React Native SDK

The Vonage Video API React Native SDK lets you use Vonage Video API-powered video sessions in apps you build for Android and iOS devices. The React Native SDK provides the following functionalities:

• Connecting to session
• Publishing streams to a session
• Subscribing to streams in a session

The React Native SDK is built on top of the Android SDK and iOS SDK. For details, see the following:

• Android SDK Overview
• iOS SDK Overview

Client SDKs are also available for web, Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux. All Client SDKs can interact with one another. You can learn more about the basics of Vonage Video clients, servers, sessions, and more on the Video API Basics page.

Installing the SDK

1. Install node.js.
2. Prepare your React Native development environment.
3. Install and update Xcode (you will need a Mac).
4. Install and update Android Studio.

System Requirements

Since the React Native SDK is built on top of the Android and iOS SDKs, the Android SDK and iOS SDK documentation have the relevant requirements.

1. In your terminal, change into your React Native project's directory.
2. Add the library using npm or yarn:
   • npm install @vonage/client-sdk-video-react-native
   • yarn add @vonage/client-sdk-video-react-native

iOS Installation

1. Install the iOS pods:

2. For React Native versions prior to 0.60:

   • Add this to your Podfile:
   • Run react-native link @vonage/client-sdk-video-react-native.

These steps are not necessary in React Native version 0.60 and later.

3. Ensure you have enabled both camera and microphone usage by adding the following entries to the Info.plist file:

When you create an archive of your app, the privacy manifest settings required by Apple's App store are added automatically with this version of the React Native SDK.

If you try to archive the app and it fails, please do the following:

1. Go to Target.
2. Click Build Phases.
3. Under the Link Binary With Libraries section, remove libOpenTokReactNative.a and add it again.

Android Installation

1. In your terminal, change into your project directory.
2. For React Native versions prior to 0.60: - Run react-native link @vonage/client-sdk-video-react-native This step is not necessary in React Native version 0.60 and later.
3. Run bundle install.
4. Make sure the following in your app's gradle compileSdkVersion, buildToolsVersion, minSdkVersion, and targetSdkVersion are greater than or equal to versions specified in the React Native library.
5. For older Android devices, add the following permissions to the AndroidManifest.xml file: * android.permission.BLUETOOTH -- The default audio device supports Bluetooth audio. If your app does not use the default audio device and does not use Bluetooth, you can remove this permission. * android.permission.BLUETOOTH_CONNECT -- You need to enable this for API level 31 and above. If you want to use the Bluetooth device with Android SDK DefaultAudioDevice targeting API level 31 and above, please ask for runtime permissions in the app or enable the ("Nearby devices/Bluetooth") permission manually in the app settings * android.permission.BROADCAST_STICKY -- We have determined that this is unused by the Android SDK, and we will remove this permission from an upcoming release. * android.permission.CAMERA -- If your app does not use the default video capturer and does not access the camera, you can remove this permission.
   • android.permission.INTERNET -- Required.
   • android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS -- If your app does not use the default audio device and does not access the microphone, you can remove this permission.
   • android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE -- The Android SDK requests this permission in API level 22 and lower, and 31 and above.
   • android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO -- If your app does not use the default audio device and does not access the microphone, you can remove this permission.

For newer versions of Android — API Level 23 (Android 6.0) and later — you do not need to add these to your app manifest. The React Native SDK adds them automatically. However, if you use Android 21+, certain permissions require you to prompt the user.

Your app can remove any of these permissions that will not be required. See this post and this Android documentation. For example, this removes the android.permission.CAMERA permission:

Bintray sunset

Bintray support has ended (official announcement: https://jfrog.com/blog/into-the-sunset-bintray-jcenter-gocenter-and-chartcenter/). In your app build.gradle file you need to remove reference to jcenter and replace it with mavenCentral. Example:

Unsupported features

The React Native library provides a React interface for using the Android and iOS client SDKs. The following advanced features of the Android and iOS client SDKs are unsupported in the React Native library:

• Custom audio drivers -- An application using React Native use the device microphone to capture audio to transmit to a published stream. And it uses the device speakers (or headphones) to play back audio from subscribed streams. However, you can set the enableStereoOutput property of the OTSession object to enable stereo output.

• Custom video capturers -- (BaseVideoCapturer) -- The React Native OTPublisher uses the standard video capturer that uses video directly from the device's camera. However, you can set the videoSource property of an OTPublisher component to "screen" to publish a screen-sharing stream.

• Custom video renderers -- The OTSubscriber and OTPublisher components implement a standard video renderer that renders streams and provides user interface controls for displaying the stream name and muting the microphone or camera. Publishers and subscribers use mPublisher.setStyle(BaseVideoRenderer.STYLE_VIDEO_SCALE, BaseVideoRenderer.STYLE_VIDEO_FILL)

• iOS delegate callback queue -- For iOS, you cannot assign the delegate callback queue (the GCD queue). See the docs for the OTSession.apiQueue property in the iOS SDK.

To build Android and iOS apps that use these features, use the Android SDK and the iOS SDK.

Sample Apps

To see this library in action, check out the opentok-react-native-samples repo.

More information

For a list of new features and known issues, see the release notes.