December 2020 Summaries

Agora Native SDK 3.2.0 was released on November 30, 2020, introducing new features such as Voice Beautifier and Video Beautifier for enhancing voice and video quality during meetings or other scenarios. The Voice Beautifier now includes a setVoiceBeautifierPreset method with various presets to modify the user's voice, while the Video Beautifier allows users to adjust contrast, brightness, smoothness, and red saturation on macOS. Additionally, a new audio profile for meetings has been added, and updates have been made to screen sharing on macOS and Windows.

Pokerface, a mobile app developed by Comunix Ltd., brings players together worldwide with real-time voice chat, video chat, and messaging features for an interactive gaming experience grounded in human interaction. The app was created using the Unity 3D development platform and Agora's SDK, which provided superior video quality with low latency. Pokerface delivers interactive, face-to-face play using real-time video chat, engaging up to five friends from any part of the world. Since its release in 2018, millions of downloads have been recorded on both iOS and Android platforms, with daily active users increasing by 10X in the last two years. The app has an average rating of 4.7 on a 5-star scale and increased daily engagement time by 35% more than industry average.

This tutorial demonstrates how to build a scalable video conferencing application using Agora, an SDK that optimizes bandwidth usage for video streams. The author provides step-by-step instructions on setting up the project in Android Studio and creating the UI with Kotlin. They also explain how to configure the RtcEngine object, set up remote videos using RecyclerView, handle user joining and leaving events, and clean up resources when the application is destroyed. The tutorial includes a link to the GitHub repository containing the complete codebase for the demonstration.

In a discussion with four successful business executives, it was highlighted that having a great business idea is just the beginning. Entrepreneurs need to have a smart business plan, choose the right technology partners, and know when and how to raise capital. Additionally, they should listen to their customers, learn from other business owners, get started, work on something they enjoy, and surround themselves with people they trust. The four entrepreneurs shared their experiences, steps taken, and best practices in starting a successful business in the Real-Time Engagement market.

Companies are adapting to remote work environments by exploring different perspectives on whether fully distributed or hybrid work will be more effective. Many employees miss face-to-face interaction, leading companies like Loop Team to develop virtual office solutions that encourage serendipitous communication and create a sense of presence in remote work settings. Using Agora's Real-Time Engagement platform, Loop Team provides custom apps with embedded voice and video calling, recording features, and real-time messaging to foster meaningful connections among distributed teams.

This tutorial guides developers on how to build a simple microservice using Java and Jersey to generate an Agora RTC token for video chat applications. The guide assumes that the reader has knowledge of Apache Tomcat, IntelliJ IDEA IDE, Docker, REST framework, and basic understanding of classes in Java. It covers setting up a Jersey project, creating a Hello World API, generating an Agora token, and deploying the application on a Ubuntu VM using Docker. The tutorial also provides additional resources for further learning about tokens for Agora applications.