Flutter Live Streaming: A Complete Guide

In today's modern era, Live streaming is getting more and more popular in so many fields. And if we talk about Interactive Live Streaming, It's one of the best things to interact with millions of people in real time. It enables more engaging and interactive experience such as real time comments, reactions (Emojis 🤩), raise hand etc. Overall, interactive live streaming has limitless possibilities and has become the most essential feature in various industries like gaming, social platforms, education etc.

Why to use Video SDK for Flutter Live Streaming App ?

Video SDK lets you add Real Time Communication capabilities to your app. Moreover, It provides you the option to scale it to the next level with Interactive Live Streaming. As video calling is not preferable when you hit millions of users, Interactive Live Streaming is there to fulfill this demand. Video SDK provides you a single SDK that combines the interactivity of Video Calls with capability to scale to millions.

Best features to add to your Flutter Live Streaming App

Flutter is a great hybrid development framework by Google, which is a common choice to develop high performing applications and games nowadays. Video SDK provides SDK for Flutter with great features. Flutter SDK provides 15+ features, so let your futuristic mind take over to create the best interactive live streaming app in Flutter. Here is the list of features, you can add to your Flutter application.

5 Steps to Build an Interactive Live Streaming app in Flutter

Before preceding, Consider the prerequisites mentioned below:

• Basic understanding of Flutter framework.
• Video SDK Developer Account (Not having one? Go to the Video SDK Dashboard).
• Video SDK Flutter Package.

So, Now you are ready to create a fresh flutter project.

Create a new Flutter Project

To create a new Flutter project, run the following command at your chosen location:

flutter create videosdk_flutter_ils_app

After navigating to the project directory, run the following command in terminal:

flutter pub add videosdk

videosdk package will now be added to the pubspec.yaml.

You'll need to add a few other packages

• http - http: ^0.13.5
• flutter_vlc_player - flutter_vlc_player: ^7.2.0

Configure flutter project

For Android

• You will need to update the /android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml for the permissions you will be using to implement the audio and video features.

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera.autofocus" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CHANGE_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

• App level build.gradle file at /android/app/build.gradle needs to be updated. You will need to increase minSdkVersion of defaultConfig up to 23

For iOS

• Info.plist file at /ios/Runner/Info.plist needs to be updated to add permissions for iOS.

<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>$(PRODUCT_NAME) Camera Usage!</string>
<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>$(PRODUCT_NAME) Microphone Usage!</string>

• You will need to uncomment the following line to define a global platform for your project in /ios/Podfile

# platform :ios, '11.0'

Project Structure

root
├── android
├── ios
├── lib
     ├── api_call.dart
     ├── ils_screen.dart
     ├── ils_speaker_view.dart
     ├── ils_viewer_view.dart
     ├── join_screen.dart
     ├── livestream_player.dart
     ├── main.dart
     ├── meeting_controls.dart
     ├── participant_tile.dart

Project Structure

Step 1: Get Started in Flutter Live Streaming with api_call.dart

Before jumping to anything else, you will have to write a function to generate a unique meeting id. In order to generate a meeting id, you will need an Authentication Token. You can get Authentication Token from Video SDK Dashboard (For Development) or Video SDK Authentication Server (For Production).

import 'dart:convert';
import 'package:http/http.dart' as http;

//Auth token we will use to generate a meeting and connect to it
String token = "<< Authentication Token >>";

// API call to create meeting
Future<String> createMeeting() async {
  final http.Response httpResponse = await http.post(
    Uri.parse("https://api.videosdk.live/v2/rooms"),
    headers: {'Authorization': token},
  );

//Destructuring the roomId from the response
  return json.decode(httpResponse.body)['roomId'];
}

Step 2: JoinScreen Widget for Flutter Live Streaming App

Let's create join_screen.dart file in lib directory and create a JoinScreen StatelessWidget.

The JoinScreen will consist of:

• Create Meeting Button - This button will create a new meeting for speaker and make him join with CONFERENCE mode.
• Meeting ID TextField - This text field will contain the meeting ID of meeting you want to join.
• Join Meeting as Host Button - This button will join the meeting in CONFERENCE mode for the speakers, which you have provided.
• Join Meeting as Viewer Button - This button will join the meeting in VIEWER mode for the viewers, which you have provided.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:videosdk/videosdk.dart';
import 'package:http/http.dart' as http;

import 'api_call.dart';
import 'ils_screen.dart';

class JoinScreen extends StatelessWidget {

  final _meetingIdController = TextEditingController();

  JoinScreen({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      backgroundColor: Colors.black,
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: const Text('VideoSDK ILS QuickStart'),
      ),
      body: Padding(
        padding: const EdgeInsets.all(12.0),
        child: Column(
          mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
          children: [
            // Creating a new meeting
            ElevatedButton(
              onPressed: () => onCreateButtonPressed(context),
              child: const Text('Create Meeting'),
            ),
            const SizedBox(height: 40),
            TextField(
              style: const TextStyle(color: Colors.white),
              decoration: const InputDecoration(
                hintText: 'Enter Meeting Id',
                border: OutlineInputBorder(),
                hintStyle: TextStyle(color: Colors.white),
              ),
              controller: _meetingIdController,
            ),
            // Joining the meeting as host
            ElevatedButton(
              onPressed: () => onJoinButtonPressed(context, Mode.CONFERENCE),
              child: const Text('Join Meeting as Host'),
            ),
            // Joining the meeting as viewer
            ElevatedButton(
              onPressed: () => onJoinButtonPressed(context, Mode.VIEWER),
              child: const Text('Join Meeting as Viewer'),
            ),
          ],
        ),
      ),
    );
  }

  // Creates new Meeting Id and joins it in CONFERNCE mode.
  void onCreateButtonPressed(BuildContext context) async {
    // TODO: Implement 
  }

  // Join the provided meeting with given Mode and meetingId
  void onJoinButtonPressed(BuildContext context, Mode mode) {
    // TODO: Implement
  }
}

join_screen.dart

// Creates new Meeting Id and joins it in CONFERNCE mode.
  void onCreateButtonPressed(BuildContext context) async {
    // Call createMeeting method
    final meetingId = await createMeeting();

    if (!context.mounted) return;
    Navigator.of(context).push(
      MaterialPageRoute(
        builder: (context) => ILSScreen(
          meetingId: meetingId,
          token: token,
          mode: Mode.CONFERENCE,
        ),
      ),
    );
   });
  }

onCreateButtonPressed() implementation

  // Join the provided meeting with given Mode and meetingId
  void onJoinButtonPressed(BuildContext context, Mode mode) {
    String meetingId = _meetingIdController.text;
    var re = RegExp("\\w{4}\\-\\w{4}\\-\\w{4}");

    // Check meeting ID is not null or invaild
    if (meetingId.isNotEmpty && re.hasMatch(meetingId)) {
      _meetingIdController.clear();
      // Navigate to ILSScreen
      Navigator.of(context).push(
        MaterialPageRoute(
          builder: (context) => ILSScreen(
            meetingId: meetingId,
            token: token,
            mode: mode,
          ),
        ),
      );
    } else {
      ScaffoldMessenger.of(context).showSnackBar(const SnackBar(
        content: Text("Please enter valid meeting id"),
      ));
    }
  }

onJoinButtonPressed() implementation

• Update the app's home to JoinScreen in the main.dart file.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'join_screen.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  // This widget is the root of your application.
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'VideoSDK QuickStart',
      theme: ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: JoinScreen(),
    );
  }
}

main.dart

Output

Step 3: Flutter Live Streaming Screen Widget

Let's create ils_screen.dart file and create ILSScreen StatefulWidget that will take the meetingId, token and mode of the participant in the constructor.

We will create a new room using the createRoom method and render the ILSSpeakerView or ILSViewerView based on the passed participant mode.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:videosdk/videosdk.dart';
import './ils_speaker_view.dart';
import './ils_viewer_view.dart';

class ILSScreen extends StatefulWidget {
  final String meetingId;
  final String token;
  final Mode mode;

  const ILSScreen(
      {super.key,
      required this.meetingId,
      required this.token,
      required this.mode});

  @override
  State<ILSScreen> createState() => _ILSScreenState();
}

class _ILSScreenState extends State<ILSScreen> {
  late Room _room;
  bool isJoined = false;

  @override
  void initState() {
    // TODO: Implement
    super.initState();
  }

  // listening to room events
  void setMeetingEventListener() {
    // TODO: Implement
  }

  // onbackButton pressed leave the room
  Future<bool> _onWillPop() async {
    _room.leave();
    return true;
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return WillPopScope(
      onWillPop: () => _onWillPop(),
      child: Scaffold(
        backgroundColor: Colors.black,
        appBar: AppBar(
          title: const Text('VideoSDK ILS QuickStart'),
        ),
        //Showing the Speaker or Viewer View based on the mode
        body: isJoined
            ? widget.mode == Mode.CONFERENCE
                ? ILSSpeakerView(room: _room)
                : widget.mode == Mode.VIEWER
                    ? ILSViewerView(room: _room)
                    : null
            : const Center(
                  child: Text("Joining...",
                      style: TextStyle(color: Colors.white),
                    ),
                  ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

ils_screen.dart

@override
void initState() {
  // create room when widget loads
  _room = VideoSDK.createRoom(
    roomId: widget.meetingId,
    token: widget.token,
    displayName: "John Doe",
    micEnabled: true,
    camEnabled: true,
    defaultCameraIndex: 1, // Index of MediaDevices will be used to set default camera
    mode: widget.mode,
  );

  // setting the event listener for join and leave events
  setMeetingEventListener();

  // Joining room
  _room.join();

   super.initState();
}

initState() implementation

// listening to room events
void setMeetingEventListener() {

  // Setting the joining flag to true when meeting is joined
  _room.on(Events.roomJoined, () {
    if (widget.mode == Mode.CONFERENCE) {
      _room.localParticipant.pin();
    }
    setState(() {
      isJoined = true;
    });
  });

  //Handling navigation when meeting is left
  _room.on(Events.roomLeft, () {
    Navigator.popUntil(context, ModalRoute.withName('/'));
  });
}

setMeetingEventListener() implementation

Step 4: SpeakerView Widget for Flutter Live Streaming App

Let's create the ILSSpeakerView which will show the MeetingControls and the ParticipantTile in grid.

• Let us start off by creating the StatefulWidget named ParticipantTile in participant_tile.dart file. It will consist of RTCVideoView that will show participant's video stream.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:videosdk/videosdk.dart';
class ParticipantTile extends StatefulWidget {
  final Participant participant;
  const ParticipantTile({super.key, required this.participant});

  @override
  State<ParticipantTile> createState() => _ParticipantTileState();
}

class _ParticipantTileState extends State<ParticipantTile> {
  Stream? videoStream;

  @override
  void initState() {
    // initialze video stream for the participant if they are present
    widget.participant.streams.forEach((key, Stream stream) {
      setState(() {
        if (stream.kind == 'video') {
          videoStream = stream;
        }
      });
    });
    _initStreamListeners();
    super.initState();
  }

  //Event listener for the video stream of the participant
  _initStreamListeners() {
    widget.participant.on(Events.streamEnabled, (Stream stream) {
      if (stream.kind == 'video') {
        setState(() => videoStream = stream);
      }
    });

    widget.participant.on(Events.streamDisabled, (Stream stream) {
      if (stream.kind == 'video') {
        setState(() => videoStream = null);
      }
    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Padding(
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
      //Rending the Video Stream of the participant
      child: videoStream != null
          ? RTCVideoView(
              videoStream?.renderer as RTCVideoRenderer,
              objectFit: RTCVideoViewObjectFit.RTCVideoViewObjectFitCover,
            )
          : Container(
              color: Colors.grey.shade800,
              child: const Center(
                child: Icon(
                  Icons.person,
                  size: 100,
                ),
              ),
            ),
    );
  }
}

• Next let us add the StatelessWidget named MeetingControls in the meeting_controls.dart file. This widget will accept the callback handlers for all the meeting control buttons and the current HLS state of the meeting.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class MeetingControls extends StatelessWidget {
  final String hlsState;
  final void Function() onToggleMicButtonPressed;
  final void Function() onToggleCameraButtonPressed;
  final void Function() onHLSButtonPressed;

  const MeetingControls(
      {super.key,
      required this.hlsState,
      required this.onToggleMicButtonPressed,
      required this.onToggleCameraButtonPressed,
      required this.onHLSButtonPressed});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Wrap(
      children: [
        ElevatedButton(
          onPressed: onToggleMicButtonPressed,
            child: const Text('Toggle Mic')),
        const SizedBox(width: 10),
        ElevatedButton(
            onPressed: onToggleCameraButtonPressed,
            child: const Text('Toggle WebCam')),
        const SizedBox(width: 10),
        ElevatedButton(
            onPressed: onHLSButtonPressed,
            child: Text(hlsState == "HLS_STOPPED"
                ? 'Start HLS'
                : hlsState == "HLS_STARTING"
                    ? "Starting HLS"
                    : hlsState == "HLS_STARTED" || hlsState == "HLS_PLAYABLE"
                        ? "Stop HLS"
                        : hlsState == "HLS_STOPPING"
                            ? "Stopping HLS"
                            : "Start HLS")),
      ],
    );
  }
}

• Lets finally put all these widget in the StatefulWidget named ILSSpeakerView in ils_speaker_view.dart file. This widget will listen to the hlsStateChanged, participantJoined and participantLeft events. It will render the participants and the meeting controls like leave, toggle mic and webcam as well as start and stop HLS.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:videosdk/videosdk.dart';
import 'package:videosdk_flutter_quickstart/meeting_controls.dart';
import 'package:videosdk_flutter_quickstart/participant_tile.dart';

class ILSSpeakerView extends StatefulWidget {
  final Room room;
  const ILSSpeakerView({super.key, required this.room});

  @override
  State<ILSSpeakerView> createState() => _ILSSpeakerViewState();
}

class _ILSSpeakerViewState extends State<ILSSpeakerView> {
  var micEnabled = true;
  var camEnabled = true;
  String hlsState = "HLS_STOPPED";

  Map<String, Participant> participants = {};

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    //Setting up the event listeners and initializing the participants and hls state
    setMeetingEventListener();
    participants.putIfAbsent(
        widget.room.localParticipant.id, () => widget.room.localParticipant);
    //filtering the CONFERENCE participants to be shown in the grid
    widget.room.participants.values.forEach((participant) {
      if (participant.mode == Mode.CONFERENCE) {
        participants.putIfAbsent(participant.id, () => participant);
      }
    });
    hlsState = widget.room.hlsState;
  }

  @override
  void setState(VoidCallback fn) {
    if (mounted) {
      super.setState(fn);
    }
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Padding(
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
      child: Column(
        children: [
          Row(
            children: [
              Expanded(
                  child: Text(
                widget.room.id,
                style: const TextStyle(color: Colors.white),
              )),
              ElevatedButton(
                onPressed: () => {
                  Clipboard.setData(ClipboardData(text: widget.room.id)),
                  ScaffoldMessenger.of(context).showSnackBar(const SnackBar(
                    content: Text("Meeting Id Coppied"),
                  ))
                },
                child: const Text("Copy Meeting Id"),
              ),
              const SizedBox(width: 10),
              ElevatedButton(
                onPressed: () => {widget.room.leave()},
                style: ElevatedButton.styleFrom(
                  backgroundColor: Colors.red,
                ),
                child: const Text("Leave"),
              )
            ],
          ),
          const SizedBox(
            height: 20,
          ),
          //Showing the current HLS state
          Text(
            "Current HLS State: ${hlsState == "HLS_STARTED" || hlsState == "HLS_PLAYABLE" ? "Livestream is Started" : hlsState == "HLS_STARTING" ? "Livestream is starting" : hlsState == "HLS_STOPPING" ? "Livestream is stopping" : "Livestream is stopped"}",
            style: const TextStyle(color: Colors.white),
          ),
          //render all participants in the room
          Expanded(
            child: GridView.builder(
              gridDelegate: const SliverGridDelegateWithFixedCrossAxisCount(
                crossAxisCount: 1,
              ),
              itemBuilder: (context, index) {
                return ParticipantTile(
                    participant: participants.values.elementAt(index));
              },
              itemCount: participants.length,
            ),
          ),
          //Rending the meeting Controls
          MeetingControls(
            hlsState: hlsState,
            onToggleMicButtonPressed: () {
              micEnabled ? widget.room.muteMic() : widget.room.unmuteMic();
              micEnabled = !micEnabled;
            },
            onToggleCameraButtonPressed: () {
              camEnabled ? widget.room.disableCam() : widget.room.enableCam();
              camEnabled = !camEnabled;
            },
            //HLS handler which will start and stop HLS
            onHLSButtonPressed: () => {
              if (hlsState == "HLS_STOPPED")
                {
                  widget.room.startHls(config: {
                    "layout": {
                      "type": "SPOTLIGHT",
                      "priority": "PIN",
                      "GRID": 20,
                    },
                    "mode": "video-and-audio",
                    "theme": "DARK",
                    "quality": "high",
                    "orientation": "portrait",
                  })
                }
              else if (hlsState == "HLS_STARTED" || hlsState == "HLS_PLAYABLE")
                {widget.room.stopHls()}
            },
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }

  // listening to room events for participants join, left and hls state changes
  void setMeetingEventListener() {
    widget.room.on(
      Events.participantJoined,
      (Participant participant) {
        //Adding only Conference participant to show in grid
        if (participant.mode == Mode.CONFERENCE) {
          setState(
            () => participants.putIfAbsent(participant.id, () => participant),
          );
        }
      },
    );

    widget.room.on(Events.participantLeft, (String participantId) {
      if (participants.containsKey(participantId)) {
        setState(
          () => participants.remove(participantId),
        );
      }
    });
    widget.room.on(
      Events.hlsStateChanged,
      (Map<String, dynamic> data) {
        setState(
          () => hlsState = data['status'],
        );
      },
    );
  }
}

Output

Step 5: ViewerView Widget for Flutter Live Streaming app

Let's create StatefulWidget named ILSViewerView in the ils_viewer_view.dart file.

ILSViewerView will listen to the hlsStateChanged event and if the HLS is started, it will show the livestream using the flutter_vlc_player library.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:videosdk/videosdk.dart';
import './livestream_player.dart';

class ILSViewerView extends StatefulWidget {
  final Room room;
  const ILSViewerView({super.key, required this.room});

  @override
  State<ILSViewerView> createState() => _ILSViewerViewState();
}

class _ILSViewerViewState extends State<ILSViewerView> {
  String hlsState = "HLS_STOPPED";
  String? downstreamUrl;

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    //initialize the room's hls state and hls's downstreamUrl
    hlsState = widget.room.hlsState;
    downstreamUrl = widget.room.hlsDownstreamUrl;
    //add the hlsStateChanged event listener
    setMeetingEventListener();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return SingleChildScrollView(
      child: Column(
        mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
        children: [
          Padding(
            padding: const EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
            child: Row(
              children: [
                Expanded(
                    child: Text(widget.room.id,
                        style: const TextStyle(color: Colors.white))),
                ElevatedButton(
                  onPressed: () =>
                      {Clipboard.setData(ClipboardData(text: widget.room.id))},
                  child: const Text("Copy Meeting Id"),
                ),
                const SizedBox(width: 10),
                ElevatedButton(
                  onPressed: () => {widget.room.leave()},
                  style: ElevatedButton.styleFrom(
                    backgroundColor: Colors.red,
                  ),
                  child: const Text("Leave"),
                )
              ],
            ),
          ),
          //Show the livestream player if the downstreamUrl is present
          downstreamUrl != null
              ? LivestreamPlayer(downstreamUrl: downstreamUrl!)
              : const Text("Host has not started the HLS",
                  style: TextStyle(color: Colors.white)),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }

  void setMeetingEventListener() {
    // listening to hlsStateChanged events and updating the hlsState and downstremUrl
    widget.room.on(
      Events.hlsStateChanged,
      (Map<String, dynamic> data) {
        String status = data['status'];
        if (mounted) {
          setState(() {
            hlsState = status;
            if (status == "HLS_PLAYABLE" || status == "HLS_STOPPED") {
              downstreamUrl = data['downstreamUrl'];
            }
          });
        }
      },
    );
  }
}

Let us use the flutter_vlc_player library to play the HLS stream on the Viewer side. For these you will create a StatefulWidget named LivestreamPlayer in the livestream_player.dart file.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_vlc_player/flutter_vlc_player.dart';

class LivestreamPlayer extends StatefulWidget {
  final String downstreamUrl;
  const LivestreamPlayer({
    Key? key,
    required this.downstreamUrl,
  }) : super(key: key);

  @override
  LivestreamPlayerState createState() => LivestreamPlayerState();
}

class LivestreamPlayerState extends State<LivestreamPlayer>
    with AutomaticKeepAliveClientMixin {
  late VlcPlayerController _controller;

  @override
  bool get wantKeepAlive => true;

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    //initializing the player
    _controller = VlcPlayerController.network(widget.downstreamUrl,
        options: VlcPlayerOptions());
  }

  @override
  void dispose() async {
    _controller.dispose();
    super.dispose();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    super.build(context);
    //rendering the VlcPlayer
    return VlcPlayer(
      controller: _controller,
      aspectRatio: 9 / 16,
      placeholder: const Center(child: CircularProgressIndicator()),
    );
  }
}

Output

Its' time to Run and Test App
The app is all set to test. Make sure to update the token in api_call.dart

You can checkout the complete code here.

Conclusion

In this blog, We understood the process of creating an interactive live stream app in Flutter. We discussed the importance and scalability of Video SDK for real-time communication, and we outlined five steps to follow. By following these steps, developers can create a powerful Flutter app that allows users to host and join live streaming sessions, view video streams of participants, and engage in a seamless and interactive experience. If you wish to add some more functionalities like chat messaging and screen sharing, you can always check out our documentation. If you face any difficulty while implementing, you can connect with us on our discord community.

More Flutter Resources

• Build a Flutter Video Calling App with Video SDK
• Video SDK Flutter SDK Integration Guide
• Flutter SDK QuickStart
• Flutter SDK Github Example
• Build a Flutter Video Calling App with Video SDK
• Video Call Flutter app with Video SDK (Android & IOS)
• Official Video SDK flutter plugin: (feel free to give it a star ⭐)