New Video API 2.34: Network Insights and Expanded Browser Support

Introduction

We are excited to announce the release of Vonage Video API Client SDK 2.34. Building on the client observability improvements introduced in 2.33, this release adds real-time network condition reporting alongside background blur and replace support for Safari and Firefox.

The 2.34 release is available across JavaScript (Web), iOS, Android, Linux, and Windows. For a complete list of changes, see the full release notes.

Network Conditions Reporting

Building on the publisher and subscriber statistics introduced in 2.33, version 2.34 adds a new layer of real-time network health insights to help you proactively diagnose and respond to video quality issues.

The new networkConditionChanged event is available for both publishers and subscribers. It reports the current network condition across five levels (Excellent, Good, Fair, Warning, and Critical). It also identifies which party is responsible for stream degradation and why (for example, bandwidth constraints or packet loss).

For publishers:

publisher.on('networkConditionChanged', ({ reason, statsContainer }) => {
  const { stats } = statsContainer;
  console.log('Network condition changed.');
  console.log(`Network Condition: ${stats.mediaLink.transport.networkCondition}, Reason: ${stats.mediaLink.transport.networkConditionReason}`);
});

For subscribers, you can now determine whether degradation is originating locally or from the remote publisher:

subscriber.on('networkConditionChanged', ({ reason, stats }) => {
  console.log('Network condition changed.');
  console.log(`Degradation source: ${stats.mediaLink.networkDegradationSource}`);

  if (stats.mediaLink.networkDegradationSource === 'local') {
    console.log(`Network Condition: ${stats.mediaLink.transport.networkCondition}, Reason: ${stats.mediaLink.transport.networkConditionReason}`);
  } else if (stats.mediaLink.networkDegradationSource === 'remote') {
    console.log(`Network Condition: ${stats.mediaLink.remotePublisherTransport.networkCondition}, Reason: ${stats.mediaLink.remotePublisherTransport.networkConditionReason}`);
  }
});

Used together with the statistics introduced in 2.33, these new events provide a comprehensive picture of the end-user experience in real time, making it faster to identify the root cause of quality issues and to build smarter, adaptive experiences.

Read the Client Observability Guide for full details.

Background Blur and Replace on Safari and Firefox

Version 2.34 brings background blur and replace to Safari and Firefox, achieving feature parity with Chromium-based browsers.

This update ensures a consistent, high-standard of privacy protection across all major browsers. Whether your users are on Chrome, Safari, Firefox or using a native application, they can now blur or replace their background to maintain a professional appearance and protect the privacy of anyone in the background.

For implementation details, see the Media Processor documentation.

Getting Started

Ready to upgrade? Here's what you need to know.

Installation for JavaScript/Web:

npm install @vonage/client-sdk-video@2.34.0

For native SDKs, visit our documentation for platform-specific installation instructions.

Note: The React Native SDK follows each native SDK release after the necessary integration, testing, and validation work is complete.

Conclusion

Version 2.34 continues to build on the observability and quality improvements introduced in 2.33, while expanding background blur/replace support to Safari and Firefox. If you’re building rich video experiences that need to work reliably across every major browser, this release has something for you.