If you’re looking for a way to create a more entertaining user experience with your iOS app, consider adding iOS RTMP video streaming. It’s a straightforward way to offer your users the ability to watch video content within your app. However, here are some things you’ll want to know before starting.
The two leading technologies that are the building blocks for streaming video are RTMP and HLS. If you’re already familiar with one of these, then you’re ready to get started adding streaming video to your iOS app. If you’re not familiar, read on.
RTMP is Real-Time Messaging Protocol. The protocol has been around since the origins of the web to deliver streaming media over HTTP. It’s an excellent fit for delivering audio and video to mobile devices. Depending on the streaming technology being used, there are various methods to enable RTMP. This article describes how to add RTMP video streaming in an iOS app using HLS.
HLS is HTTP Live Streaming. One of the significant benefits of HLS is that it enables you to deliver streaming video using HTTP, which means it will work on all major mobile browsers. It also allows you to build a mobile web app as opposed to a native app. But if you are making a native iOS app, it’s also an easy way to add a streaming video.
How to Add RTMP Video Streaming to Your iOS App
Before getting started, you need two things: a server and some software. You can use an existing RTMP server, or you can set up your own. You can also purchase server hardware or use Amazon Web Services (AWS). One of the significant benefits of using AWS is that it has a free tier. That means you can get started for free when learning to add streaming video to your iOS app.
The software you need is the HLS player for RTMP video streaming. There are many open-source players available, but to get started using AWS, your best bet is the AWS Mobile SDK for Apple iOS.
The AWS Mobile SDK uses the AWS Mobile Hub technology. That means all you have to do is configure your server, create an Amazon S3 bucket, and use the AWS Mobile SDK to get started. That’s it. You can use the SDK for as long as you need to build and test your app using streaming video. You can also use the AWS Mobile CLI to manage your assets in a shell environment.
Using RTMP for your app makes sense
It makes sense for you to use RTMP for your app because it’s a free, open-source protocol already supported by all major browsers. It’s also super easy to configure and deploy. You can use it with any user device or mobile app on iOS or Android. It’s also built into the Apple developer tools.
RTMP doesn’t require any additional software installed on your servers or mobile devices and provides you with all the bandwidth and processing power you need to deliver streaming video.
Since RTMP uses HTTP, you can also use it to deliver other media types, like music or enterprise content. An example of how you might use HLS for delivering enterprise content is to provide your users with access to their videos while they are on the go via mobile apps.