February 2021 Summaries

Real-time engagement (RTE) app developers often use PaaS providers for building and scaling their applications with high quality and reliability. However, before choosing a PaaS partner, it is crucial to consider data privacy, security, and standards compliance. Agora, an RTE platform, has designed its network, SDKs, and products keeping these factors in mind. Developers should ask potential PaaS providers about their implementation of data security standards, certification by reputable third parties, options for securing media streams, response to security vulnerabilities, regional law compliance, and advanced georouting capabilities. Agora meets international standards with GDPR compliance in Europe, CCPA compliance in California, and offers HIPAA compliance as an option for relevant customers in the healthcare industry under BAA.

This tutorial guides developers on creating a live streaming iOS application using the Agora Voice and Video SDK, which enables low-latency live streams for a global audience. The app allows users to be either streamers or audience members in a session. The setup is similar to creating a regular video call with Agora, but with different roles: audience and broadcaster. The tutorial includes prerequisites, setup instructions, and detailed steps on how to create the live streaming iOS application. It also provides additional resources for building applications using Agora SDKs and an invitation to join the Agora Developer Slack community.

Tiffany Xingyu Wang, Chief Strategy Officer at Spectrum Labs, discusses the importance of creating safe online communities to prevent negative user experiences that can impact brand equity and stakeholder investments. She highlights the complexity of monitoring content and emphasizes the need for moderation engines to understand platform guidelines. Wang also talks about the role of real-time engagement platforms like Agora's in enabling people to interact virtually through audio, live video streaming, and chat. She mentions that consistent enforcement of community guidelines is crucial to protect users from harm and maintain brand safety. Spectrum Labs provides a contextual AI approach for content moderation, identifying over 40 disruptive behaviors in various languages and ensuring optimal effectiveness. Wang believes companies should invest in Safety by Design to differentiate their brands and protect their revenues.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to create an iOS live audio streaming application using Agora SDKs. The requirements include an Agora developer account, Xcode 11.0 or later, an iOS device running on iOS 13.0 or later, a basic understanding of iOS development, and CocoaPods. The project setup involves creating an iOS App with Xcode, adding a Podfile to the same directory as your xcodeproj, installing AgoraAudio_iOS and AgoraRtm_iOS pods, and opening the resulting xcworkspace instead of the xcodeproj. The guide then covers how to create a form for users to select the channel they want to connect to, a username, and whether they're going to be streaming or a member of the audience. It also explains how to connect to Agora RTC (Real-Time Communication) SDK for Voice and Video, and Agora RTM (Real-Time Messaging) SDK. The final application allows users to listen to live audio streams with ease, making it perfect for tuning into different speakers at an online conference or listening to a live podcast feed in real-time.