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Migration Guide from Twilio to Agora: Web Edition

By Author: Tadas Petra In Developer

We’re offering up to 2 free months to any customer switching from Twilio video to Agora. Schedule some time to chat with our team to get the full details.

Introduction

This guide will assist you in migrating your existing Twilio Video implementation to the Agora Video SDK. If you are initiating a new project, it is advised to refer to the Agora Video SDK documentation.

Quickstart

Quickstart demos for React, Vue, and Svelte are provided. Check them out at Quickstart Demo. Additional demos can be found ar More Demos.

Please follow the documentation here: Video Calling SDK quickstart – Web.

Creating an Account with Agora

Sign up for an account and log in to the Agora Console.

Agora React SDK: Build a video conferencing app in minutes - Signup
The project management tab on the Agora website

Navigate to the Project List tab under the Project Management tab, and create a project by clicking the blue Create button. (When prompted to use App ID + Certificate, select App ID only.) Retrieve the App ID, which will be used to authorize your requests while you’re developing the application.

Note: This guide does not implement token authentication, which is recommended for all RTE apps running in production environments. For more information about token-based authentication in the Agora platform, see this guide: https://docs.agora.io/en/video-calling/get-started/authentication-workflow?platform=web

Step 1: Obtain Agora Video SDK Keys

To access Agora services and integrate them into your project, follow these steps to obtain the necessary information from the Agora Console:

App ID

  1. Log in to the Agora Console and navigate to your project.
  2. Find the “App ID,” a randomly generated string unique to your App. This ID is crucial for identifying your application within Agora.

Temporary Token

  • When clients from your App join a channel, they need a Token for authentication.
  • Generate a temporary Token from the Agora Console, which has a validity period of 24 hours. This Token is used to authenticate users joining your channel.

Channel Name

  • Define a unique string as the “Channel Name” to identify and label your channel.

By completing these steps, you’ll have the necessary credentials to integrate Agora services into your application. Refer to the Agora Console for detailed guidance on accessing and managing these credentials.

Step 2: Install Agora Video SDK

Install

Use npm, pnpm, or yarn

Or, use Agora Video SDK CDN script tag:

Remove Twilio SDK from your project:

If using npm:

npm uninstall twilio-video

If using Twilio CDN:

Remove the Twilio script tag from index.html.

Proceed to the next step for configuration details.

Step 3: Start and Join Sessions

Twilio

Agora

Step 4: Create Local Audio and Video Tracks and Publish

Twilio

Agora

createMicrophoneAndCameraTracks：Create a local track using the audio and video captured by the microphone and camera at the same time, and return a list containing CameraVideoTrack and MicrophoneAudioTrack

Step 5: Unpublish and Destroy Tracks

  1. Turn the Camera/Microphone Off in Twilio
    Twilio Video/Audio is track-based, requiring looping through each video/audio track to unpublish the video/audio.
  1. Unpublish Video/Audio

​ Note on unpublish:

  • This method can be called multiple times. You can use publish and unpublish to manage the publication and unpublishing of specific local tracks.
  • This method is asynchronous and should be used with Promise or async/await.

Track destruction:

Step 6: Render Remote User Video

  1. Rendering Remote User Video in Twilio
    In Twilio, you might have used `participantConnected` and `trackSubscribed` event listeners.
  1. Rendering Remote User Video in Agora
    Once a remote user successfully publishes audio/video tracks, the SDK triggers the user-published event. This event carries two parameters: the remote user object ( user) and the media type published remotely ( mediaType). At this point, you can use AgoraRTCClient.subscribe to initiate subscription.

After the subscription method completes, you can retrieve the corresponding RemoteAudioTrack and RemoteVideoTrack objects using user.audioTrack and user.videoTrack.

Subscription and publication differ, allowing you to subscribe to only one audio or video track at a time. Even if the publishing side simultaneously publishes both audio and video tracks, the SDK triggers the user-published event twice: once for user-published(audio) and once for user-published(video). Following the code logic above, it completes two subscriptions.

Step 7: Leave and End Sessions

Twilio to Agora Migration Code Changes

  1. Leaving a Session in Twilio
    In Twilio, you might have used the disconnect function to leave a session.

    twilioVideo.disconnect()
  1. Leaving a Session in Agora
    After calling leave, the SDK immediately destroys objects related to the current channel, including subscribed remote user objects, remote track objects, and objects recording connection status. If you need to rejoin the channel, call join after calling leave.

    await client.leave();

Additional Agora Video SDK Features

The Agora Video SDK provides a rich set of features that can enhance your video conferencing application. Here are some key features and information to consider:

  1. Platform Support:
    Agora Video SDK supports a variety of platforms, including Android, iOS, Web, Linux, macOS, and Windows. Additionally, it offers wrappers for popular frameworks like Flutter and React Native.
  2. Cloud Recording:
    Agora Video SDK provides cloud recording capabilities, allowing you to capture and store your sessions for later playback or archival purposes. Consult the Agora Video SDK documentation for details on implementing this feature.
  3. Screen Sharing:
    Implement screen sharing in your application using Agora’s screen-sharing capabilities. This feature is valuable for collaborative work and presentations.
  4. Plug-in Architecture:
    Agora’s support for plug-ins enhances the extensibility of your video application. You can seamlessly integrate additional functionalities or customize features by leveraging Agora’s plug-in architecture.
  5. Tree-Shaking:
    Agora Video SDK supports tree-shaking, enabling you to optimize your application’s bundle size by eliminating unused code during the build process. This ensures that your application remains lightweight and performs efficiently.
  6. Secure Communication:
    Agora’s end-to-end encryption ensures that the communication between users in a session is highly secure. This feature enhances privacy and protects sensitive information exchanged during video conferences.

For comprehensive details on Agora Video SDK features and how to implement them, refer to the Agora Video SDK Documentation.

Explore the full potential of Agora Video SDK to create a robust and feature-rich video conferencing experience. If you have specific feature requirements, consult the documentation for guidance on implementation.

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