10 Best In-App Chat Solutions for Businesses: Top Community Chat Tools in 2025

What Is In-App Chat

Users got used to communicating via messengers and social media. According to multiple reports, people rarely perceive the content without communicating simultaneously. In-app chats allow platforms to keep users engaged directly on their platforms, both websites and mobile apps. If your users want to discuss content while watching, playing, or learning, with in-app chat, they can do it without external apps or tools. With in-app chats, your users stay engaged, communicating with other users, staying in the context and don’t spread their attention between different platforms and your competitors’ ads. 

Key Features of In-App Chat Solution

While messengers and social media are developing, internal tools also should be trendy; otherwise, users won’t be interested in using them. Among principal features that users need to find in the in-app chat on any platform are highly developed moderation, customised tools as avatars and nicknames, engaging features as stickers. Let’s dig deeper into tools for users and for the platform owners who decide to integrate such features. What is important to check while choosing one?

Ease of integration and customisation

The obvious first point is straightforward integration. If you add in-app chat to your platform, you should easily understand how to do it. How to adjust it, and how to customise it, making the chat an organic part of the platform. The faster and more transparent the product team can integrate chat, the more convenient they can manage it, and the better the chosen solution.

Scalability & Performance

The in-app chat should not only be visually the organic part of the platform, but it should also perform in the best way with no latency, allowing users to communicate in real-time. On the contrary, users can lose trust in the host platform because in-chat, as already said, is perceived as a part of the host platform by users. 

Moderation & AI

If the chat is added to the app or website, it is even more crucial to keep the friendly and clean environment there. If the brand’s community is gathered on Instagram, the platform wonders if it can delegate the responsibility for the quality of conversations to the social media policies, but when users communicate directly on the platform, there is no one to take on this task. And the platform owner should be responsible for the absence of spam, scam, or any type of harassment or violation. In 2025, the manual tools and filters will not be enough, and the system to moderate communication has to be rich and precise, and it is impossible to achieve this today without AI tools, as the main or additional one. 

Live streaming in a chat

Of course, live streaming is not necessary for all platforms that want to allow their audience to communicate internally. Yet, for some platforms it can be highly beneficial, especially for industries with high levels of engagement, such as sports or with the value of expertise, like finance or education. Yet, live streaming can level up all platforms whose managers want to add additional value and compete with Twitch and Instagram.

Analytics and engagement

Engagement is good, but you need to measure it to understand if the tools work as you expect and help to grow the business. So, the in-app chat cannot be just a chat but needs to be enhanced with the back office, where the platform owner can follow all metrics required and manage the tools in a needed way: a dashboard with DAU, MAU, WAU, number of interactions, opportunity to use webhooks, and export all required data by request are essential.

Pricing and transparency

One of the most significant parameters while selecting the solution to integrate is, of course, pricing, on which factors this pricing depends. The most transparent part is the direct usage: how much money the platform pays for the solution is directly influenced by how many users join a chat or the number of messages they send. At the same time, the platform has to be sure that all users are their users, and all modes are adjustable for their particular needs. The opportunity to try solution bonfire integration can be a crucial point: it allows the platform to estimate what to expect from users' activity. 

Security and compliance

In-app chat is a direct interaction with the platform’s end-users, so any solution you choose has to meet all the requirements for data gathering and storage. If your users are primarily in the EU, it is necessary to meet GDPR compliance; if they are located in other countries, other compliance rules should be followed precisely. For sure, it has to follow ISO rules to make everything consistent.

10 Best In-App Chat Solutions (2025)

Let’s explore the most popular and convenient chat options, which are easy to integrate and which allow you to create rich communities and enhance your users’ conversations.

Watchers

The company provides fully customisable community chat tools that can be integrated on different platforms: any apps, websites, mobile or desktop web, and second-screen for TV. The most related domains for Watchers are VOD and streaming platforms, sports and fitness apps, stock and crypto trading services, and all types of media, which means Watchers chats are suitable for live content when users have topics to discuss in real-time. 

Additionally, Watchers emphasises the importance of a second screen in retaining sports audiences and attracting Gen Zers. Watchers is a plug-and-play solution that requires almost no development resources from the client's side. Additionally, Watchers offers a range of in-chat widgets and tailored solutions for various industries, strict moderation based on AI, and an opportunity to host in-app live streaming in addition to the main content.

Watchers’ developed chats help partners to gather a lot of user feedback, literally stay in touch with the real audience; the company offers semantic and sentiment analysis of UGC content. Therefore, clients can obtain high-quality initial data.

• Pricing model: subscription fee based on usage, free trial

• Moderation: multilingual, AI models, in-flight, filters, additional tools

• Tech stack: WebView, APIs for widgets, webhooks for additional analytics

• Domains: video platforms; sports; gaming; stock trading services

• Founded in the UK, 2021

Sceenic

The product of this UK-based company is primarily focused on a watch-together experience, provided through chat based on SDK and API technology. That can be film, series, sports, or live music events. These tools offer opportunities to simultaneously watch and communicate via audio or video, co-watching with guests and celebrities, or hosting a private watch party, as it has become increasingly popular during the pandemic. Users can send invitations to each other and notifications about their friends’ groups. Analytics enable partners to view in real-time the number of rooms opened on the platform and the time users spend in each room.

• Pricing model: not announced

• Tech stack: SDKs & APIs

• Domains: video platforms, sports, live events

• Founded in the UK, 2013

 Social +

It is a white-label social solution for apps or websites with in-app messaging SDKs and APIs. Among the most popular features are group and 1-1 live chats. User profiles are also available, and this is a popular functionality that matches several industries, such as fitness and healthcare, because it provides a simple way to offer consultations to users.

Social+ doesn't have a preferred domain and works with most of them, including retail, fintech, health and wellness, and fitness.

• Domains: any

• Pricing model: MAU-based monthly fee

• Tech stack: pre-built modules, chat SDKs, and API 

• Moderation: manual and automated, pre- or postmoderation, text and content moderation

• Founded in Thailand, 2020

Sendbird

The company provided mostly integrated chat and support chat tools, desks, audio calls, and live streaming on websites and apps, but now focuses on AI agents. The most popular Sendbird features are based on the users' opportunity to communicate via video, send GIFs, voice messages, and pictures to chats and AI text and voice agents. So, users can be supported in various ways. Also, there is a user profile to save all their chats—private and public.

• Domains: marketplaces, social communities, retail, and health

• Pricing model: monthly fee based on the number of messages, free trial; pay-as-you-go for moderation

• Tech stack: pre-built modules, SDKs, and API 

• Moderation: AI, manual tools, webhooks

• Founded in the US, 2013

LiveLike

LiveLike specialises more in interaction with audiences than in building communities. The platform appears to focus on developing engagement and informative widgets and tools, such as alerts and notifications. It helps activate users, grow engagement, increase revenue, and gather feedback.
 

• Domains: entertainment and sports platforms, fintech, e-commerce

• Pricing model: monthly fee based on the number of messages, free trial; pay-as-you-go for moderation

• Tech stack: SDKs, API, webhooks

• Moderation: AI-driven and keyword filtering, manual reviewing

• Founded in the US, 2015

Arena

The company offered in-app chat messaging SDK, but now it focuses mostly on live support chat with an AI-powered chatbot and ecommerce integration. Users can communicate via text and voice messages, and these conversations can serve as the basis for the first-party data that Arena gathers for its clients. However, it compensates with its agile performance and rapid responsiveness, ensuring a seamless experience through mobile browsers. 

• Domains: e-commerce

• Pricing model: monthly fee based on pageviews, a starter free plan offering 500 monthly pageviews

• Tech stack: SDKs, API, webhooks

• Moderation: AI-powered moderation and profanity filters

• Founded in the US, 2018

OpenWeb

OpenWeb is a social interaction platform focused on gathering online communities around digital content. By partnering with publishers, OpenWeb provides a rich moderation service. With a headquarter in New York, the company works globally with offices in Israel, California, France, the UK, and Canada. OpenWeb helps publishers and content creators to effectively manage comment sections, engage readers in polls, and curate blogs. One of the company’s goals is to cultivate valuable insights and enhance business outcomes. They provide sentiment and emotion analysis to optimise content engagement, offer essential data insights on trending topics, compelling articles, and user engagement. It helps partners to revolutionise the content strategy.

• Domains: media and publishers

• Moderation: 25+ AI/ML models plus their own LLM named Aida 

• Tech stack: embeddable components, SDK-like tools, APIs

• Pricing model: not announced publicly

• Founded in the US, 2015 

GetStream

GetStream offers real-time integrated chat, video calling, live streaming, and feed activities that can be sent to any device. Now the company also provides various AI agents like text, voice, and video ones. Their solutions are suitable for multiple industries.

• Domains: almost any possible digital platform: dating, social, sports, marketplaces, entertainment, and others

• Moderation: AI/ML-powered moderation

• Tech stack: SDKs and APIs 

• Pricing model: free tier, then paid MAU-based ones

• Founded in the US, 2014

PubNub

This company focuses on building business tools, rather than communities, but they also offer in-app chat tools and engagement widgets. PubNub is a platform designed to construct and manage lightning-fast, dependable real-time interactive mobile, web, and IoT applications, from essential chat functions to geolocation and dispatch services. They focus on security and empower businesses to integrate these capabilities seamlessly. Globally, more than 2000 companies foster connections among customers through their technology.

• Domains: Enterprise Software, gaming, EdTech, Fintech, sports

• Moderation: in-stream AI moderation (especially text/spam) built into the messaging infrastructure (sub-500 ms latency)

• Tech stack: in-app messaging SDKs 

• Pricing model: free tier, then paid MAU-based ones

• Founded in the US, 2010

CometChat

CometChat's communication platform facilitates effortless text chat (both one-on-one and group), voice and video calls, media sharing, and customer support chat. These features are available for websites and applications across various industries. The platform also aids partners in integrating their tools with new services from collaborators, fostering smoother connections.

• Tech stack: SDKs and UI kits 

• Pricing model: free starter options, then usage-based pricing, annually billing

• Moderation: automated moderation with AI-powered content filters

• Domains: Ed-tech, dating, live-streaming, marketplaces

• Founded in the US, 2009

How to Choose the Right In-App Chat Solution

The choice should be based on your needs and the type of your business. If we are talking about digital health apps, obviously, your users don't need any public chats with live feed and various widgets and stickers—they need direct private chats and AI assistance. When we are talking about entertainment and sports, public chats are essential to keep them engaged. So, before starting to choose the solution, you can make a checklist of your needs based on your priorities and domain.

In-App Community or External Platforms

There is always a way to build communities internally or to use community-building external platforms, like Discord, app chats, traditional social media, and messengers. But choosing this, the brand has to be ready to lose in their business metrics and accept the potential loss of users themselves.

Gathering users internally, brands not only grow retention and get the opportunity to increase revenue due to widgets, gamification, and additional sponsorship integrations, but also get the direct prices first-party data from their audience: what they want, what they think, and why they can be satisfied or unsatisfied. 

Build Your In-App Community with Watchers

At Watchers, we provide a fully customisable and easy-to-integrate solution that suits the needs of the industries where real-time communication can bring much value. It is suitable for entertainment and sports, but also for domains where expertise is crucial, like, for instance, trading. Newbies and experts can talk and discuss essential points, influencers can host live events and streams, and all of this is ongoing directly on your app or website. Due to these social tools, in-app communities help initial businesses grow and expand. Register right now to start or book a demo call to create your own in-app community.

FAQs about in-app chats

Which in-app chat API is the best?

You need to analyse in detail your needs and peculiarities of your domain to choose the best in-app chat solution for you. Look at the checklist above—it can help to understand what features are crucial for you, and which are optional.

How to integrate in-app chat with live streaming?

Several chat solutions described above include in-app live streaming as a feature. At Watchers, we offer live-streaming as an add-on. So, you don’t need any development; you just need to stream in chat directly or reuse streams from other platforms, like YouTube or Twitch.

What’s the difference between in-app chat and live chat widgets?

In-app chat is a place where users talk to each other and exchange ideas and opinions. Widgets are additional tools that help to keep them engaged, like polls, quizzes, giveaways, or pop-ups.

How secure are in-app chat SDKs?

If the solution provider follows all the needed rules, policies, and compliances, the user data is completely secure. Read more about Watchers' secure policies in our Trust Centre. 

How much does it cost to implement in-app chat?

Usually, the pricing depends on the usage of the chat features. Different providers count different metrics: chat visits, messages, or views. At Watchers, we count monthly active users, and before invoicing, we provide one month of the free trial to check whether users are interested in these features and adjust everything as needed. 

References & Further Reading

• Community Software | Capterra

• Why Community Engagement Is A Crucial Piece Of A Thriving Company Culture | Forbes

• Meet AIDA | OpenWeb Blog

• AI Content Moderation | GetStream

• Stop harmful content before users see it | PubNub

• Community Building tools | Software Advice

• What is Community Engagement? Definition, Types & Real Examples | Watchers blog

• Simultaneous Media Usage: A Critical Consumer Orientation to Media Planning | Research Gate

• GDPR Regulations: General Data Protection Regulation