Technology is greatly impacting the generation and the way it consumes content. Video applications have been a great success with time. People love to share the content and get viewership which also turned out to be a monetizing medium. Now, when the time has changed, video streaming apps are the foremost choice of the generation.
The changing consumer preferences and easy streaming has helped people to understand entertainment in new terms. Users can watch the full movie, live sports matches, and listen to concerts at their own choice and own pace. Advanced technology doesn’t let you wait for streaming content on TV.
The potential of live-streaming apps over the cloud, iOS, and Android has invited entrepreneurs for building capable apps. The favorability of video streaming apps has been also increased over time. The massive lockdown has made people bored of sitting at homes and drifted them towards video streaming apps such as Netflix, Hulu, etc. After the end of lockdown, businesses are trying to find opportunities by having on-demand app development services as a lucrative alternative. The recent upsurge in live streaming apps has given multiple options to the customers such as YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix.
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What is a Live Video Streaming App?
Live Streaming allows the transmission of the event and platform in real-time with the participation of users over a dedicated platform. The favorability of live video streaming increases due to the:
- Paid streaming sessions
- Online training programs for attracting new users
- IoT-enabled app to care for children/ senior citizens or pets.
Although, broadcasting and live streaming seem similar from the customer’s perspective, but there are some differences between both terms when it comes to mobile app development services. Live Streaming is meant to record online streaming media, which is broadcasted at the same time. Live streaming media can be viewed on laptops, smartphones, and iPad, etc. Live football matches and Instagram Live are some practical examples of Live streaming media. Live broadcasting makes the video appear in real-time. There is no delay and lag happen while broadcasting such as HBO Max, Tubi, etc.
Growth Figures for Global Streaming Landscape
According to the reports, 2.72 billion people are predicted to watch on-demand or live videos on their smartphones. It is a sight upsurge in the stats of 2019 that were 2.16 billion at a CAGR of 6%. The entire live streaming industry has expanded by 99% between April 2019 and April 2020 along with the growth in on-demand app development services.
- People spend their time 3X more watching a Facebook Live video in comparison to pre-recorded videos.
- By 2027, the live streaming industry is expected to touch $184.27 billion. (TechJury)
- More than 75 % of mobile users will prefer video streaming by 2022.
Types of Live Streaming Applications
Here are a few popular live streaming application types that you can look upon if you want to invest in the same industry-
1. Live Broadcasting Apps
These are generally used in daily lives such as Facebook Live, YouTube Live, IGTV, etc.
2. Audio Streaming Apps
The audio streaming apps follow the same principle as the broadcasting app. Here in audio streaming, users can listen to the audio without downloading it. There are some common examples of audio streaming apps such as Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music, etc.
3. Video On-Demand Apps
This is the most revolutionary content consumption medium, where users can watch movies and television series without downloading them. What makes the difference is that users can resume, rewind, forward, and pause the content quickly at their own pace. Usually, video-on-demand service is available on a subscription basis. In the subscription model, users can watch the videos according to their subscribed plan.
4. Cloud Video Streaming Apps
Cloud is being adopted faster due to its speed and bandwidth. Cloud technology provides an immersive experience for managing heavy data. YouTube is the most concurrent example of cloud technology. A huge amount of data is stored on the cloud where the data loss is minimized with the distributed data centers across the world, the same is the reason for better streaming. YouTube is the second-largest video search engine in the world.
But still, many enterprises lack the network needed for managing heavy traffic and video streaming. Therefore, cloud video streaming development companies are highly popular and are widely preferred by medium-scale enterprises for providing scalable cloud.
Why Live Streaming Apps Are Important for Your Business?
A non-technical business owner may often be surprised how on-demand video can help his business to grow. And what is the significance of the video on demand for his business? Live video streaming is advantageous for a variety of niches. There are very few businesses or industry segments that cannot get such benefits from video streaming apps. Let’s explore a few industries which can leverage the live streaming app development to grow:
Entertainment Industry
The entertainment industry is widely influenced by innovative trends. This industry finds on-demand app solutions lucrative, popular, and more enticing to customers. A huge market segment is looking towards on-demand live-streaming apps.
The niche providers such as Warner, MUBI, and Archive are also making a huge profit via having such mobile app development services. Video on demand app development services are required for the entire entertainment industry due to increasing demand and popularity of OTT platforms.
Medical Industry
Video streaming is slowly becoming the spice of any food preparation. Not all have it, but most of them feel entertained by using them. The medical industry is leveraging the potential of video streaming app developers by building an ever-new platform for patient care. The telehealth industry is finding it useful for communicating with people and ensuring good health.
Education Industry
Online education industry is sensing huge growth after the covid pandemic outbreak. Remote education is being seen as the top alternative rather than traditional classroom study. The online teaching mode requires the initiators to build a capable streaming platform for adding visual concepts.
It is a proven fact that video-based study is the most powerful part of any pedagogy to imprint any content over students’ minds. Therefore, the Education industry is finding on-demand app development services a powerful component.
E-Commerce Industry
Every buyer loves to see the actual details of the products. There are very strict photograph criteria over eCommerce platforms, but still, they somewhat lack the details. Videos are the best way to show the product, instead of referring to it via a photo. If the product is shown with live streaming video, it becomes so credible to purchase the items. The Chinese eCommerce market has integrated live streaming videos and saw a hike in online sales.
Now you have gained knowledge of why live streaming apps are beneficial, let’s discuss how to build a live streaming app in the next section.
How to Build a Live Streaming App?
There are many video streaming app development companies nowadays that can help you in building a powerful platform. A video streaming app development partner understands the nature of your business requirements first and then only initiates the development tasks further. For ensuring the perfect app, you need to grab a deep understanding of the latest technical tools and business technology.
Practically, it is not possible to gain technical knowledge. A better option is to hire mobile app developers and discuss the process and components of development. Here is a quick guide for the live video streaming app development stages:
1. Define the Target Audience
It is important to understand the needs of the customers before starting the app design. Running a survey is important to know the likes and dislikes of the users. Documenting the need helps in identifying the challenges in the early stages. This way, you can bring your focus to innovative features and exciting integration.
2. Choosing a Reliable Platform
The second important step for the live video streaming app development is to choose the capable platform for storing, hosting, and streaming the data. There are many options available for the streaming platforms. Your live streaming app can either be a hybrid or native. The native application is designed for a specific platform, where the programming language is precisely made for a particular on-demand app development platform. The hybrid app is built to be used over a variety of platforms such as an app built with HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. For native apps, you can go for Android, iOS, or web apps.
Often, you may make the mistake of choosing the cheapest one, but it is not always a good deal. Comprising the quality incurs a great loss of effort and money later. Testing in the development environment is easier, but when high traffic is there, it takes a toll on the performance of the app. Viewers love to watch videos without lagging or delay. Low-resolution videos and lagging streams become a great annoyance for the viewers.
3. More Emphasis on UI/UX
Customers engage in a good-looking app that is pleasing to their eyes. A highly interactive app stays upbeat with the competition and makes a great user experience a priority. Before designing the app, you must check the top mobile app development trends that will dominate in the mobile app development service world or hire mobile app developers to stay competitive.
4. Build and test the MVP
Once you have decided to build a live video streaming app, you get plenty of ideas. Building and testing the MVP products is necessary for a successful app. The basic version of an app includes the essential features, which are built to test the likeability of the app in the market.
You can respond and feedback for app performance and decide what else you can integrate. An experienced video streaming app developer ensures the capable MVP with enough features to woo the users. Now once you know, what all is needed to create a live streaming app, is the right time to look at some advanced and basic features for your app.
Features of A Live Streaming App
Looking at the industry giants, it is very hard to list out the number of features a live streaming app would have. But it’s a heavy mistake to load your app with a bucket full of features. Losing all bullets together won’t let you make a single shot. It is sensible to create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). It helps in making you understand what the app lacks and what all the application needs at the initial stage.
In the MVP version, it depends upon you whether you want to add only basic features or advanced ones. Below we have described both basic and advanced features to look at for building a robust live video streaming app development-
Basic Features
An MVP could be built with the following basic features such as:
User Registration
Registration is a common but important part of the app. But it needs to be easy and smooth, as it may annoy users if being tough. The app can allow users to sign-up through their other social media accounts or by submitting their basic information such as name, email, phone number, etc.
User Profile
A user needs to build a proper profile where the watched videos can be shared on social media or can be watched later. The user could be able to save videos for future use. Users also need to add their profile picture, name, subscription plans, interests, etc. to their profile for a better experience.
Online Streaming
Users love to watch videos on online streaming, where the biggest example of the trend is OTT platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu. If you want to know about live video streaming app development in-depth, online streaming is one of the essential points to understand. Most of the video streaming apps use the real-time messaging protocol (RTMP) for streaming.
The media player needs to set up a connection by communicating with the server. Then, the server will answer by transferring back a video file. And this file will be televised to a lot of users at a time. This process can be accomplished only in the presence of high bandwidth.
Comments
Users may comment on broadcast channels’ videos, event pages, videos on-demand, photos, status updates, and share feedback. It will help other users to get feedback from these responses before watching that content.
Server-side Feature
You also need to provide some server-side features for users, such as converting the stream, being responsive with different screens such as smart tv, computer, mobile device, etc., and quick video loading.
Donation
Viewers on the live stream can use the donation system to contribute something to the streamer. They can also send a message with it that will be shown during the stream. While the streamer can name something to the donation such as Twitch uses the name “Donation alerts” with different payment methods.
When you are going to build a live streaming mobile app, you must take care of the aspects that can provide benefits to you. It is one of them as it is a main source of income apart from the subscription system.
Video Quality
Poor quality attracts no users but video content with high quality brings a large customer base and provides them an amazing user experience. Hence, you must choose a live streaming app development company that has better knowledge about video encoding algorithms and can create augmented server queries.
User’s Privacy
It is necessary to provide users with a sense of security & privacy works. This feature facilitates the users with the option to select with whom they want to share their liked content. Users must be able to choose whether it will be one person, all their contacts, or a chosen list with some specific people.
Screen Sharing
A paid subscriber of the live-streaming app can share the app credentials with one or more people, it is called the screen sharing feature in which all of them can see the online content simultaneously. This feature is mainly used for video games and tutorials that are streamed for millions of viewers.
Hosting other Streamers
It is a feature that must be added to the list by the app owner before they build a live streaming mobile app. In this, video streamers host the live streams of other app users on their broadcasting channels. Other viewers who follow that streamer will get notified about the live stream and will go live to watch it. Therefore, the live content will get lots of views. It can be called another way to apply for monetization.
Advanced Features
These advanced features are associated with a live streaming app to make it more attractive. The number of features you put into depends on the scalability of the app you want. Let’s understand some of the most advanced features to be taken care of during the live streaming app development.
Intuitive Onboarding
There are many apps available in the market. But some users are still new to the live video streaming app. You must give an intuitive tour of the live streaming features. An intuitive and fast onboarding process helps users with the features of the app.
Video Library
The video library is the first page of your app and must show the content of users’ choice. There could be some search criteria for viewing the list of videos of choice. Always take ideas from some popular apps and integrate the best features into your project.
Watch List
Once a user engages with your app, you can get to know its choice. Depending upon the choice you may recommend the list of video suggestions. It is appreciable to provide data as per the users’ preferences.
Ratings
Here a user may give reviews to broadcasters he likes. The review and ratings help other users in understanding the quality of videos.
Discover
Discovering the choice of content must be easy. You need to give a search box on the first screen, where a user coming on your app may watch some specific video of choice. Capable searching is equally important to other navigational features.
Downloads
Users may want to download the videos on local storage. If the user is on some trip and could not find a stable internet connection, the downloaded videos can be seen.
Cloud-based DVR
There are few apps available, where the live TV feature is used. Through a cloud-based DVR system, users can record the live available shows through the app. Famous platforms such as the Cisco Video platform, and Velocix Origin are popular options, which you can integrate into your video streaming app.
Factors to Determine the Cost of A Live Streaming App
The cost of an app cannot be determined by any single component such as the app type or the cost of the developer. There are other contributing factors, which directly or indirectly influence the cost incurred. Without making much ado, let’s jump to the list of cost-influencing factors.
- Platforms & Devices
- Type Of the App
- The Geographical Target of The App
- Time Duration of Development
- UI/UX Design
- Salient Features and In-App Integration
- App Maintenance and Marketing
- Development Team Size
- Technology Stack
Technology Stack
Various OTT platforms and live-streaming apps are running in the market. Mobile app development companies are enjoying a high influx of such app development demands. All such platforms include the powerful tech stack behind the scene.
Let’s have a look at the technology stack to choose for live streaming app development:
Programming Languages: Kotlin, Java for Android, and Swift for iOS
Hosting: Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud
API Server: Node.js
Media Processing Platform: RTMP, WebRTC
Database: Oracle, MySQL
Push Notification: Firebase, Twilio, etc.
Messaging: AWS simple Queue Service, G2 Storefront
Below, we have described the functionality of above-mentioned tech stack required for live streaming app development, check it out-
- Programming languages are used for creating the logic for live streaming apps. Whether it is video player or payment integration, the majority of the features are written using programming languages.
- Another component is a database, which is used to store the user information and video on demand. Seamless database structure grants constant access to video content.
- For presenting videos, media processing platforms are used, which makes the format compatible with smartphones, PC and other devices. Video bitrates and video encodings are optimized.
- Another important component is the broadcasting platform, which is used for live video streaming. Pricing and latency need to be balanced with such platforms. For streaming protocols, Web RTC and RTMP are famous protocols.
Monetization Models
After getting knowledge about how to make live streaming app, here we will talk about the most important goal of any on-demand app development that is monetization. There are few recognized ways of earning money, such as:
1) Paid Apps
Users pay a certain amount for downloading the app.
2) Freemium
Here, two versions are provided for the app. Where the free version has limited features and the paid version contains advanced features.
3) Advertisement:
Advertisements are a good way to earn through the app. Payments are decided as pay-per-click or pay-per-view. Also, you can give an ad-free paid version, whereas the ads-containing app is for free.
How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Live Streaming App?
Here, by this point, you are completely acquainted with the components of video streaming app development cost. But still, you can draw just a rough estimate as there are several factors accountable for varying the cost to develop live streaming app.
These factors are the same as those mentioned above in the article. Also, it depends on the requirements of your business entirely that you want to hire a local video streaming app development company for app development services or want to take freelance services. It makes a huge impact on the overall cost along with the location of your hired company or developers.
With so much high uncertainty, it is advisable to start the app with MVP features. An app with MVP features may cost you around $5000. Later, if everything goes well, you may jump to the advanced featured video-on-demand app. After all these factors mentioned above, a live streaming app development cost will be around $15,000 to $30,000.
The cost of live streaming app development can be trimmed down, which seems a better option. The market is open for all, make an assured entry with MVP and grow your business towards a well-calculated success.
Conclusion
In this article, we have provided you with detailed knowledge about how much does live streaming app costs, its features, how to make live streaming app, & the entire tech stack that is helpful to make an app interactive and responsive. In this world full of entertainment and blockbuster streaming apps, make yourself shine out with the live streaming app comprising advanced features. So, what are you waiting for? Go and expand your business by launching an amazing app.
