Functionality of Chat Sticker App Like Bitmoji. Know in Details

What Is Bitmoji?

Bitmoji is a mobile application that uses your own cartoon images to build comic strips. Launched originally by Bitstrips and co-developed by Jack Blackstock and Jesse Brown, it was later gained by Snapchat in 2016. The main motive of Bitmoji is to let the users build a cartoon version of themselves, style them as they like and share them in any mobile application.

Bitmoji has productive features that allow users to express their emotions in a conversation by using stickers for chatting. Bonus, it allows users to personalize their stickers with respect to mood, location, style, clothing, accessories, facial features and many more

The Bitmoji app allows users to acknowledge the emojis they generated in Android or iOS apps. It gained fame when it was acquired by Snapchat. Snapchat made itself functionally parallel with Bitmoji. This drew a lot of attention from the business community to know the cost and features of developing an app like Bitmoji.

Key Features Of App Like Bitmoji

Bitmoji provides various features and functionalities that make it the most popular one in the entertainment and utility business. Some of the features that an app like Bitmoji must have as listed below:

• Platform Integration: Your app should be available on all platforms that are Android, iOS, and others. Bitmoji also provides a chrome extension and the same can be implemented by your app.
• Keyboard Integration: Your app should be able to provide a keyboard shortcut where the users can simply enter the keyword for the sticker and the same shall be displayed. This will provide the users great convenience and the conversational interface would be effective.
• Personalization: Users should be able to personalize their stickers according to their will. The app should provide various categories for customization apart from just styling clothes. Users should be able to personalize facial features like eyebrows, lips, eye size and colour, hairstyle, etc.
• Compatibility: The application should be compatible with other mobile apps. The stickers built in your app should be shareable with other social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp, Hike, etc.
• Friendmoji: The facility to make emojis with friends should also be included. This would enable a user to make a collaborated sticker with another user without any difficulty. This is one of the most engaging chat app features.
• Ratings and Review: The app should have a rating and reviewing system that will allow users to give feedback regarding any changes, or support they require. Just like in Uber, users can give feedback about the services, driver agents, etc.
• Filter Search: There should be a facility provided for filter searching so that the users can efficiently get what they are looking for. Just like in Zomato, you type the food item and the relevant food items, restaurants, etc. pop up. The filters can be updated with regards to the clothing style, clothing brands, hairstyle, facial features differentiation, etc.
• Avatar Games: This is an optional feature. This functionality can be facilitated by some simple games where the avatars will be enabled to play basic in-app games like ludo, tic tac tow, etc. 

These are some features that an app like Bitmoji must-have to be the best sticker chat app and to be an interactive and efficient conversation. Others features can, of course, be introduced in the application if you want. 

Why Should You Develop An App Like Bitmoji

With the increase in the demand for entertainment and utility mobile applications, many business owners are planning to move into sticker social networking app development. There are a few reasons why you should develop an app like Bitmoji as mentioned below:

1. Communication With Cartoons

In today’s world, a person’s digital life has overpowered his real-life. Making a digital representation of yourself that depicts your expressions has made it easy to interact with other people.

An app like Bitmoji will help users present a digital version of themselves, known as an avatar. It can also be defined as the digital representation a user creates of himself using the Bitmoji app.

This can be used to depict their presence on social media platforms. The avatar can be customized with the in-app purchases that you may include in your app like Bitmoji. There shall be a whole library made available for you to choose an avatar from.

2. Application Integration

The main reason behind the success of entertainment and utility apps is its integration facility with other apps. For Bitmoji to be integrated into other mobile applications and the users to use the avatars in different apps, Snapchat released a Bitmoji kit. You can also implement this phenomenon for making your app like Bitmoji successful.

The avatars are used in most social networking sites making it an integral part of the society. The main drawback of having a conversation online is that people are not able to display their facial expressions. With the usage of avatars, you can fulfil that.

Basically, your app should ensure a better digital identity that would not get lost in the online platforms. The popularity of entertainment and utility apps make sure that these apps will stay in the market place. There stands a lot of scope of the app like Bitmoji when integrated with other apps. Hence, there is no doubt that getting started with the app will not be regretful.

Developing A Utility App Like Bitmoji

In order to grow your entertainment and utility business, get an app like Bitmoji developed. The development process is discussed below

• Decide Project Scope: The developers must understand that the app development process must be dependent on the scope of the project. According to the scope, the platform (Android, iOS, Chrome, etc.) on while the app has to be integrated must be decided.
• Form The Development Team: The development team for an app like Bitmoji would consist of teams like Business Analysts, UI/UX Developers, Android Developers, iOS Developers, Web Developers, Testers, Project Managers and others. 
• Prepare Geographical Expansion: For starters, you may want to keep the location criteria restricted to one place. Eventually, you should start planning about expanding the geographical location of your entertainment and utility app. With the use of mobile app internalization, you can make the launch of the application easily available in other geographical areas. 
• Get Emoji Library License: For developing an app like Bitmoji, you should need to get licensed from the emoji library. These libraries allow users to create personalized emojis for themselves.
  Users can sign up in EmojiOne. It is a comprehensive emoji library with over 2000+ emojis. If interested, you can check the pricing plans of EmojiOne here.
• Get MakeMoji SDKs: The software development kits (SDKs) are used to expedite the mobile app development process. Makemoji is a free SDK hosted in AWS, that helps in increasing user engagement and is available on both Android and iOS. It supports emojis, messages and gifs in HTML tags. 
• Sign Up For eCommerce APIs: Using eCommerce APIs will help you save time and handle the in-app purchases. BigCommerce offers a large set of APIs that help you integrate other platforms like CRM to run the business. 
• Design Suitable Color And Icons: The mobile navigation menu is an essential part of the UI. The mobile application you are planning to develop must have a suitable colour scheme. You should make sure that the colour scheme you have chosen is trending and attractive.
  A good mobile app UI would need appropriate icons. However, the icon design you choose must support the respective guidelines of Android and iOS apps. 
• Decide IDE According To Platform: You should use a suitable Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that will help you conduct the functionalities efficiently. I would recommend using Android Studio with the programming language Kotlin. 
• Estimate The Budget: You should keep an estimate of the budget for the development of an app like Bitmoji. You should keep in mind the features and functionalities to be included and the integration of suitable platforms. 
• Maintenance And Support: You should make sure that the company you are choosing for the development of your application provides maintenance and support after the launch of the app. You must also ensure that the budget estimated includes the cost of maintenance and support.

How Will It Cost To Develop An App Like Bitmoji

The cost of developing an app like Bitmoji can be dependent on the features included in it. The cost can be varied depending on many factors like:

• Platform integrated into the app; You can choose Android or iOS or even both. Choosing both platforms will make the charges differ and affect the cost respectively.
• The budget that needs to be put up with the app development process. It can be varied to create a satisfaction level to demonstrate UI and designs.
• User engagement, data management, location services, in-app purchases and other advance features that may be included in the application.
• Custom features; Usually, the size of the app affects the cost of the development too.
• The development time is very important to determine the cost of app development and varies from country to country app development company.
• While estimating the budget for the development process, you must include the cost of maintenance and support too. By doing this, you are saving a lot of time and energy. The cost of maintenance and support must be determined with the development process simultaneously.

Wrap Up

To sum up, everything that has been stated so far, with the availability of advance smartphones and mobile texting and social media platforms, the usage of Bitmoji has extensively increased. There is a great market for entertainment and utility apps. Although the competition has increased, there is a scope for growth for your application in the market.

The cost of development of an app like Bitmoji depends on a lot of factors other than the functionalities and integrated platforms. It can be varied from company to company based on the quality and platform. I suggest choosing a social media app development company that clearly demonstrates its policy and gives the budget estimation.