What is a chat API? Features, types, and integration guides

To add a chat feature to your site or app, you can use a chat API. But what exactly is a chat API, and how do you use one? This article covers the basics of what a chat API is, the main features to look for, what sort of chat API options are available, and how you can use a chat API in your site or app.

Contents

• What is a chat API?
• Chat API features
• Types of chat APIs
• How to add a chat API to your app
• Final remarks

What is a chat API?

What is an API? An Application Programming Interface (API) is a way for two pieces of software to talk to each other. Think of it as a common language in a world filled with different languages—a bit like how English functions as a global language today.

Using an API can speed up your development process. APIs allow developers to use and fine-tune functions from existing software, instead of having to build components from scratch each time.

A chat API is an API that offers chat functionality. The process of sending messages may seem simple, but in reality has many moving parts. Instead of having to build a chat app yourself, a chat API allows you to simply add chat to your existing site or app.

Chat API features

Chat APIs can come with a range of different features. Depending on your use case, some of these might be more important to you than others. For example, for direct messages between buyers and sellers on a marketplace, you may have very different needs than when you offer chat alongside a livestream event.

Here’s an overview of some common features that you may want to look for in a chat API:

In addition, you’d want your chat API to be:

• Universal – Your chat feature should work regardless of which platform your user is on. A chat API should ensure universal support, and keep up with any updates for each of the different platforms supported.
• Flexible – Your messaging needs may change over time. Maybe initially, direct messages were just fine, but you now need large group chats, file sharing, or voice messages. Chat APIs tend to be modular, which allows you to use only exactly what you need, and add features as you go along.
• Scalable – Your number of active users may change over time. Perhaps you’ve grown significantly, or need to support a high-number of concurrent users for a specific period of time. Most chat APIs allow you to automatically scale up or down depending on what resources you need, ensuring that you only pay for what you use.

Types of chat APIs

Chat API services can be divided into broadly three categories:

Platforms

Messaging apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or Discord each provide their own API. Many of your users may already be familiar with these apps, so it might seem easy enough to use one of them for your chat. At the same time, by choosing one of these platforms you’d be handing over control over your users’ data to an external provider, which not everyone may be comfortable with. Plus, these platforms generally don’t allow for much customization to meet your specific needs and match your own brand. All of these points are worth taking into account when considering using a chat API associated with one of the established messaging platforms.

Open source

Open source chat APIs give you complete control over your chat. You can download, inspect and modify the code yourself, and share your changes with others. Often, an open source chat API can be self-hosted, giving you yet further control. That said, if you self-host you’re also responsible for managing the entire infrastructure required to operate the chat. And you’ll need to take care to keep your app updated to guard against any security threats. Individuals or teams working on open source projects may have lower capacity, so these chat APIs can also be slower to adopt new features. A pre-built chat UI isn’t always part of open source chat API offerings, which means that you’d have to do that work yourself.

Proprietary services

Proprietary chat API services can offer you a ready-to-go messaging infrastructure, combined with some of the control and customization options you can get from open source. With a proprietary chat service, hosting, security are all taken care of, while you keep control over your customer data. Some proprietary chat API services ship with pre-built UIs and extensive customization options, so you can really make it your own. Having your own chat, instead of using a third-party platform, can give your site or app that premium feel.

TalkJS is a proprietary chat API service with a range of SDKs to get you started. TalkJS also offers a complete suite of customizable pre-built UIs that you can integrate seamlessly in any chat or messaging use case.

In what follows we’ll show you how to use a chat API in your own site or app with TalkJS.

How to add a chat API to your app

You can add a full-fledged chat component to your site or web app with the TalkJS chat API, in just three basic steps. To follow along with these steps, you’ll need a TalkJS account, which is always free to try for development.

Step 1: Load TalkJS

To load TalkJS, add the following JavaScript code snippet:

<!-- minified snippet to load TalkJS without delaying your page -->
<script>
(function(t,a,l,k,j,s){
s=a.createElement('script');s.async=1;s.src='https://cdn.talkjs.com/talk.js';a.head.appendChild(s)
;k=t.Promise;t.Talk={v:3,ready:{then:function(f){if(k)return new k(function(r,e){l.push([f,r,e])});l
.push([f])},catch:function(){return k&&new k()},c:l}};})(window,document,[]);
</script>

Step 2: Add a chat container

To add a container to display your chat, place the following code snippet in your HTML:

<!-- container element in which TalkJS will display a chat UI -->
<div id='talkjs-container' style='width: 90%; margin: 30px; height: 500px'>
    <i>Loading chat...</i>
</div>

Step 3: View a conversation

To view an existing chat conversation, add the following code to your app:

Talk.ready.then(function () {
    const me = new Talk.User('sample_user_alice');
    const talkSession = new Talk.Session({
        appId: '<APP_ID>',
        me: me,
    });

    const conversation = talkSession.getOrCreateConversation(
        'sample_conversation'
    );
    conversation.setParticipant(me);

    const chatbox = talkSession.createChatbox();
    chatbox.select(conversation);
    chatbox.mount(document.getElementById('talkjs-container'));
});

In this code snippet, replace <APP_ID> with your own app ID, which you can get directly from your TalkJS dashboard.

You should get something like the following:

Once you’re set up, you can customize the chat’s features and appearance to truly fit your brand. Here are some examples of the TalkJS pre-built UI, with three different customized themes:

Are you working with a framework? Then you can also use one of the following dedicated getting started guides:

• React
• React Native
• Flutter
• Vue
• Angular
• Svelte
• Other frameworks

Final remarks

Do you want to add chat to your app or site? From the basic messaging infrastructure to security, a fully-fledged working chat has many moving parts. Building one yourself takes time, and would likely require a specialized team.

Using a chat API allows you to focus on your own site or app's core concept, while speeding up your overall time to production. Among the many categories of chat API available, proprietary services such as TalkJS offer a great mix of flexibility and ease of use, allowing you to add a complete chat with just a few lines of code.

Do you have any questions about chat APIs? We’re here to help. Get in touch.