Numerous Parenting Applications are experiencing new-found growth in their business due to increasing Parental concerns and anxiety. 

Parenting Applications are also available to help parents in all phases, be they soon-to-be Mom-Dad, Parent of an infant, or Parent to a kid or teenager. These Apps work with Hospitals, Doctors, Teachers, Schools, and Colleges to become a single touchpoint for almost every child-related problems and requirements. 

Some of the Parenting Applications allow users to track the daily activity of their children, including things like when their kids reach school, when they left and many more, while other applications help parents to handle daily life struggles like health problems, choosing the best Baby Products or choosing the Best School. The sole purpose of these applications is to assure the parents that their child’s security as well as their needs are taken care of.

So, let us understand how enabling In-App Chat in Parenting Applications can enhance their user experience and be an asset for their growth.

1)  Impact of integrating In-App Messaging in Parenting Apps

There are 3 stages when a child needs to be nurtured: from Pregnancy to Infancy, from Toddler to School Age and from School Age to Teenage. Parenting applications normally revolve around parents’ problems specific to one or more of these stages. Although these applications are providing a good number of functionalities, one important feature that many of them are lacking is In-App Communication. 

Let us look at all the three stages one-by-one and understand how In-App communication can prove to be an influential feature for Parenting Apps.

1.1)  Pregnancy to Infancy to Toddler 

Let’s examine a situation here: Parents’ responsibility increases when they decide to bring a new human into this world. Their number one priority being health makes them even more concerned. This can result in a significant increase in anxiety and pressure in Parents. 

Similarly,  a Child at this age also experiences a wide range of emotions, including joy, excitement, sadness, anger, and fear. According to Psychologists, this is the primary stage every child goes through and is known as Emotional Regulations. 

At this point in time, Parents will be looking for instant assistance and guidance from doctors, relatives, close friends, or other parents who have been-there-done-that, instead of looking for answers over the Web. They value a private community of trust, that addresses pressing issues, more than a platform that merely provides generalized information. This led to an increase in the development of Applications and Websites in the Parenting Domain. 

Although Several businesses in Parenting Applications Domain have gained access to App-Driven technologies to ensure childcare and protection, they are unable to provide a personalized environment for their users. 

Now take a look at the following Impact that In-App Chat can have for such cases:

1. Healthcare or Parenting Applications powered by User-to-User In-App Communications can help parents get in contact with such people as mentioned above, in Real-Time! An intuitive Chat UI would enable parents to also share medical and diagnostic reports of their children.
2. Members of Niche Online Communities in the domain of Parenting powered with In-App Chat can ask for guidance from other parents and experts to understand the Emotional Regulations their child is going through. Chat features like media sharing, URL sharing with previews, and audio messages make information sharing very seamless.

1.2)  Middle Childhood (Toddler- Preschool Age)

Some of the major problems children and their parents have to go through: The major challenge a kid might face at an early age is Developmental Disorders. These comprise learning disorders, developmental language disorders or motor disorders. And it can take years for a parent to figure out. Most of these Disorders can improve with a child’s growth, but some can include damage throughout life. 

Another major issue a child has to go through is Bullying in School. According to the American Psychological Association, 40% to 80% of children face bullying at some point in their school life. This led the children to struggle often to open up, even to their parents.

“This age is one of the most active and frustrating in terms of parenting.”, according to Michele Borba, EdD, author of The Big Book of Parenting Solutions.

Below are a few benefits of enabling In-App Chat that can help with the above problems: 

1. Treatment of Development Disorders usually includes specialized training to assist the child in developing needed skills. Parents can get these pieces of training over the In-App Chat Platform of a Parenting App. Experts will be able to share their advice with parents over Video or Voice Call in Real-Time.
2. In-App Messaging can help these parents to interact with fellow parents or teachers in 1-to-1 Messaging or in Group Chats directly so they can get non-judgemental answers and understand their kid’s situations. 

Credits: Bloomz.net

1.3)  Teenage

Some of the major problems children and their parents have to go through:

For most of the parents with kids aged between 11-18, the major concern is depression. According to the WHO, more than 20% of adolescents suffer from depression every year. A Child with mental illness suffers major challenges with isolation, discrimination, lack of healthcare and education. Another Major Challenge a parent may face is their child’s newfound sense of independence. 

Children also face numerous challenges in this stage. Some of the major challenges are the Fear of Uncertainty and Fear of Rejection. A child slowly begins to understand the nature of the big world out there. Even though they start to cherish their independence, there is no doubt that they need the dependence of their parents to help them in navigating their way through life.  

Below are some features of In-App Chat that can help parents in similar situations: 

1. With the help of In-App Communication in Parenting Applications (mainly in Healthcare), parents can get in touch with Experts, Teachers or Doctors to get advice. This way parents will be able to strengthen advocacy, provide effective leadership and governance for their child’s adolescent mental health. 
2. The modern Education industry can utilize Technology in many areas to enable communication between various people of the ecosystem, such as in Schools and Colleges, between Parent – Teacher / Student – Teacher, etc. It can also drive initiatives that center on education, and to raise the quality of Online Tutoring Sessions. Schools and Colleges can also benefit greatly from making Chat an integral feature of their Apps.
3. Advanced In-App Messaging providers like Channelize.io also support features like Location Sharing,  Last Seen, and Presence Indicators which gives parents a Real-time insight into their child’s whereabouts. 

2)  Some other features of In-App Chat:

Apart from the features mentioned above, In-App Chat some features can also be useful in the following cases: 

• Privacy: After the integration of the In-App Chat feature, users will not have to share their mobile numbers, email IDs, or any other personal contact information to initiate a conversation unless they want to. For example:
  
  ~ In Online Communities: One parent might not want to share contact details with another Parent.
  
  ~ In Education Sector: Teacher might not want to share their personal contact numbers with a Parent.
  
  ~ In Healthcare: App might not want to share Doctor’s contact info with parents. 
• Broadcast is another major feature of the In-App Chat Platform. business admins can send important announcements, discount offers, seasonal messages, etc.  For Example:
  
  ~ In Education: Schools and Colleges may send announcements to Parents reminding them of different activities like Sports Events, Cultural Events or Exams  
  
  ~ In Healthcare: Hospitals can share news related to different new medications, remind parents of their Kids Medications, Share experts advice and many more.
  
  ~ In E-Commerce: Users can get the availability or arrival of different Products related to kids. 

3)  Conclusion:

The above are some of the many possibilities with Real-Time Communication features in Parenting Apps. Such messaging needs to look user-friendly, and it needs to work well. One way Parenting Application developers can increase engagement is by providing feature-rich In-App Communication, whether text chat, voice or video calls to keep high volume user interaction. And needless to say, Channelize.io can help those Apps achieve their vision faster and that too with way lesser expense. 

We offer a feature-rich and highly customizable product. It is also quick to integrate our product and easy to use. Check out Channelize.io Web Demo or download ‘Channelize Real-time Messenger’ App from Android Playstore or iOS App Store to see for yourself.