Mobile consumption has reduced the average user’s attention span, thereby increasing the demand for quick and engaging video content. This increase in consumption led to the massive success of short-form video content platforms, such as YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. 

The rising demand and limited competition introduce the ideal time to build your own mobile video app. It is one of the most innovative ways to tap into this booming market, monetize through coins, and maintain complete control over your brand and audience.

However, developing such an application from scratch can get complex; that’s where you need Enveu. It allows you to launch a fully customized app like ReelShort in weeks, not in months. 

Interesting, right? Let’s dive into this guide to turn your vision into a powerful short-form entertainment platform.

How Does a ReelShort App Work?

Before diving into how to build an app like ReelShort, we first need to see what the platform offers and why it has struck a chord with users.

ReelShort, a Chinese video platform, has shot to fame for its punchy, serialized short dramas. Starting life in August 2022 under Crazy Maple Studio, it caters to those who want their entertainment in fast, digestible doses.

Its growth can be traced back to a smart marketing mix: targeted ads on Meta and a roster of influencers who share clips and behind-the-scenes snippets. The result? More than 30 million downloads worldwide, with US users alone accounting for nearly 40 percent.

How does a ReelShort app function? The flow is straightforward. Users grab the app from the Play Store for Android or the App Store for iPhone. After installation, they log in with a Google account and start scrolling the content library.

Most episodes stream for free, but premium dramas and the latest installments nudge users to spend coins—virtual currency bought through in-app payments. For on-the-go viewers, this setup is both quick and frictionless. Now that we see how the platform ticks, let’s turn to the roadmap for creating a similar app.

How to Build an App Like ReelShort: Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Market Research

Understand your audience’s interest area, demographics, and viewing patterns. Conduct surveys on preferred genres, such as romance, comedy, thriller, and other formats. After understanding the patterns, decide whether you want to produce your own original dramas, license the famous series, or allow creators to upload their content.

You can strategize things, draft content guidelines like video length, production quality, subtitles, and localization. Once preparing the strategy, map out a release schedule and forecast your initial content library.

Step 2: Design mobile-first user experience

Design the interface for one-handed use. Start by curating a smooth onboarding process that explains genres, how to unlock episodes, and other relevant details. Keep the navigation roomy and thumb-friendly, with minimum swipes to cycle through episodes.

Include a pause menu with like, share, comment, and watch list options. Ensure your UI elements are spaced for easy tapping and vertical player support full-screen playback with less or no clutter.  

Step 3: Develop a strong technical infrastructure

Choose a development strategy - native or cross-platform. If you want speed and simplicity, go for Enveu. It has low-code SaaS that offers ready-to-use mobile and web apps, CMS, AI recommendations, analytics, and monetization tools.

Host your videos on CDN with adaptive streaming and set up your backend to handle users, content, and transactions, especially at the time of traffic. Integrate a video transcoding pipeline for different quality levels.  

Step 4: Prioritize essential features

• Video player with autoplay - Plays the next episode automatically, which includes locked episode indicators that require coins.
• User registration and profile - It will show coin balance, watch history, favorites, and settings.
• Content tagging - It will help users to explore similar content, support search and genre filters.
• Engagement options - This will give users the option to like, comment, share on socials, and follow the series.
• Notifications - This feature will keep users updated with the new drops and notifications related to coins.
• Offline viewing - This feature allows users to download a limited number of episodes with encryption.

Step 5: Monetization system

Set up a virtual coin system that includes free introductory coins and in-app purchases. Decide which content requires coins and which will be free to access. You can use Enveu’s integration with subscriptions, pay-per-view, ad modules, and payment gateways.

If you plan to include ads, Enveu supports ad-service integrations as well. Integrate analytics in the admin panel to track in-app purchases, ad performance, and subscription conversions.

Step 6: Add advanced features and optimization

Though the basic ones can make your platform good, yet some additional ones will optimize the functioning:

• AI recommendation - Connect your app to Enveu’s recommendation API or SDK. This will pull the user's watch history and return a list of suggested videos. You can integrate the output into your homepage as a recommended section using the frontend framework.
• Offline content - Use APIs to save encrypted video files locally. Integrate a video player that supports an offline playback option. You can also download the CMS and manage limits per user using Enveu.
• Social sharing tool - Add sharing buttons with linking libraries to generate links that open specific videos in the app.
• Multilingual support - Upload subtitle files and additional audio tracks to your video assets. You can modify your video players to support language selection.

Must-Have Features in an App Like ReelShort

ReelShort app is quite different from other short-form platforms because of the way it blends cinematic storytelling and mobile-first design. Each feature is built to improve user experience, drive engagement, and support monetization. A deeper view on its feature list include:

1. Vertical video player - You can watch content in full-screen vertical format. It makes video immersive and thumb-friendly, essential for on-the-go user base.
2. Swipe-based navigation - It allows users to swipe through episodes and series without many steps. It mimics the intuitive behavior popularized by platforms like TikTok. This fluid navigation style keeps the content uninterrupted, encourages exploration, and binge-watching.
3. Episode-based short dramas - ReelShort App breaks narratives into bite-sized chunks, each lasting 1-3 minutes. This encourages binge-watching while respecting users’ time constraints. It also creates a powerful storytelling cadence by encouraging the audience to come back for the next episode.
4. Coin/credit system - A virtual currency model is introduced, which is common in mobile video apps. It enables flexible monetization without blocking the content. This gamified model proved effective as it converts the casual viewers to paying ones without forcing hard paywalls.
5. Custom recommendation algorithm - It has AI-driven suggestion features that surface content users actually care about, boosting engagement and increasing retention.
6. Offline viewing - The app has a feature to download the episodes with intermittent data access and watch multiple times offline. It also boosts watch time, especially in areas of lower internet speed.
7. Watchlist functionality - Users get a seamless track of their last watched video. They can pick up where they left off and continue the rhythm. This watchlist feature also lets users bookmark their shows, which turns casual intent into future engagement.

Monetization model for maximum revenue

You can introduce the following monetization models to increase the viewers and maximize the revenue:

• Individual purchase - Allows users to buy single episode packs or series bundles.
• Branded content - Allow users to collaborate with sponsors for sponsored episodes.
• Creator revenue share - It incentivizes producers through monetization split.
• Subscription tiers - This is the most used one, offering users monthly/yearly plans with perks.
• Freemium with coins - Free first episode, then using paid coins for premium ones.

How Much Would It Cost to Build A Like Reelshort?

Technical Consideration to make better ReelShort like App

Behind the best mobile video experience is a strong technical foundation. To build an app like ReelShort, you need more than just great content- you need performance, security, and scalability.

• First, you should ensure that the streaming experience is fast and buffer-free. To deliver an exceptional one, use adaptive bitrate technology like HLS or DASH with CDN caching to ensure video load instantly on any connection.
• Second, your application should work flawlessly across multiple screens like phones, tablets, and smart TV. This requires careful cross-platform development. App store compliance is also a good solution here especially for in-app purchases, DRM, and child safety laws like COPPA.
• Third, data protection is a priority. Necessary actions like encrypting offline content, using HTTPS, and following privacy laws like GDPR should be in your checklist.
• Finally, optimize the app performance to reduce battery drain, and loading time.

Conclusion

We are in the middle of a mobile video revolution era where short-term storytelling app like ReelShort app are no longer a trend. Audiences are craving content that’s fast, addictive, and accessible with a thumb swipe.

If you’ve been thinking about building your own mobile video app, this is the moment. Enveu makes the process simple for the ReelShort app makers by endless feature availability. You own the product, the brand, and the revenue with the support of Enveu content delivery and monetization solutions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)