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5 important features to put on your checklist when deciding on a live broadcasting framework for your App

By Author: Team Agora In Business Topics: , , ,

You have decided that you are going to have live broadcasting capability embedded in your own app. Great! Now, the next step is to decide a vendor to get the SDK and API you need for that. Whether you are building your own live-streaming app or integrating it into an existing app, there are five important features you should evaluate before selecting a vendor.

  • Latency — Latency is the time it takes for a packet of data to move from one point to another. In trying to have real-time communication capability, especially in cases of interactive broadcasting, it is very important to have ultra-low latency and low frame rates. With an average edge-to-edge global latency of 76ms, which is the industry best, Agora’s algorithm monitors in real-time and chooses the most efficient routing path automatically.
  • Pricing — It is important to know how much it would cost you to run RTC in your app. Look for whether or not the pricing structure includes all features, how much it would cost per minute, and most importantly if it’s easily scalable according to your usage need. Developers can produce PoCs without worrying about the business side of things because an Agora developer accounts get 10,000 minutes each month without paying anything.
  • Network — You need a powerful infrastructure to be your communications backbone. So, you should look for a vendor with a sturdy network. Agora provides a global network (SD-RTN™) which is resilient to packet loss, jitter, and bad network conditions. They have 200 data centers dedicated to low latency and high availability for real-time voice and video services. The end-to-end calls are HIPAA compliant and support 256-bit encryption.
  • Interconnectivity Support — Interconnectivity between mobile, web, and native apps give you flexibility as you build your product. It’s very important that the framework you choose gives you the flexibility to target multiple platforms, as your customer may use a variety of devices. Agora’s React Native SDK supports all iOS phones and tablets and more than 5,000 Android devices, providing a flexible and consistent experience.
  • Customization — The ability to customize user interfaces and application flows allows you to build applications that fit your specific use cases — as opposed to making your use cases fit your available frameworks and SDKs. Agora’s low-level API building blocks allow you to develop an application that truly fits your business requirements, giving you complete customization capability.

There are tons of documentation, API references, and sample apps here. Do check it out. If you have any questions, feel free to ask it on Stack Overflow.