What is a Chat API?

A chat API facilitates real-time message exchange between two or more users. Developers use it to incorporate chat functionality into existing software applications or to create chat applications without having to start from scratch.

Chat APIs offer multiple features, such as sending and receiving text messages, images, audio, video, and other multimedia file types. They provide pre-built chat functionality for creating 1-on-1 chats, public and private chat rooms, and managing and moderating users and chat conversations.

Read more about the difference between a Chat API and Chat SDK here.