In-App Community
What is In-App Community?
An in-app community forms on a social platform within an application or website. This social layer can include a forum, chat, or other digital environment for user interaction without leaving the host platform. Unlike social media groups on platforms like Discord or Telegram, an in-app community exists and interacts within the application itself.
Instead of being a silent app where users passively consume content or services, the application becomes a digital hub where users are active participants, and the app or website gains its own internal social network.
In-App Community vs. External Platforms (Discord, Telegram, X)
Traditionally, many businesses try to create a community by sending users to social media, because building it inside the app was impossible. However, this created a problem, since, as soon as the user follows the external link, their session on the initial app is terminated, and the user is immediately exposed to other apps and channels.
Why Businesses Build In-App Communities
The move towards in-app communities is driven by the need to solve the "leaky bucket" problem, where users who are expensive to acquire leave.
Retention and Loyalty: When users form attachments to one another within your platform, they are more likely to stick around. Based on our experience, active social features can increase session time by 10% to 50% in the first few months.
Contextual Interaction: The conversation occurs in real time alongside the action (e.g., community chat appearing as an overlay on top of a video player).
Ownership of the Social Graph: You can tie chat behaviour to user accounts to find high-value users or those at risk of leaving.
Organic Growth: Users who feel emotionally attached to the platform will perform financial action, like membership or subscription prolongation, more probably.
Essential Features for In-App Community
Digital communities get used to using various features that support their active interaction. If the business wants to create its own community internally, they need a set of tools to create a healthy, high-energy interaction experience.
Real-Time Chat: High-capacity community chat to deal with massive traffic surges during live events.
Interactive Content: Integration with in-app live streaming to enable influencers or experts to create content directly with the community.
Moderation Tools: Advanced moderation layers to remove spam, scams, and toxicity in real time and protect user personal data is essential. Also, if these tools worl well, it will be your advantage comparing to traditional social media where communication can be risky.
Translation Features: Integration with AI-powered translation tools to enable users to speak in multiple languages in one social space.
Gamification: Awarding members with unique, non-repetitive achievements to drive high-energy engagement.
How to Implement an In-App Community
Creating a new internal social network is an engineering effort that requires infrastructure like WebSocket and ongoing maintenance. Today, many product teams use an integrated social layer approach instead of building everything from scratch, adding a social layer with SDK, API, webview, or iFrame. Read our guide on how to build in-app community and retain audience within your platfrom.
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