In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more offline calling situations are being moved online. So you might be wondering about how to add voice or video chat features to build your video call app? And I think you’ll know the answer when you’re done reading this.
Why Video Call App is important
Video call apps are important because they allow individuals and businesses to communicate and collaborate in a more effective and efficient manner. With the increasing trend of remote work and the need for virtual meetings, video call apps have become an essential tool for people to stay connected with each other, regardless of their location.
Video call apps provide several benefits, including the ability to see and hear each other in real time, which helps to build stronger relationships. They also allow for sharing screens and documents, which facilitates collaboration and helps to increase productivity. Additionally, video call apps are cost-effective, as they eliminate the need for travel and reduce the expenses associated with physical meetings.
Overall, video call apps offer a convenient and reliable way for people to communicate and collaborate, making them an important tool in today’s fast-paced and globalized world.
3 Types of Video Call Apps
There are several types of video call apps available in the market, but here are three popular categories:
- Standalone video call apps – These are apps that are designed specifically for video calling and usually offer high-quality video and audio. Examples include Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, and FaceTime.
- Social media video call apps – These are apps that are integrated with social media platforms and allow users to make video calls with their contacts. Examples include WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram.
- Business video call apps – These are apps designed for businesses and offer features such as screen sharing, virtual backgrounds, and recording. Examples include Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, and GoToMeeting.
ZEGOCLOUD SDK to Make Video Call App Easily
For an immersive video call experience within your application, you might have to perform strenuous procedures for its execution. What if there is a way to manage this all within a few moments? Rather than hiring developers and paying up a huge sum for a small portion of your complete project, you can try using ZEGOCLOUD video call app SDK services.
To begin with, this service provides you with a complete video calling experience and allows you to embed it with your system in no time. Moreover, since it is designed for ease, this gives developers total leverage to create the perfect video calling system. Combined with direct calling, group calling, and a recording system, you can get a comprehensive experience of quality communication with ZEGOCLOUD.
When is ZEGOCall SDK needed?
- For a developer who has never worked on a project before.
- For a business that needs to build an audio chat/ video chat app.
- For an existing app that needs to add a voice call/video call feature.
ZEGOCall SDK has a layered architecture so that it can meet different needs. Check out the figure below:
The demo app of ZEGOCall has already integrated the features required by a video call application, you can compile it directly into an app and make it goes live.
And we also provide two different SDKs for you: the CallUIKit and the Call SDK.
Choose to integrate the CallUIKit: If you want to customize the business logic and maintain the user list on your own. And voice/video call interactions and UI are implemented by the CallUIKit.
Choose to integrate the Call SDK: If you want to customize the UI on your own. The transmission of underlying data, voice/video call connection, and others are implemented by the Call SDK.
How to use ZEGOCLOUD’s Video call API
Step 1. Create a ZEGOCLOUD account
- Create an account in ZEGOCLOUD Official.
Step 2. Create a new project
- Create a project in ZEGOCLOUD Admin Console.
Step 3. Create a Firebase project
Create a Firebase project in the Firebase console. For more details, see Firebase Documentation.
Step 4. Deploy the Firebase Cloud Functions
ZEGO Call uses the Firebase Cloud Functions as the business server by default, we recommend you activate and deploy it before integrating the ZEGOCall SDK.
1 Create a new Realtime Database in Firebase.
2 Edit the rules of the Realtime Database by adding the following:
{
"rules": {
".read": "auth.uid != null",
".write": "auth.uid != null",
}
}
3 Install the CLI via npm.
npm install -g firebase-tools
4 Run the firebase login to log in via the browser and authenticate the firebase tool.
5 Run firebase init functions. The tool gives you an option to install dependencies with npm. It is safe to decline if you want to manage dependencies in another way, though if you do decline you’ll need to run npm install before emulating or deploying your functions.
6 Download the Cloud function sample code.
7 Copy the firebase.json, functions\index.js files and functions\token04 folder in the sample code to your cloud function project, overwrite files with the same name.
8 Modify the index.js file, fill in the AppID and ServerSecret you get from ZEGOCLOUD Admin Console correctly.
9 In Firebase CLI, run the firebase deploy --only functions command to deploy the cloud functions.
Step 5: Copy file into the project
Follow these steps to integrate the ZEGOCallUIKit:
1 Download the Sample codes, import the zegocall and zegocalluikit modules to your project root directory (Create a new project if you don’t have an existing project).
2 Add the following code to the settings.gradle file:
include ':zegocall'
include ':zegocalluikit'3 Modify the build.gradle file of your application (in the app folder), add the following code:
...
apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'
apply plugin: 'com.google.firebase.crashlytics'
android {
...
}
dependencies {
...
// Google Sign In SDK (only required for Google Sign In)
implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:20.1.0'
implementation project(path: ':zegocalluikit')
}4 Modify the build.gradle file of your project, add the following code:
buildscript {
repositories {
maven { url 'https://www.jitpack.io' }
...
}
dependencies {
...
classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:4.3.10'
classpath 'com.google.firebase:firebase-crashlytics-gradle:2.8.1'
}
}5 Add Firebase to your project by referring to the Add Firebase to your Android project: Step 2-3, and make sure you have downloaded and added the google-services.json file to your app directory.
6 Click Sync now.
Step 6: Initialize ZEGOCallUIKit
To initialize the ZEGOCallUIKit, get the ZegoCallManager instance, pass the AppID of your project.
// Initialize the ZEGOCallUIKit. We recommend you call this method when the application starts.
// appID is the AppID you get from ZEGOCLOUD Admin Console.
// The last parameter refers to the Application object of the this project.
ZegoCallManager.getInstance().init(appID, this, new ZegoTokenProvider() {
@Override
public void getToken(String userID, ZegoTokenCallback callback) {
//imply with your own methed to get zego RTC token
// String rtcToken = "";
// callback.onTokenCallback(errorCode, rtcToken);
}
});Step 7: Get token
After deploying the Firebase Cloud Functions, here we get a Token by calling the client API methods of Firebase Cloud Functions:
private void getTokenFromCloudFunction(String userID, long effectiveTime) {
Map<String, Object> data = new HashMap<>();
data.put("id", userID);
data.put("effective_time", effectiveTime);
FirebaseFunctions.getInstance().getHttpsCallable("getToken")
.call(data)
.continueWith(new Continuation<HttpsCallableResult, Object>() {
@Override
public Object then(@NonNull Task<HttpsCallableResult> task) throws Exception {
return task.getResult().getData();
}
})
.addOnCompleteListener(new OnCompleteListener<Object>() {
@Override
public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<Object> task) {
if (!task.isSuccessful()) {
Exception e = task.getException();
if (e instanceof FirebaseFunctionsException) {
FirebaseFunctionsException ffe = (FirebaseFunctionsException) e;
FirebaseFunctionsException.Code code = ffe.getCode();
Object details = ffe.getDetails();
}
return;
}
HashMap<String, String> result = (HashMap<String, String>) task.getResult();
String token = result.get("token");
}
});
}Step 8: User login
ZEGOCall does not provide user management capabilities yet. You will need to have users log in to Firebase and then call the setLocalUser method to set user information to CallUIKit based on the login result.
Firebase provides multiple login authentication modes. The following uses Google login as an example.
For more modes, refer to the Firebase official.
// init google sign in
GoogleSignInOptions gso = new GoogleSignInOptions.Builder(GoogleSignInOptions.DEFAULT_SIGN_IN)
.requestIdToken(CLIENT_ID)
.requestEmail()
.build();
GoogleSignInClient mGoogleSignInClient = GoogleSignIn.getClient(this, gso);
// when button is clicked,invoke this
private void signIn() {
Intent signInIntent = mGoogleSignInClient.getSignInIntent();
startActivityForResult(signInIntent, RC_SIGN_IN);
}
// overwrite onActivityResult to get google sign in result
@Override
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
// Result returned from launching the Intent from GoogleSignInApi.getSignInIntent(...);
if (requestCode == RC_SIGN_IN) {
Task<GoogleSignInAccount> task = GoogleSignIn.getSignedInAccountFromIntent(data);
try {
// Google Sign In was successful, authenticate with Firebase
GoogleSignInAccount account = task.getResult(ApiException.class);
AuthCredential credential = GoogleAuthProvider.getCredential(account.getIdToken(), null);
FirebaseAuth.getInstance().signInWithCredential(credential)
.addOnCompleteListener(new OnCompleteListener<AuthResult>() {
@Override
public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<AuthResult> task) {
if (task.isSuccessful()) {
// Sign in success, update UI with the signed-in user's information
Log.d(TAG, "signInWithCredential:success");
FirebaseUser currentUser = FirebaseAuth.getInstance().getCurrentUser();
ZegoCallManager.getInstance().setLocalUser(currentUser.getUid(), currentUser.getDisplayName());
} else {
// If sign in fails, display a message to the user.
Log.w(TAG, "signInWithCredential:failure", task.getException());
}
}
});
} catch (ApiException e) {
// Google Sign In failed, update UI appropriately
Log.w(TAG, "Google sign in failed", e);
}
}
}Step 9: Make outbound calls
To make an outbound voice call, call the callUser method and set the zegoCallType parameter to ZegoCallType.Voice.
// shows how to request camera and audio permission at run time
String[] permissionNeeded = {
"android.permission.CAMERA",
"android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO"};
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
if (ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, "android.permission.CAMERA") != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED ||
ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, "android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO") != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
requestPermissions(permissionNeeded, 101);
}
}You can make a call after getting the access permission of the camera and microphone.
// userInfo refers to the user info(ID and name) of the user you want call.
// ZegoCallType.Voice indicates that you make a voice call.
ZegoCallManager.getInstance().callUser(userInfo, ZegoCallType.Voice);To make an outbound video call, call the callUser method and set the zegoCallType parameter to ZegoCallType.Video.
// userInfo refers to the user info(ID and name) of the user you want call.
// ZegoCallType.Video indicates that you make a video call.
ZegoCallManager.getInstance().callUser(userInfo, ZegoCallType.Video);After making a call, the CallUIKit shows the UI of the current state automatically for both the callee and caller (integrated the CallUIKit is required), and, you can operate on the UI for further operations.
Step 10: Take incoming calls
To receive in-time notifications when receiving incoming calls, call the startListen method to listen for the call invitations. The corresponding UI displays and you can operate on the UI for further calling responses.
// Listen for the call invitations.
// Pass the current Activity.
ZegoCallManager.getInstance().startListen(this);When the app is running in the front: the following black pop-up prompts automatically when the callee receives an incoming call (make a voice call for illustration)
When the app is running in the background, the callee sees the following black pop-up after giving the app permission to send offline notifications. Read the document canDrawOverlays to learn more. Different phone brands, like OPPO and Vivo, may need different settings depending on the operating system and version.
Step 11: End incoming calls
To stop listening for incoming calls, call the stopListen method. You won’t receive notifications after calling this method.
// Stop listening for the incoming calls.
// Pass the same Activity that you used to start listening for the incoming calls.
ZegoCallManager.getInstance().stopListen(this);Step 12: Offline notifications
The Firebase Cloud Functions has implemented the offline notifications of the firebase cloud message, and it sends a data type fcm message when making outbound calls. For clients to receive offline notifications, integrate the firebase cloud message, and start the app when receiving the offline notifications:
@Override
public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) {
Map<String, String> data = remoteMessage.getData();
boolean isAppNotStart = !AppUtils.isAppForeground() && ActivityUtils.getActivityList().isEmpty();
boolean isDeviceRestart = AppUtils.isAppForeground() && ActivityUtils.getActivityList().isEmpty();
if (isAppNotStart || isDeviceRestart) {
if (data.size() > 0) {
AppUtils.relaunchApp();
}
}
}Step 13: Upload logs
When you encounter problems when using your app, call the uploadLog method to upload logs for us to locate and help you faster.
ZegoCallManager.getInstance().uploadLog(errorCode -> {
// Callback for the result of upload SDK logs.
});Step 14: Deinitialize ZEGOCallUIKit
After finishing using the ZEGO Call, call the unInit method to deinitialize the SDK.
ZegoCallManager.getInstance().unInit();As you have discovered some great techniques and directions to build a video call app with Firebase, you will be able to designate the complete procedure in no time. Moreover, combined with the compelling features, ZEGOCLOUD provides its users with all the necessary requirements. Influenced by quality, the user experience can be exceptional with ZEGOCLOUD video call SDK.
Subsequently, this article has provided a complete overview of how the process concludes. Build the perfect video call app with the help of the extensive services offered by ZEGOCLOUD.
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