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How To Integrate Video Conferencing API Into Your Application

2021/08/27に公開

With people moving towards real-time and quick communications in the present digital times, it is crucial to match up with the latest technological advancements.

Well, video communication is one of the fastest growing modes of communication these days. Hence, as a business, you should be looking forward to utilizing its potentialities to the fullest. It can be leveraged to carry out the best business collaborations via enhanced video conferencing features.

Have you been planning to build a video conference app for your business lately? Are you wondering how to integrate the best video conferencing features into your mobile and web application? Fret not! We have got your back. In this article, we shall discuss everything revolving around how to integrate video conferencing APIs into your app that can give way to business growth and efficiency.

In this article, We Have Explained

  • An Overview About Video Chat APIs and SDKs
  • Benefits Offered by Video Call SDKs & APIs
  • What is the Use of Video Conferencing?
  • Challenges of Building Video Chat Apps From Scratch
  • Best Video Conferencing APIs and How Video SDKs Interact With Your Video Call Application
  • How Does the Video Call SDK Integrate With Your Application?
  • Wrapping Up

An Overview About Video Chat APIs and SDKs

Before discussing the ways to integrate video chat API or SDK into your application, it is essential to understand what exactly they mean.

Let us look closely at them one by one:

  • An efficient video call API has a list of advanced video conferencing features such as screen share, video recording, and others that can easily integrate into your app and lead to hassle-free video communications.
  • SDK stands for Software Development Kit and consists of a plethora of software development tools that help build a video conferencing application.
  • Getting SDK and API for your communication platform is far more affordable than building an application from scratch.

Benefits Offered By Video Call SDKs & APIs

Modern-age video conferencing APIs & SDKs are easy to integrate and implement and can help you build a video call app in no time. Here are some best video call solutions offered by video chat APIs and SDKs.

Enhanced Security

One of the best things about video chat API/SDK is that it generally has in-built security features that are automatically integrated into your application at the time of API implementation. In present times, people look forward to security more than anything. Hence, it can be said that high-quality security is one of the major concerns that is addressed by advanced video APIs.

Added Functionalities

Present video call APIs are not limited to the general chat features. They have significantly moved beyond them. Some of them can provide you with AI-powered chat functions and can also come up with machine learning capabilities. These highly advanced features can help you generate analytics for video conferencing.

Alleviated Costs

Since, there's no need to build the video conferencing app from scratch, APIs are easy on your pockets. You get customized options for different video calling features.

What is the Use of Video Conferencing?

Videos are being used as a medium of communication across different kinds of industries. Almost all types of business teams have been leveraging video conferencing to collaborate among themselves or with their customers.

Let us take a close look at some of the industries that conduct video conferencing for virtual interactions:

Healthcare

Given the Covid situation all around, virtual healthcare has gained a lot of popularity. Live video conferencing is one efficient part of telemedicine applications. Thanks to video conferencing, doctors can virtually check the symptoms for common healthcare issues in patients and provide quick care and treatment solutions. Moreover, video conferencing saves patients from standing in long queues to get an appointment with the doctor.

Learning Management System

Due to various Covid restrictions, many schools and colleges have been conducting online classes. With video conferencing, students can seamlessly collaborate with each other in real-time. One can also record the video conferencing calls for future purposes such as performing a presentation or others.

Customer Relationship Management

This is another area where video conferencing can be utilized efficiently. Present age video conferencing apps mostly come with video recording features. This way, business teams can review almost all conversations they have had with their customers and leads. They can easily identify and comprehend the pain points to improve business relations with their customers.

Real Estate

One way real estate can utilize video conferencing is to show properties online without having to be physically present there. It will enable customers to visit properties in a shorter period of time and will save them from the hassle of travelling from one place to another.

E-commerce

The E-commerce industry is growing at a fast pace each day. Most people prefer buying online. Thanks to video conferencing, even the purchase of electronic goods has risen. Engineers can easily connect with customers via video calls and guide them through the installation process of various electronic goods purchased.

HR department

Video conferencing has been a great help for the HR department too. It helps them to speed up the hiring process. It enables you to connect with the customers as soon as they are shortlisted.

Challenges of Building Video Chat Apps From Scratch

There are various challenges associated with building video chats from scratch. Let's take a close look at some of them:

Long Delivery Period

Building a video app from scratch is a complex tax. One needs to perform various tests before actually launching it. All this consumes a lot of time.

Operational Complexities

Building a video app from the ground requires you to set up an entire infrastructure. You are also required to manage and deploy it on your own. All of it may seem pretty complex and there are chances of incurring mistakes.

Security Compliance

You need to make sure that there's no loophole while setting up security measures for your video calling app. Privacy being one of the fundamental essentials of video conferencing cannot be handled lightly.

Best Video Conferencing APIs and How Video SDKs Interact With Your Video Call Application

There exists a wide range of third-party API providers that can help you in building your chat app. Let's have a close look at the best API providers that have modern video conferencing features.

Contus Mirrorfly

With Contus MirrorFly, you can streamline live video conference management on the go. It helps you manage, track, and enhance your virtual meetings, conferences, webinars, and discussions in one centralized hub. With insightful dashboard and analysis reports, you can simplify thousands of meetings or seminars taking place in one place. MirrorFly also supports on-demand streaming across channels. Some additional features include multi-conference scheduling and calendar, real-time active directory sync, and much more.

Twilio

Twilio helps you build memorable video experiences. It enables you to create bespoke video experiences via custom layouts. Twilio helps you leverage quality control tools like the Network Quality API to monitor network performance or the Network Bandwidth Profile API to prioritize video track bandwidth across participants.

Amazon Chime

Amazon Chime offers pay-per-use pricing, which means that you pay for the features that you use. There is no upfront investment. Reimagine video communications with screen share, control remote desktop, secure file sharing during meetings, and much more.

How Does The Video Call SDK Integrate With Your Application?

The integration involves various steps. We shall discuss each of them one by one. Keep reading!

Room Creation
  • The server application asks the SDK to create a meeting room.
  • Then the SDK validates the information and creates the room.
  • The video SDK further responds with the room SID.

Clients 1 Gets an Token Access

  • Client 1 requests an access token from the application server.
  • The application server leverages SDK account credentials to generate a secure token.
  • Client 1 gets the token.

Client 1 Gets Connected With Meeting Room

Client 2 connects to the room via video SDK and validates by utilizing the token.
The SDK further verifies the token. If the connection stands valid, the participant becomes a member of the meeting room.

Wrapping Up

As discussed earlier, almost all industries are appreciating the value of video conferencing for the smooth function of their business communications. The popularity of video conferencing applications is growing each day. There are various ready-to-deploy and customized video conferencing solutions available in the market. So, what are you waiting for? Get one for yourself and take your step towards building a robust video conferencing system.

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