How to Build Your Own Live Streaming App

With the advancement of camera technology in a smartphone and ease of internet access and the increasing demand of social media sites dedicated to watching videos, it is understandable that video is going to dominate the internet. Apart from videos, there is one other thing becoming more popular is live streaming technology. A live-streaming app is easy to build, and if you want to build one, then we will help you with that. So, let’s begin.

What Do You Need for a Live Streaming App?

One of the main reasons behind it is because it is popular, and it is getting more popular each day, and the number of users is increasing. With the technological trend, people are getting access to smartphones and internet connections, and their likeness towards watching video content increases even more. According to research cited by Neil Patel, 63 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 34 live stream video content regularly. And that is why you have the perfect atmosphere to build a live stream app. 

With the presence of a live streaming app, it gets easier for social media influencers and vloggers to broadcast videos. Additionally, live-streaming apps have made it easier to broadcast events, political debates, political debates, and others. It is another reason why people are more concentrated on building a live streaming app.

Finalize the Features Before Building the App

Whether you are thinking of making a live streaming software or native app, you must focus on some basic features such as:

A Signup/Sign In

With this feature, a user can sign up on your app as a verified user. Users have to give information about themselves to use the app. Make sure to give more than one signing-up option, which will make it easier for the users to sign up.

Settings Page and Profile

Here, the user will be able to see their profile and the settings of the page. Users can customize their profile with personal information like name, address, interests, and age. You can add other ways to register, like Facebook or other social media platforms, to make the process convenient and faster.

Notifications

With this feature, users can send a prior notification to their followers before going live. With this, the followers will be able to catch the live stream when it starts.

Social Media Sharing

Social media plays a huge role as well, so when you think about building an app, you must add social media interaction. This option will allow the users to reach more viewers.

Podcast and Broadcast

If you add a podcast, then it will be a great addition to the app. So many times, users love seeing a live stream of interviews. But some of them also like to listen to the voice while traveling, and that’s why the podcast option would be a great thing to have.

Storage Facility

If you want to make the video permanent in the app, then you need to add an in-App storage facility. With this feature, the users will be able to download the live streams.

Auto Quality Option

Auto-quality option is one of the most popular features. With this feature, the viewers can stream video easily. The auto option optimizes the quality of the video according to the internet speed.

Interactive Elements

Having interactive elements in the live streaming app would allow the users to react to the live stream and also commenting feature. In this way, the users will be able to engage more and get an amazing live streaming experience. 

How to Stand Out from Competitors

The UI of the app plays a key role, and it is responsible for making a good first impression. That is why you need to have a good UI so that your app will gain more popularity soon among the users. You need to follow the six principles of design in your app.

Structure

It means the placement of the elements on the screen in a useful way. Try to keep the design of your app consistent, clean, and meaningful. 

Simplicity

Users like to use an app with a simple design that doesn’t confuse them. In a live streaming app, people are going to get confused about so many things at first. That is why you need to make sure that the design stays simple and makes the streaming easy.

Visibility

The visibility determines what elements go on your screen. So don’t complicate things with unnecessary elements on your screen, and use only the necessary elements on the screen.

Feedback 

Create such a design for the users so that they are informed about all the changes, actions, and errors in the app.

Flexibility

The UI design of the app has to be flexible enough to grand the attention of the users. In this way, you will be able to reduce the cost during the design phase.

Reuse

With the reuse principle, you will be able to reduce the user’s need to remember and rethink when using the app. Don’t forget to maintain consistency by reusing internal and external components of design.

The Technology Behind the App

To build a good app, you need to use a robust tech stack and robust architecture supporting your application. The need for a great tech stack is undeniable in the building of an app. That is why it is important to make sure that your app has a good tech stack supporting it to give the best user experience. 

You need to make sure that your app stands out in the market. To achieve it, you need to have a unique and one-of-a-kind live-streaming app. By adding some of the bonus features, you will make the app unique and different. You can also add AI technology to take your live streaming app to the next level.

Sketch It and Design

After everything is confirmed, it is time to design the live streaming app. Here you need to write the code for the app.

4 Steps to Build a Live Streaming App

This tutorial explains the steps to integrate live video streaming into your app.

1. Generate your API Key

After you sign up for an API, go to your Dashboard, navigate to Settings > API Keys and click on ADD NEW button.

2. Generate access token

For security, every user that connects to live streaming needs an access token. By substituting API_KEY and SECRET_KEY  in it.

Note: Please note that this code is meant to be written on your backend server. Do not reveal your secret key to anyone. This sample is in Node.js but you can write the same in any other programming language with the help of a JWT library. Please check the JWT.io website for more details.

const express = require("express");
const jwt = require("jsonwebtoken");
const cors = require("cors");
const request = require("request");

const app = express();
const port = 9000;
app.use(cors());
app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

app.get("/get-token", (req, res) => {
  const API_KEY = process.env.VIDEOSDK_API_KEY;
  const SECRET_KEY = process.env.VIDEOSDK_SECRET_KEY;
  const options = { expiresIn: "10m", algorithm: "HS256" };
  const payload = {
    apikey: API_KEY,
  };
  const token = jwt.sign(payload, SECRET_KEY, options);
  res.json({ token });
});

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${port}`);
});

This guide will provide an overview of how to create live stream using a generated token in the previous step, Authentication.

Step 3: Create a Live Stream

Use the "Create live stream" Rest API to create a new live stream. It will return the upstream and downstream URLs in response.

app.get("/live", async (req, res) => {
  const token = req.headers.authorization;
  const options = {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      Authorization: token,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      name: "Nickname for livestream", // nickname for livestream
      record: true, // use false to disable recording
    }),
  };
  const response = await request(
    "https://api.videosdk.live/v1/livestreams",
    options
  );
  const json = await response.json();
  return res.json(json);
});

Step 4: Start Broadcasting

Use any RTMP-supported broadcasting software like OBS studio, to publish the video. Following are the steps for OBS Studio, Streamlabs, VideoLan, Ant Media, etc.

1. Add media source: In the sources section, choose a video feed to share.
2. Set streaming URL and key.
3. Start streaming.
4. Hurray! You are live now.

<head>
  <link href="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.10.2/video-js.css" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>
<body>
  <video
    id="my-video"
    class="video-js"
    controls
    preload="auto"
    width="640"
    height="264"
    data-setup="{}"
  >
    <source
      src="https://live.videosdk.live/live/cae23d5b-0c34-4429-a70b-0d597e5e0e96/index.m3u8"
      type="application/x-mpegURL"
    />
    <p class="vjs-no-js">
      To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a
      web browser that
      <a href="https://videojs.com/html5-video-support/" target="_blank"
        >supports HTML5 video</a
      >
    </p>
  </video>
  <script src="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.10.2/video.min.js"></script>
  <script>
    videojs.Hls.xhr.beforeRequest = (options) => {
      options.headers = {
        ...options.headers,
        Authorization: "`token` generated in step 1",
      };
      return options;
    };
  </script>
</body>