DEV Community: voiceping-app

Have you checked on this open source project?

voiceping-app — Wed, 25 May 2022 07:08:42 +0000

https://opensource.voiceping.info

How to Add Walkie-Talkie Functionality into Your Android App

voiceping-app — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 10:22:52 +0000

Texting while driving is very dangerous. Your eyes need to see your phone screen but at the same time they need to see the road. Your sight will not be in focus, and an unwanted accident could happen. Dangerous things can happen to yourself and also to other people.

But what if you need to communicate with your friends and family? Or maybe to your coworkers? You can use voice communication for that. Walkie talkie is one of the voice communications that can be used in that scenario. VoicePing app (https://voicepingapp.com) is a great option for it.

But what if you are an Android developer, and you want to implement walkie talkie functionality into your Android app? VoicePing Android SDK is the answer.

Solution: VoicePing Android SDK

VoicePing Android SDK is an Android library to bring walkie-talkie or push-to-talk functionality into your app. It’s free and open source. You can take a look at its code in this repo: https://github.com/SmartWalkieOrg/VoicePing-Walkie-Talkie-AndroidSDK . Its documentation is available on the website: https://opensource.voiceping.info/ .

By using VoicePing Android SDK, you can send voice messages instantly to 1 person, or to a group of people. It’s easy to integrate to your Android app. It uses Opus Codec that is very efficient in sending the voice to your desired target. It has low data consumption, so it’s suitable for mobile communication.

How to use it?

Now, let’s get into the real code. Open your favorite Android Studio and follow the instructions below.

Installation

To install this SDK in your Android project, you need to do the following steps,

Add jitpack to your project-level gradle file:

allprojects {
    repositories {
        ...
        maven { url "https://jitpack.io" }
    }
}

Add the module on your module-level gradle file:

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.github.SmartWalkieOrg:VoicePing-Walkie-Talkie-AndroidSDK:1.0'
}

Sync gradle and use it

Initialization

After the SDK is successfully installed into your Android project, you can now start adding walkie-talkie functionality into your app. First, you need to initialize the library in your Application code.

class VoicePingClientApp : Application() {
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        VoicePing.init(this, "voiceping_sdk_server_url")
    }
}

"voiceping_sdk_server_url" can be changed to the real VoicePing server URL. If you want to use our public server, you can change it to “wss://router-lite.voiceping.info”.

Login

Before start sending or receiving voice, you need to login to the SDK using the following code,

VoicePing.connect("your_user_id", "your_company", object : ConnectCallback {
    override fun onConnected() {
        // Do something
    }

    override fun onFailed(exception: VoicePingException) {
        // Do something
    }
})

“your_company” can be changed to your company’s name, or company’s website. Make sure that you insert the same company with your friend if you want to talk to each other. For now, VoicePing SDK doesn’t support talking to other users in another company.

“your_user_id” can be changed to your desired user ID. It should be unique and different from other users. If you insert the same user ID with another user, then the previous user would be disconnected or logged out.

Adding PTT button

To add PTT button, you can add the following code into your layout

<com.smartwalkie.voicepingsdk.VoicePingButton
            android:id="@+id/voice_ping_button"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="100dp"
            android:layout_marginTop="16dp" />

And then, you can set the target using the following code

binding.voicePingButton.receiverId = “receiver_id”
binding.voicePingButton.channelType = ChannelType.PRIVATE

Using custom PTT button

In case you don’t want to use VoicePing built-in PTT button, you can use a custom button. You can do something like this,

binding.voicePingButton.setOnTouchListener { _, motionEvent ->
            val eventAction = motionEvent?.action ?: return@setOnTouchListener false
            when (eventAction) {
                MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN -> {
                    VoicePing.startTalking("receiver_id", ChannelType.PRIVATE, null)
                    return@setOnTouchListener true
                }
                MotionEvent.ACTION_UP -> {
                    VoicePing.stopTalking()
                    return@setOnTouchListener true
                }
            }
            return@setOnTouchListener false
        }

Summary

By using VoicePing Android SDK, you can easily add walkie-talkie functionality into your Android app. You don’t need to spend months of work to get it implemented, you probably only need less than 1 hour. It’s open source, so in case you want to modify its underlying technology, you can do it yourself. No need to pay thousands of dollars to get what you want.

This post is originally published on https://opensource.voiceping.info/blog/how-to-add-walkie-talkie/

Free Push-To-Talk Android SDK awaits your implementation

voiceping-app — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 09:51:07 +0000

Nothing is better than a good quality product and it is free. We, Smart Walkie Pte. Ltd., have been developing walkie talkie (Push-To-Talk) software for years with all the hurdles and obstacles we faced to bring the best solution to our users who come from all over the world (~186 countries). Now we proudly announce that you can take and use some of our good work in the form of open source Android Software Development Kit (SDK) and open source server that you can self-host. This is our contribution to the community whom we owe. Oftentimes we take info and get answers from the community. And we solve some of our problems using the open source software from the community too. So, this is our “thank you” to the community, which might also include you.

What is Push-To-Talk?

The simplest explanation for Push-To-Talk is walkie talkie functionality. When we want to talk in a walkie talkie, we need to push a button and hold it. Then only we can be heard instantly by other people on other walkie talkies. When we are done talking, we need to release the button. In a walkie talkie, when we talk we can’t hear others, and vice versa when we hear we can’t talk. That’s where the Push-To-Talk term comes from. It’s often abbreviated as PTT.

So, what is Push-To-Talk SDK?

Software Development Kit (SDK) is a piece of software that can be directly integrated into another software to enrich its functionality. PTT SDK offers the capability to add walkie talkie (PTT) functionality into your software. VoicePing PTT Android SDK helps you add PTT functionality to your android app. It will not be limited by range like the old walkie talkie. As long as the devices have internet connection, even if one device is in the Earth’s south pole and one other in the north pole, they will be able to talk to each other seamlessly.

Why would you need PTT functionality?

PTT conforms to human direct verbal communication. It’s fast and instant. The exact way we talk to others and others talk to us. Text messages, compared to PTT, take more time to write and to be understood. Although text has its own power in a special context which is silence (more private), clarity, and light in data storage and transfer. But most of the time, we use too much text messaging outside its specialty, causing us to lose time just to convey non-private (or non-sensitive) information to the other party.

PTT also has its own power which is instant and interruptible. Hence, PTT is often used in Search and Rescue (SAR)-like activities because the communication needs to be instant, hassle free, over a long period of time, no need for action to pick up to hear the message, and reliable. It’s different than a call which takes time to get picked up first, needs an opening word, smalltalk, closing words, and parties involved need to spend high focus and attention to communicate and respond.

What can you build with a PTT SDK?

Imagine you drive a car in convoy. There are 5 cars including yours. Only the front most car driver knows the direction. Sometimes you are not right behind your convoy, but separated by other vehicles on the road. When the first car turns right and you lose sight, what would you do? Send a text message to the first car’s driver? Or call? None of this is suitable in this kind of situation, because seconds matter in decision. Which results in total driving time your convoy will have.

Now, imagine you have an app on your phone that has walkie talkie (PTT) functionality. You plug an earpiece to it and you drive. Along the journey, when there is road branching, the first driver always PTT other drivers which way to take. It can be heard instantly without any action. If a problem occurs, you can also PTT others by pressing the earpiece button to tell them so they can stop, wait for you, or even search to help you. The communication is as simple as pressing the button. It’s easy, fast, and instant.

Yes, you can build that kind of walkie talkie app with VoicePing Walkie Talkie Android SDK. That is just one use case where PTT is irreplaceable. You can find many other PTT use cases on our website.

How to taste the service before you go too deep?

You have two options. First is by trying out free (public) channels on VoicePing apps below.

Join the same free (public) channel ID to communicate between devices.
Second is by trying the VoicePing SDK demo apk. The demo apk source code is also available on the VoicePing Android SDK repository to guide you on how to use or integrate the SDK to your android project.

Where should you go for more details if you want to use VoicePing Android SDK?

If you want to know more, we have the documentation page here. It mainly has two parts. First is the Android PTT SDK itself. The Android SDK needs VoicePing (router) server to work. We have our public server for you to test and use. If you need to self-host the server on your own, the second part of the documentation is the guide on setting up the self-hosted server.

Who can use VoicePing Android PTT SDK?

Basically everyone, since we put the code under MIT license. That means you are free to use the software, including for commercial purposes.

Who maintains the open source code?

The developers at Smart Walkie Pte. Ltd. are full time maintainers of the code. So if you have issues or find bugs, don’t hesitate to report to us. We also welcome all contributions from the community, not just code, but any contribution, for example updating the documentation or hinting a typo.

What if you need more support beyond the open sourced functionality offers?

If you need further support, we can help you in any way. Please contact us at sales@smartwalkietalkie.com. See more about this here.

If you are reading up to here, thank you for your kind attention! We can’t wait to know what you will build with the VoicePing Walkie Talkie Android SDK. Let us know in the comments section below or on the github discussions page. We hope that this contribution of making a free open source PTT SDK will help the community overall to save time both software development-wise and communication-wise.

Finally, even when VoicePing Android Walkie Talkie PTT SDK brings the possibility of instant communication, what also matters is our own communication skill to convey information effectively. The app is just a tool, the tool itself doesn’t change certain aspects in life. But how people use it does change certain aspects in life.

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” - Brian Tracy

Smartwalkie (Smart Walkie Pte Ltd) is a company that works on both hardware and software of Push-To-Talk (PTT) solution. VoicePing is the software part of it. We help many industries all over the globe on their communication needs.