environment

Integrations: Webhook, SendGrid, and more.

Security and compliance: Compliant with GDPR, SOC2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001.

Free trial: Free sandbox plan for up to 25 users

Platform, language, and tech stack: React, Angular, Vue, React Native, iOS, Android Java, Android Kotlin, Ionic/Capacitor, Flutter, WordPress, PHP, and Laravel.

Best for: Website integrations

6. TalkJS

TalkJS offers flexible components that support a range of use cases. With its pre-built UI  and one-on-one chats, group chats, livestream chats, and AI chatbots to your applications.

With their SDKs, you can quickly integrate chat into any mobile application. Plus, you can incorporate moderation and analytics to allow users to moderate conversions through the REST API.

Key features:

• Pre-built UI and notifications
• 1v1, group, live stream, and AI chatbots
• Stickers, file sharing, and email integration
• Customizable TalkJS themes
• Push, email, SMS, and desktop notifications

Price: From $279/month

Integrations: Up to 8 partnered third-party integrations, including Zoom, WordPress, and more.

Security and compliance: GDPR-compliant and have a Data Processing Addendum (DPA). All data is encrypted at rest and in transit, with no tracking or analytics, and unsent drafts are stored in local storage.

Free trial: You can develop and test apps for free. You must pay once you start using TalkJS with real users.

Platform, language, and tech stack: Javascript, Flutter, and React Native.

Best for: Minimum viable products (MVPs)

7. MessageBird

MessageBird offers a chat widget within its suite of holistic marketing cloud services, which enables customers to reach out on any webpage or app screen using an omnichannel messaging platform for Live Chat, WhatsApp, SMS, and more.

Key features:

• Chatbots
• Automation
• Conversational forms
• Push notifications

Price: MessageBird charges companies based on the number of contacts they are targeting each month; for example, 3,000 contacts would cost $45 per month. 

Integrations: OpenAI, WooCommerce, Pipedrive, Jira, Slack, Shopify, Airtable, Salesforce, Active Campaign, and more. 

Security and compliance: GDPR and PSD2

Free trial: No, MessageBird does not offer a free trial. 

Platform, language, and tech stack: N/A

Best for: Apps in need of an omnichannel automation API in addition to chat. 

Choose a Chat API That Supports Your App 

With so many communication solutions available, choosing the right one can be challenging. Familiarizing yourself with some of the must-have features and best providers in the market can help you make an informed choice.

You can build a chat app from scratch if you're not looking to scale or provide a feature-rich experience. However, you must understand what building a chat app with real-time infrastructure (RTI) entails before you dedicate time and resources to add this functionality to your application.

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Emily Roberts