Build a messaging platform — the infrastructure for a communication-first product.
A messaging platform is more than chat. It's the communication layer that a product is built around — like WhatsApp, Slack, or iMessage. If messaging is the core of your product, the architecture needs to be designed for it from day one.
Founder building a product where messaging is the core value proposition, not just a feature — requiring message infrastructure designed for scale and extensibility
Building a messaging platform is one of the most technically challenging categories in software:
Delivery guarantees: Messages must be delivered exactly once, in order, even across network failures and reconnections. This requires sequence numbers, acknowledgements, and a message queue.
End-to-end encryption: Privacy-first messaging requires E2E encryption (Signal Protocol). Keys are managed on device. The server can't read message content. This changes the entire data model.
Scale: At 100k daily active users sending 20 messages per day = 2M messages/day = 23 messages/second. The infrastructure needs to handle this with sub-100ms latency.
Multi-device sync: Users expect messages to sync across devices. This requires a last-seen per device and efficient message sync on reconnect.
For most messaging products: These are aspirational requirements, not day-one requirements. An MVP messaging platform can use managed infrastructure (Stream Chat, Ably) and migrate to custom infrastructure at scale.
Messaging platform deployed — real-time messaging infrastructure, user identity, delivery guarantees, and extensibility for additional message types
Message infrastructure
WebSocket server with Ably or custom
User identity and contacts
phone/email identity, contact discovery
Conversation model
1:1 and group conversations
Message types
text, media, reactions, replies
Delivery receipts
sent, delivered, read per message
Push notifications
FCM and APNs for offline delivery
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
Messaging platform deployed — real-time messaging infrastructure, user identity, delivery guarantees, and extensibility for additional message types
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
Messaging platforms have defined scope for V1. Fixed-price from the spec.
Related engagements.
Questions, answered.
Use Stream or Sendbird for the V1 messaging infrastructure. They handle the hard parts (WebSocket scaling, delivery guarantees, push notifications). Migrate to custom infrastructure when the cost justifies it at scale.
React Native with Expo for iOS and Android. Native push notification handling via Expo Notifications (FCM for Android, APNs for iOS). One codebase for both platforms.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.