How to Build Live Streaming Apps on Android

Live video experiences have become increasingly popular on the web. If you are wondering how to build an Android live streaming app, no worries! ZEGOCLOUD comes with a low entry barrier and anyone with a phone or computer can create a high-quality live streaming service on Android.

Why ZEGOCLOUD SDK for Android Live Streaming APP

ZEGOCLOUD Live Streaming SDK is a powerful tool that provides complete development documentation and sample code to allow developers use to integrate live streaming capabilities into their applications. It is an efficient live streaming solution that can be used for various applications and platforms, including iOS, Android, Web, Flutter, and React Native.

It provides rich features including audio and video capture, encoding, streaming, playback, transcoding, cloud recording, real-time messaging, and co-streaming. Moreover, it supports different video qualities including high definition, standard definition, and smooth, and provides rich audio and video processing capabilities such as filters, beauty effects, and green screens.

What’s more important, ZEGOCLOUD offers pre-built UIKits and UI Components to let developers build live streaming apps in the shortest possible time. With low-code UIKits, developers can complete their live streaming app for Android with only a few lines of code. Now I will walk you step-by-step through building the best live streaming service using ZEGOCLOUD UIKits.

As shown in the figure, the android Live Streaming Kit is responsible for handling all the logic and UI of the stream services function. Include:

• UI and interaction of the live Streaming module
• Message sending and display
• Audio and video data transmission
• Camera and microphone management
• Live Viewer Statistics

You only need to implement business-related logic. For example:

• User login registration
• Live List Management
• Top up and send gifts, etc.

Easy Steps to Create Android Live Streaming APP

To create an Android live streaming app with ZEGOCLOUD UIKits, you can follow these general steps:

Preparation

• A ZEGOCLOUD developer account–Sign up
• Android Studio 2020.3.1 or later
• Devices with Android 5.0 or later
• Basic understanding of Android development

Implement live streaming

1. Create a project

Open your Android Studio ,click New Project- Empty Acticvity.

then change the Project Name, package name, project location, language, and min SDK if you need.

2. Add SDK to the project

You can use jitpack to add SDK to your project.

• If your Android Gradle Plugin is 7.1.0 or later: enter your project’s root directory, open the settings.gradle file to add the jitpack.

dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS)
        repositories {
            google()
            mavenCentral()
            maven { url 'https://www.jitpack.io' } // <- Add this line.
    }
}

• If your Android Gradle Plugin is earlier than 7.1.0: enter your project’s root directory, open the build.gradle file to add the jitpack.

allprojects {
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
        maven { url "https://jitpack.io" }  // <- Add this line.
    }
}

Next you need to add SDK dependencies in ‘build.gradle’.

dependencies {
    ...
    implementation 'com.github.ZEGOCLOUD:zego_uikit_prebuilt_live_streaming_android:latest.release'   // add this line in your module-level build.gradle file's dependencies, usually named [app].
}

3. Add live button

Open the activity_main.xml file, add a start live button and a watch live button.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        tools:context=".MainActivity">

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/start_live"
            android:layout_width="275dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
            android:text="Start a live"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintVertical_chainStyle="packed"
            app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/watch_live"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/watch_live"
            android:layout_width="275dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
            android:text="Watch a live"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/start_live" />
        </androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

4. Add live page

Next, you need to create a new Empty Activity called LiveActivity. add click events for the buttons in step 2 to navigate to LiveActivity.

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        //Go to [ZEGOCLOUD Admin Console\|_blank](https://console.zegocloud.com/), get the `appID` and `appSign` of your project.
        long appID = yourAppID;
        String appSign = yourAppSign;
        // Specify the `userID` and `userName` for connecting the Live Streaming Kit service.`userID`, `userName`, and `liveID` can only contain numbers, letters, and underlines (_). 
        String userID = ;
        String userName = ;
        // `liveID` represents the live streaming you want to start or watch (only supports single-host live streaming for now). Using the same `liveID` will enter the same live streaming.
        String liveID = ;

        findViewById(R.id.start_live).setOnClickListener(v -> {
            Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, LiveActivity.class);
            intent.putExtra("host", true);
            intent.putExtra("appID", appID);
            intent.putExtra("appSign", appSign);
            intent.putExtra("userID", userID);
            intent.putExtra("userName", userName);
            intent.putExtra("liveID", liveID);
            startActivity(intent);
        });

        findViewById(R.id.watch_live).setOnClickListener(v -> {
            Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, LiveActivity.class);
            intent.putExtra("appID", appID);
            intent.putExtra("appSign", appSign);
            intent.putExtra("userID", userID);
            intent.putExtra("userName", userName);
            intent.putExtra("liveID", liveID);
            startActivity(intent);
        });

    }
}

5. Add prebuilt UI to the project

Finally, you need to add ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingFragment provided by live streaming kit to LiveActivity.

public class LiveActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_live);

        addFragment();
    }

    private void addFragment() {
        long appID = getIntent().getLongExtra("appID", 0L);
        String appSign = getIntent().getStringExtra("appSign");
        String userID = getIntent().getStringExtra("userID");
        String userName = getIntent().getStringExtra("userName");

        boolean isHost = getIntent().getBooleanExtra("host", false);
        String liveID = getIntent().getStringExtra("liveID");

        ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig config;
        if (isHost) {
            config = ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig.host();
        } else {
            config =  ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig.audience();
        }

        ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingFragment fragment = ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingFragment.newInstance(
            appID, appSign, userID, userName, liveID, config);
        getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
            .replace(R.id.fragment_container, fragment)
            .commitNow();
    }
}

6. Custom Prebuilt UI

If you want to customize the UI, you can do it by modifying the properties of ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig.

ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig config = new ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingConfig();
config.turnOnCameraWhenJoining = false;
config.bottomMenuBarConfig.hostButtons = Arrays.asList(ZegoMenuBarButtonName.TOGGLE_CAMERA_BUTTON);
ZegoDialogInfo confirmDialogInfo = new ZegoDialogInfo();
confirmDialogInfo.title= "Leave confirm";
confirmDialogInfo.message= "Do you want to leave?";
confirmDialogInfo.cancelButtonName= "Cancel";
confirmDialogInfo.confirmButtonName= "Confirm";
config.confirmDialogInfo = confirmDialogInfo;
config.translationText.startLiveStreamingButton = "Start Live";
config.translationText.noHostOnline = "No host online";
ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingFragment fragment = ZegoUIKitPrebuiltLiveStreamingFragment.newInstance(appID, appSign, userID, userName, liveID, config);

Run a demo

Take action now, You can download the sample demo source code of this article, or consult us 24h technical support.

Conclusion

It’s clear that Android live streaming services applications are growing to be a significant element of culture. Additionally, there are many other app types available. One is still free to choose what they want to give potential consumers while building a live streaming services application that would compete with traditional TV, So joining the live streaming industry as soon as possible is a very correct choice.