September 2021 Summaries

The future of interactive gaming involves leveraging Real-Time Engagement (RTE) tools within virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). As social gaming evolves, users demand fully immersive experiences that include live interactive video and voice chat. To achieve this, it takes more than a well-developed game; it requires high-quality real-time video solutions with clear audio and clean interfaces. Agora's real-time voice, video, 3D Spatial Audio, and live interactive streaming are powering gaming systems, turning multiplayer games into social platforms. Their intelligent real-time network (SD-RTN™) provides a consistent, high-quality experience for players to focus on the game and inter-player interactions.

This tutorial demonstrates how to integrate video calling into a dating app using Flutter, Agora SDK, Firebase, and other plug-ins. The aim is to increase user engagement by allowing users to interact through video calls based on their shared interests. The process involves setting up user authentication, matching users based on their interests, testing camera and microphone functionality, creating a call page with a Tinder-like UI, and implementing messaging functionality using Agora's RTM SDK. By combining RTC (Real-Time Communications) and RTM (Real-Time Messaging), the app enables speed dating features where users can connect based on their shared interests and engage in video calls or messaging after matching. The complete code for this application is available, along with additional resources and documentation to explore further use cases of Agora's Flutter SDK.

Agora's website provides various points of contact, including a phone number and physical address in Santa Clara, California, as well as email and social media links spanning platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Medium, and GitHub. It offers a secondary navigation menu that includes information on pricing, company details, compliance policies, and investor relations, alongside resources for developers and customer support. The site emphasizes user consent for cookies to enhance user experience and traffic analysis, with options available for users to learn how to opt out of cookie usage.

In this tutorial, learn how to create an application that enables users to be either a streamer or an audience member in a session using Agora's Voice and Video SDK version 4.0.0. The setup is similar to creating a video call with Agora, but differs slightly in roles: audience and broadcaster. Prerequisites include an Agora developer account, Xcode 12.0 or later, and an iOS device with iOS 13.0 or later. Create the project in Xcode, add Agora's 4.0.0 Preview Swift Package, and then create a basic UIViewController with a button to join the channel. Next, create the ChannelViewController.swift file containing the UIViewController subclass called ChannelViewController, which displays the Agora pieces. The main callback methods needed for a basic streaming session are didJoinedOfUid, didOfflineOfUid, didClientRoleChanged, and firstRemoteVideoDecodedOfUid. Other resources include the Agora Video Call Quickstart Guide and Agora API Reference.

This tutorial guides developers through building an Android live streaming application using the Agora SDK, which provides low-level control over the streaming service and ensures scalability, call drops, and latency are not issues. The project requires a basic understanding of Android development and includes setting up permissions for camera and microphone access. The resulting application allows multiple broadcasters to stream live video while audiences can subscribe to their preferred streams. Developers can also add features such as switching the camera or muting the microphone.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to create a video chat app using the Agora SDK in just an hour. The requirements include Xcode 10.0+, a physical iOS device, CocoaPods, and an understanding of building iOS layouts with Storyboard. The process involves setting up the Agora library with CocoaPods, adding camera and microphone permissions, configuring the scene in Main.storyboard, initializing the Agora engine, enabling video, joining a channel, setting up remote video, and polishing the app by adding functionality to buttons. The completed app can be found at the provided link.

In this tutorial, we will build a basic video chat app for Android using the Agora Video 4.0 SDK Preview. The prerequisites include Android Studio, basic knowledge of Java and Android SDK, and an Agora.io developer account. We will follow these steps: 1. Get your App ID from the Agora Console. 2. Integrate JCenter into the project level /app/build.gradle file. 3. Set up the Agora App ID in the Android project's Strings.xml file and add necessary permissions within Manifest.xml. 4. Set up views for the UI elements, such as ImageView or Button. 5. Check permissions by requesting users to grant access to camera and audio recording. 6. Initialize the Agora SDK, set up user profile, and configure video quality settings. 7. Connect the video streams by setting up local and remote video containers. 8. Set up the SDK Event Handler to handle various events triggered by the engine. 9. Join and leave channels using the engine's joinChannel() and leaveChannel() methods. 10. Add other functionality, such as toggling microphone and video streams on the local device. The full source code is available at https://github.com/digitallysavvy/android-video-chat-demo/tree/ngsdk-update.

In this tutorial, we built a live streaming application using the Agora Flutter SDK with an add-on feature that can switch the client role in live streaming. The user can join as a host using the Agora RTM SDK. We covered the project setup, home page creation, and live stream page building. Additionally, we discussed how to build the broadcaster view and audience view interfaces. Finally, we tested the app on a device and provided resources for further learning about the Agora Flutter SDK.

Expo SDK 42 enables customization of native runtime for apps using custom development clients, allowing use of libraries with native code without resorting to bare workflow. This feature is easy to set up and start using. However, it cannot be tested with the Expo Go app and requires setting up Android Studio or XCode. Node.js LTS release, Git, Yarn, and Expo CLI are required for installation. The new SDK allows use of native modules without leaving managed workflow. Custom clients can now leverage power of Expo with flexibility of native modules.

This tutorial demonstrates how to build a scalable video-conferencing application using Agora's Flutter SDK, optimizing bandwidth usage for incoming streams. The application can scale up to 17 users and includes features such as dual-stream mode, event handlers, grid view creation, and cleanup methods. To test the app, five or more users are required to join the channel for video quality optimization. The complete application code is available on GitHub.

Agora, a leading provider of real-time engagement services, has launched its Extensions Marketplace. This marketplace offers developers an easy way to find and integrate new features into their apps, such as advanced noise cancelling, face filters, video background removal, transcription, speech analytics, voice effects, and content moderation. The marketplace supports a growing range of extensions with quick provisioning and easy integration using just a few lines of code. Unified billing allows customers to manage all additional fees and charges via Agora's billing system, simplifying the process for developers.