How Programmatis Built In-App Chat for Progressive Web Apps

Last updated
April 7, 2023
by

Kushal Khandelwal

Table of Contents

    Company Overview

    Programmatis is a modern web consulting agency that helps businesses adapt to the changing technological landscape. It’s a team of full-stack engineers who are experts in everything from SQL Engineering to JavaScript to SEO ranking.

    It offers consultation, design, and development services for custom software development. Some of their recent work includes designing and building a progressive web app for Indigo Life, a marketplace for life coaches and industry experts.

    Programmatis is part of the CometChat Partner Program, which grants them: 

    • Revenue share for each client/project
    • Special developer access to the CometChat platform
    • High access to tech support & solution engineers

    Choosing the right platform

    “The main reason we picked CometChat was that it supports Progressive Web Apps. That was our main criteria. I was also really encouraged by their tech support. Anytime we had a question before we started development, I was chatting with the engineering team.”

    Kyle Kuckleman

    Business Head, Programmatis

    Programmatis had recently signed two new clients that required them to build progressive web apps with features such as chat, and voice & video calling. First was a social media app called Engayge, specifically for the LGBTQ community. And the other was a mental health app called IndigoLife. For both projects, Programmatis’ engineering team knew that building chat and calling in-house was unfeasible due to the complexity and dedication involved. Hence, a third-party chat integration was the best way to go.  

    The engineering team scouted the internet for a chat integration that could easily work on progressive web apps. However, no chat integration in the market provided support for PWA development, except CometChat.

    “The main reason we picked CometChat was that the sales rep said it could be done on PWA. Everybody else? They didn't” said Kyle. “For example, we spoke to Twilio but they're not on PWA. We tried Sendbird and they weren't on PWA. So those were our top three - CometChat, Sendbird, and Twilio.”

    Kyle and his team were also very impressed with the pricing and revenue-share model, technical support, and special developer access they received as part of the CometChat Partner Program.

    “And your pricing was competitive too. That helped a lot” Kyle added. “Then there’s the support, I was really encouraged by the support. Anytime I had a question before we started development, I was chatting with the engineering team, asking questions even before we signed a commitment.” 

    Integrating chat with progressive web apps

    Building chat for progressive web apps proved to be much more challenging. Nonetheless, having in-app messaging, voice, and video was critical for both IndigoLife and Engayge’s businesses to succeed. But given a little help from CometChat’s support and solutions engineers Programmatis was able to find a fix.

    The CometChat support team and my team were just butting heads on this, and one of CometChat’s lead engineers just worked magic and suddenly everything came together perfectly – our whole web app started to work again. So it was perfect.”

    Kyle Kuckleman

    Business Head, Programmatis

    Soon both projects were complete as per their scope and the progressive web apps with chat, voice, and video ready for launch. 

    The Outcome

    After both IndigoLife and Engayge launched and started to drive in users, chat has become a significant part of their users’ journey. It’s helped keep users engaged and retain them for longer.

    “Both of those apps are actively using chat. They're getting quite a lot of users. IndigoLife’s user base is growing pretty rapidly. Their entire system is centered around CometChat. They don't have a web app if CometChat didn't exist. Although with Engayge, chat is an added feature and not essential to the platform, it’s been a very critical part of building a community. Overall, both our customers are very pleased. And we're so happy, too. And I think we're going to be building chat again. We have a lead on another project that we will be using CometChat for.”

    Kyle Kuckleman

    Business Head, Programmatis

    After two successful projects, Kyle and his team are already in talks with other customers about using CometChat.

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