How to Build App with Live Stream SDK for iOS

Given the rapid growth of the live streaming market, many companies have launched their own iOS live stream SDK. How to choose a professional live-streaming SDK for iOS? Here will introduce ZEGOCLOUD, especially developing live streaming SDK for iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native, which offers an easy-to-integrate SDK for live streaming apps.

What Features Do You Need for Live Streaming

According to eMarketer forecasts, 2.72 billion people will watch videos on their mobile phones in 2023. In 2019 the number was 2.16 billion, increasing with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6%. With the continuous expansion of the live streaming industry, this industry specializes in several sub-industries: game live streaming, education live streaming, sales live streaming, and entertainment live streaming.

Features

Different live-streaming industries require specific functions.

The essential functions are:

Room management
Audio and video chat push-pull stream management
Device management
Member management
Barrage

Among advanced functions, there are:

Screen sharing
shopping cart
Gift effects
Host PK
Make co-hosts

A comprehensive live-streaming application is a complex system. Most enterprises opt for a live stream SDK for iOS to quickly build a live broadcast platform and access the live streaming market.

What is Provided by the iOS Live Streaming SDK

The development of the live streaming SDK is also evolving in a simple and convenient direction, from providing the underlying audio and video transmission capability for a complete live streaming solution to the current compact solution. Besides meeting customers’ requirements for rapid construction, it satisfies various personalized needs.

ZEGOCLOUD’s latest iOS Live Streaming SDK Kit constitutes a compact, independent component solution that provides rich UI custom interfaces. Users select components according to their own needs and customize the UI.

ZEGOCLOUD Live Streaming Kit is a powerful tool for developers who want to integrate live streaming capabilities into their applications. With its user-friendly interface and extensive features, this kit is designed to make live streaming easy and accessible for everyone.

Here are the key features of Live Streaming Kit:

1. Seamless Integration

Integrating the ZEGOCLOUD Live Streaming Kit into any application requires minimal effort, thanks to the inclusion of an SDK that facilitates the quick and easy addition of live streaming capabilities to your app.

2. High-Quality Video Streaming

With ZEGOCLOUD Live Streaming Kit, you can provide high-quality video streaming to your users. The kit supports H.264 and H.265 video codecs, ensuring users receive a smooth, high-quality streaming experience.

3. Multi-Platform Support

With support for multiple platforms, such as iOS, Android, Web, Flutter, and React Native, the ZEGOCLOUD Live Streaming Kit enables you to seamlessly add live-streaming capabilities to your app, regardless of the target platform.

4. Real-Time Analytics

The kit provides real-time analytics, which can be used to track user engagement and measure the success of your live-streaming campaigns. This feature can help optimize your streaming strategy and improve your user experience.

5. Customizable User Interface

ZEGOCLOUD Live Streaming Kit allows you to customize the user interface to match the branding and design of your application. This ensures that the live streaming feature seamlessly integrates with your app and provides a consistent user experience.

6. Low Latency Streaming

The low latency streaming feature of ZEGOCLOUD Live Streaming Kit allows you to offer your users minimal delay between the live event and their view, resulting in a real-time experience that enhances their overall viewing experience.

7. Cloud-Based Infrastructure

The kit is built on a cloud-based infrastructure, ensuring your live streaming service is scalable and reliable. With this setup, your service can handle large traffic volumes and provide a seamless user experience, even during peak usage.

How to Build an App with Live Streaming SDK for iOS

Next, I will use the live video streaming iOS SDK to quickly demonstrate how to build a live video streaming app.

1) Add ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreaming as a dependency

Integrate ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreaming SDK through the pod as follows, add pod ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreaming in Podfile file. Then execute the command pod install in Terminal. For detailed operation, please refer to Quick Access Documentation.

target 'ZegoCallDemo' do
  use_frameworks!
 
  # Pods for ZegoCallDemo
  pod 'ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreaming'
 
end

2) Import ZegoUIKitSDK & ZegoUIKitPrebuiltCall to your project

In the file that needs to be called the SDK interface, import the SDK through import.

import ZegoUIKitSDK
import ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreaming
// YourViewController.swift
class MainViewController: UIViewController {
    //Other code...
}

3) Using the ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingVC in your project

Go to ZEGOCLOUD Admin Console, get the appID and appSign of your project.
Specify the userID and userName for connecting the Live Streaming Kit service.
liveID Represents the live streaming you want to start or watch (only supports single-host live streaming for now).

// YourViewController.swift
class MainViewController: UIViewController {
    // Other code...
    var userID: String = <#UserID#>
    var userName: String = <#UserName#>
    var liveID: String = <#liveID#>
 
func startLive() {
        let config: ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig = ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig(kPresetRoleHost)
        let liveVC: ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingVC = ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingVC(yourAppID, appSign: yourAppSign, userID: self.userID, userName: self.userName, liveID: self.liveID, config: config)
        liveVC.modalPresentationStyle = .fullScreen
        self.present(liveVC, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
 
func watchLive() {
      let config: ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig = ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig(kPresetRoleAudience)
      let liveVC: ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingVC = ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingVC(yourAppID, appSign: yourAppSign, userID: self.userID, userName: self.userName, liveID: self.liveID, config: config)
      liveVC.modalPresentationStyle = .fullScreen
      self.present(liveVC, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
 
}

Then, you can begin to live streaming by presenting the liveVC.

4) Configure your project

Open the Info.plistAdd the following code inside the dict part:

<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>We require camera access to connect to a call</string>
<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>We require microphone access to connect to a call</string>

Run the demo

ZEGOCLOUD’s live streaming kit for iOS is easy to build a powerful live-streaming iOS app. With it, you can own the app you love easily and quickly. Just get started now with 10000 free minutes monthly to make a live streaming app for iOS with ZEGOCLOUD SDK!