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Create A Live Streaming App In 6 Steps: The Ultimate Guide

Krishi Shivasangaran Published On October 18th, 2024 Tech Talks

Explore Live Streaming SDK

A Step By Step Guide To Building A Live Streaming Platform Explained!

Planning to create your own live streaming app, but not sure where to start?
Allow us to help you 😊

We know you’ve got a lot of questions in mind, right now.

What’s the workflow?
Which tech stack to choose?
How to keep the platform secure?
What features to add?

Searching for answers to all of these questions can be truly overwhelming!
But don’t worry! We’ve got you covered.

We prepared this guide to make things simple for you.

You’ll learn,

the steps to create a live streaming app
the core streaming features for your app
what other features you can add
and the option to build the app in just few hours

First, let’s get into the basics.

Table of Contents

Understanding Live Streaming Basics

What Is Live Streaming?

Live streaming is a technology that sends out or receives live video and audio content over the internet, allowing viewers to watch events as they happen.

Live streaming technology encompasses both hardware and software components essential for transmitting live video content to viewers as it unfolds. This technology enables individuals to watch video broadcasts in real-time as they occur, offering a dynamic and immediate viewing experience.
Source: An extract from Washington Independent on Live Streaming Technology

The biggest reason why live streaming stands out from other forms of video content is – it connects content creators and audience with each other, directly.

Whatever the streamer does is viewable by the audience in real-time. And this is something that’s changing how we consume content every day.

Now, on the technological front there is a lot of interesting stuff that happens on a live streaming app. We’ll look into them as we go ahead in this article.

Key Features Of Successful Live Streaming Apps

💡Did You Know?
68%
consumers pay for a TV or live streaming subscription to access exclusive content, simplify their billing for both TV and broadband, and access streaming services through their TV provider.
Source: Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends

People are enjoying live streams like never before. They pay for a subscription service every month to watch live streams every day. Now, that calls for a serious focus on the features.

As people will most likely use the app on a daily basis, they’ll need features that are essential, easy and fun to use.

So here are some of them you need to consider while building a live streaming app.

High-quality Video Streaming

Your video stream can’t stop because the viewer’s network strength is weak. Make sure that your app supports HQ streams that support various video qualities, from standard definition to 4K. So the app will adjust the quality automatically to the internet connectivity.

Real-time Chat and Messaging

Imagine your audience getting all talky about your streams, they can’t keep themselves quiet from discussing your streams. This is where you’ll need a real-time messaging and live chat option, so people can send out and receive messages to each other, making your streams more lively and engaging

Multi-platform Support

Your video streams must be playable on any device your audience uses. You can’t just allow your streams to run on a mobile and refrain from supporting Tablets.

This may interfere so much with people’s convenience in accessing your content. So make sure that your app is compatible with various devices and operating systems to reach a wider audience.

Customizable User Profiles

Remember, you are not building a live streaming app, but also a community of people with similar interests. Your audience would want to express themselves in different ways and personalizing their profiles is one of the most convenient ways they’d like to do it. Make it fun and easy for them to edit and customize their profile, which would act as a social portfolio to connect with other users on your platform.

Content Discovery

Imagine you’ve got an amazing collection of content and your audience is not able to access them because you have a bad UI and it is hard for them to navigate to your content. Everything might go vain.

To avoid such a situation, you need to implement a sophisticated search and recommendation system to help users find relevant streams effortlessly.

Monetization Options

At the end of the day, your streams must help you make money. To turn your efforts into reality, you’ll need options to monetize your content.

You can go for options like virtual gifts, subscriptions, or ad placements to earn out of your streams.

Analytics Dashboard

You cannot improve if you do not know where your content or streaming parameters are lacking performance. This is where you’ll need an analytics dashboard that will give a centralized data of what really works on your platform and what does not.

This way, you can thoroughly study the user behavior on your app and understand which part of your app they like, and where you could improvise.

Stream Scheduling

If you are so much into taking your content to your audience, more likely, you’ll create a collective of streams. Now, instead of spending time and effort manually in posting your stream to your audience, you can bulk create content and schedule them in one shot, saving a lot of time and energy.

And you can also set up notifications for your audience, when your scheduled premiere or stream begins, so they’ll never really miss out on your content.

Recording and Replay

Almost 20% of your audience might not be able to make it to your streams, if they are caught up with their own priorities. But that must not be the reason why they’ll miss out on your content.

For situations like these, you can enable a recording option where users can set the recording of your stream and then watch it when they are available to make time for your content.

Social Media Integration

Not many of your audience would have your app installed on your app. In these cases, you can have a social sharing option. People can repost your live streams on their social profiles, making it a great way to reach many more audiences across common networking apps like Facebook or Whatsapp.

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Here’s a comparison table of these features and their importance:

Feature	User Benefit	Creator Benefit
High-quality Video	Better viewing experience	Attracts more viewers
Real-time Chat	Increased engagement	Direct audience interaction
Multi-platform Support	Accessibility	Larger potential audience
Customizable Profiles	Personalization	Brand building
Content Discovery	Easy to find content	More visibility
Monetization Options	Support favorite creators	Income generation
Analytics Dashboard	N/A	Performance insights
Stream Scheduling	Never miss a stream	Better planning
Recording and Replay	Watch anytime	Content repurposing
Social Media Integration	Easy sharing	Increased reach

Popular Live Streaming Platforms [2024]

As you plan to build a streaming app, it is very important to understand the existing apps in the market and what makes them so successful.

Here’s our favorite 5:

1. Twitch

When you use Twitch, you’ll love the option to watch and interact with streamers at the same time. Also, you can send out messages to the streamer and they can reply to you in real-time. You’ll enjoy the way the app helps you interact with a community easily and get along with them with interactive features.