Migrate from Video SDK 3.x

Agora SDK v4.0.0 is a new version of the SDK that you can use to embed real-time video and audio into your app. It supports large-scale real-time interactive activities and provides better real-time interactive effects. For details, see Benefits and features.

This page introduces the main steps to upgrade the SDK from v2.x or v3.x (v3.7.0 and earlier) to v4.0.0, as well as the related changes.

Migration steps

This section introduces the main steps to upgrade the SDK from v2.x or v3.x to v4.0.0.

1. Integrate the SDK

See Get started for more information about integrating the v4.0.0 SDK into your project.

2. Update the Agora code in your app

The v4.0.0 SDK has optimized or modified the implementation of some functions, resulting in incompatibility with the v3.7.0 SDK.

What has changed

This section is based on v3.7.0 and introduces the main changes of v4.0.0 compared to v3.7.0 in the following categories. You need to update the code of your app according to your business use-case.

• Breaking changes: Introduces API compatibility changes. You need to spend significant time modifying the related implementation.
• Behavior changes: Introduces changes caused by reasonable optimization of the SDK default behavior and API behavior. Less time is required to modify the related implementation, if any.
• Function gaps: Introduces functions that were supported in v3.7.0 but are not supported in v4.0.0. However, these functions are intended to be added in a future release.
• Removed APIs: Introduces APIs that were supported in v3.7.0 but removed in v4.0.0. Most of these APIs have alternatives in v4.0.0. Modifying the related implementation should require less time.
• Naming and data type changes: Introduces the naming and data type changes of the main APIs. You can update the relevant implementation according to the error message in the IDE, which is expected to take less time.

Breaking changes

After upgrading from v3.7.0 to v4.0.0, the way the APIs implement some functions is different. This section introduces compatibility changes for these APIs and the logic for updating the code of your app.

Multiple channels

In v3.7.0, the SDK provides the IChannel and IChannelEventHandler classes to implement multi-channel control. The v3.7.0 SDK supports subscribing to the audio and video streams of multiple channels, but only supports publishing one group of audio and video streams in one channel.

v4.0.0 introduces the following changes:

• The SDK supports one IRtcEngine instance to collect multiple audio and video sources at the same time and publish them to the remote users by setting IRtcEngineEx and ChannelMediaOptions.
• After calling joinChannel to join the first channel, call joinChannelEx multiple times to join multiple channels, and publish the specified stream to different channels through different user ID (localUid) and ChannelMediaOptions settings.
• Added a binary group RtcConnection to represent the connection established by joinChannel. A connection is determined by the channel name (channelId) and localUid. You can control the publishing and subscribing state of different connections through RtcConnection. The SDK adds Ex in the name of all APIs with a connection parameter (corresponding to the RtcConnection class) to distinguish them, and gathers these APIs in the IRtcEngineEx class to implement more multi-stream functions.

Combined with the multi-channel capability, you can also experience the following functions:

• Publish multiple groups of audio and video streams to the remote user through different localUids.
• Mix multiple audio streams and publish them to the remote user through one localUid.
• Mix multiple video streams and publish them to the remote user through one localUid.

IChannel and IRtcEngine of v3.7.0 are partially duplicated and overlap in their functionality, so v4.0.0 hides the IChannel and IChannelEventHandler classes. See the JoinMultiChannel sample project for more details on how to replace IChannel with joinChannel and ChannelMediaOptions. The expected migration cost is one day or less.

If you need to continue to use the IChannel and IChannelEventHandler classes, contact support@agora.io. The decision whether to maintain compatibility in a future release is based on your feedback.

Media stream publishing control

In v4.0.0, the SDK gathers more channel-related settings into ChannelMediaOptions, including publishing of audio and video streams from different sources, automatic subscribing of audio and video streams, user role switching, token updating, and default dual stream options. You can determine the media stream publishing and subscribing behavior by calling joinChannel or joinChannelEx when joining a channel, or you can flexibly update the media options by calling updateChannelMediaOptions after joining a channel, such as switching video sources.

See the LiveBroadcasting sample project to update the code in your app.

Custom video source and renderer

In v3.7.0, the SDK provides the following ways to implement the custom video source and renderer:

• Push mode for custom video source
• Raw video data mode for custom video renderer
• MediaIO mode (IVideoSource) for custom video source
• MediaIO mode (IVideoSink) for custom video renderer

v4.0.0 unifies the audio and video processing pipeline internally. Push mode and raw video data mode are simpler for integration, so Agora recommends using them for custom video source and renderer and removes the following related APIs of the MediaIO mode:

• IVideoSource
• IVideoSink
• IVideoFrameConsumer
• setVideoSource
• setLocalVideoRenderer
• setRemoteVideoRenderer

If you use the MediaIO mode in v3.7.0 to implement custom video source, custom video renderer, switching video source, and other functions, Agora recommends updating the code of your app by referring to the following sample projects:

• Custom video source/Custom video renderer: CustomVideoCapture
• Switching video source: ScreenShare

Warning codes

In v3.7.0, the SDK returns warning codes through the onWarning callbacks.

To facilitate locating and troubleshooting issues, v4.0.0 reports problems and causes through the return values of APIs or different callbacks for listening to states. For example:

• onConnectionStateChanged: Reports the network connection state.
• onLocalAudioStateChanged: Reports the local audio state.
• onLocalVideoStateChanged: Reports the local video state.
• onRemoteAudioStateChanged: Reports the remote audio state.
• onRemoteVideoStateChanged: Reports the remote video state.

As a consequence, v4.0.0 removes the onWarning callbacks.

In addition to the breaking changes listed here relative to v3.7.0, v4.0.0 has a small number of breaking changes relative to the v4.0.0 Beta release. For example:

• In v4.0.0, replace publishAudioTrack in ChannelMediaOptions with publishMicrophoneTrack.

If you used this feature in v4.0.0 Beta and wish to upgrade to v4.0.0, modify the implementation code of the feature after upgrading the SDK.

Behavior changes

This section introduces changes caused by reasonable optimization of the SDK default behavior and API behavior.

Channel profile

In v3.7.0, the default channel profile is CHANNEL_PROFILE_COMMUNICATION (the communication profile).

Because the interactive streaming profile supports seamless switching from one-to-one calls to multi-user interaction, since v3.0.0, Agora has changed the internal transmission protocol and the ability to resist poor network conditions in the communication profile to be consistent with the interactive streaming profile. In v4.0.0, Agora also changed the default channel profile to CHANNEL_PROFILE_LIVE_BROADCASTING (the interactive streaming profile).

Default log file

In v3.7.0, when the SDK creates multiple log files, the earlier files are named in a agorasdk_x.log format, such as agorasdk_1.log. v4.0.0 modified the naming format to agorasdk.x.log, such as agorasdk.1.log. Additionally, v4.0.0 adds the agoraapi.log file to record API logs.

Fast channel switching

In v3.7.0, you need to call switchChannel to quickly switch a channel.

In v4.0.0, you can achieve the same switching speed as switchChannel in v3.7.0 by switching a channel through leaveChannel and joinChannel. Therefore, v4.0.0 removes switchChannel. If you call switchChannel to quickly switch a channel in v3.7.0, you need to call leaveChannel to leave the current channel in v4.0.0 and joinChannel to join the second channel instead.

Agora self-developed extensions

v4.0.0 adds the feature of automatically loading self-developed dynamic libraries based on v4.0.0 Beta. As of this release, when using an Agora self-developed extension, you do not need to manually integrate the dynamic library in the project. The SDK automatically loads the dynamic library during the initialization phase of IRtcEngine. You can directly call the corresponding method of the extension to enable this feature.

Local audio and video recording

In v3.7.0, if you want to enable local audio and video recording, you need to call the getMediaRecorder method to get the AgoraMediaRecorder object. In v 4.0.0, if you want to enable local audio and video recording, you need to call the queryInterface method to get the IMediaRecorder object.

Virtual metronome

When you call startRhythmPlayer, the SDK publishes the sound of the virtual metronome to the remote by default. If you do not want the remote users to hear the virtual metronome, refer to the following operations:

In v3.7.0, call the configRhythmPlayer, and set publish to false. In v4.0.0, set publishRhythmPlayerTrack in ChannelMediaOptions to false.

Volume indication

You can call the enableAudioVolumeIndication method to enable the user's volume indication function. There is a difference in the definition of the interval parameter in the enableAudioVolumeIndication method between v3.7.0 and v4.0.0, as follows:

In v3.7.0, Agora recommends that you set the interval to be greater than 200 ms. The minimum is 10 ms; otherwise, the onAudioVolumeIndication callback is not received. In v4.0.0, you must set the interval to an integer that is a multiple of 200 ms. If the value of interval is lower than 200, the SDK automatically adjusts it to 200.

When the user's volume indication is enabled, the SDK triggers the onAudioVolumeIndication callback at the time interval set in this method. If the local user calls muteLocalAudioStream to mute themselves, the SDK behaves inconsistently between v3.7.0 and v4.0.0:

In v3.7.0, the SDK immediately stops reporting the local user's volume indication callback. In v4.0.0, the SDK continues to report the local user's volume indication callback.

Device permissions

In v3.7.0, LOCAL_AUDIO_STREAM_ERROR_DEVICE_NO_PERMISSION in onLocalAudioStateChanged reports that there is no permission to start the capture device, and LOCAL_VIDEO_STREAM_ERROR_DEVICE_NO_PERMISSION in onLocalVideoStateChanged reports that there is no permission to start the video capture device.

In v4.0.0, the permission statuses of the audio and video capture devices are both reported in the onPermissionError callback.

Pre-call network test

If you need to start or stop the network connection quality test, note the following:

In v3.7.0, you can call enableLastmileTest to start the network quality test. If you want to stop the network test, you need to call disableLastmileTest.

In v4.0.0, you can call startLastmileProbeTest to enable network quality testing. If you want to stop network testing, you need to call stopLastmileProbeTest.

Remote media event triggering mechanism

In the following use-cases, the mechanism of triggering remote media events is changed:

• Use-case 1: When the host calls muteLocalAudioStream or muteLocalVideoStream outside the channel to change the publishing status of the local audio or video stream and then joins the channel.
• Use-case 2: When the host calls muteLocalAudioStream or muteLocalVideoStream within the channel to change the publishing status of the local audio or video stream, and then other users join the channel.

The behavior differences of Agora SDK between v3.7.0 and v4.0.0 are listed as follow:

• In v3.7.0, the local user receives the onRemoteAudioStateChanged or onRemoteVideoStateChanged callback, which reports the status changes of the remote host's audio or video streams.
• In v4.0.0, instead of the onRemoteAudioStateChanged or onRemoteVideoStateChanged callback, the local user receives the onUserMuteAudio or onUserMuteVideo callback, which reports the changes in the remote host's publishing status.

Media options

There are differences in the behavior of the SDK when setting channel media options while joining a channel between v3.7.0 and v4.0.0:

• In v3.7.0, if you set publishLocalAudio in ChannelMediaOptions to false, it will stop publishing the local audio stream within the channel.
• In v4.0.0, if you set publishMicrophoneTrack in ChannelMediaOptions to false, it will not only stop publishing the local audio stream within the channel but also stop local microphone capture.

Function gaps

This section introduces functions that were supported in v3.7.0 but are no longer supported or behave inconsistently in v4.0.0. Plans exist to support them or make them consistent in a future release, however.

Audio application scenarios

v4.0.0 reconstructs the audio application scenarios, which can replace most of the audio application scenarios of v3.7.0. The following table shows the correspondence of audio application scenarios in the two releases:

Unsupported functions

Compared to v3.7.0, some features are not supported or only partially supported in v4.0.0. This section shows the APIs currently unsupported but for which support is planned in a future release.

Remote video stream fallback:

• setRemoteUserPriority

Screen sharing:

• onScreenCaptureInfoUpdated

Removed APIs

The v4.0.0 removes deprecated or unrecommended APIs. Alternatives to the removed API or reasons for their removal are shown as follows:

• virtualBackgroundSourceEnabled: Use the return value of enableVirtualBackground instead.
• onUserSuperResolutionEnabled: Use the remoteVideoStats member of the superResolutionType class instead.
• setAudioMixingPlaybackSpeed: Use the relevant API under the IMediaPlayer (AgoraRtcMediaPlayerProtocol) class instead.
• setExternalAudioSourceVolume: Use adjustCustomAudioPublishVolume instead.
• getAudioFileInfo and onRequestAudioFileInfo: Use getDuration instead.
• onAudioDeviceTestVolumeIndication：Use onAudioVolumeIndication instead.
• setLocalPublishFallbackOption and onLocalPublishFallbackToAudioOnly: Rarely used in v3.7.0.
• RENDER_MODE_FILL(4) in RENDER_MODE_TYPE: This mode can cause image overstretch and is not recommended.
• The following enumerations in AUDIO_MIXING_REASON_TYPE: Rarely used in v3.7.0.
  • AUDIO_MIXING_REASON_STARTED_BY_USER
  • AUDIO_MIXING_REASON_START_NEW_LOOP
  • AUDIO_MIXING_REASON_PAUSED_BY_USER
  • AUDIO_MIXING_REASON_RESUMED_BY_USER
• onAudioMixingFinished: Use onAudioMixingStateChanged instead.
• enableDeepLearningDenoise: The SDK adds deep-learning noise reduction as one of its capability in a future release instead of implementing through an API.
• The channel parameter in takeSnapshot and onSnapshotTaken: The parameter is redundant.
• SetDefaultMuteAllRemoteVideoStreams: Use autoSubscribeVideo in the ChannelMediaOptions instead.
• SetDefaultMuteAllRemoteAudioStreams：Use autoSubscribeAudio in the ChannelMediaOptions instead.
• LOCAL_VIDEO_STREAM_ERROR_SCREEN_CAPTURE_WINDOW_NOT_SUPPORTED in LOCAL_VIDEO_STREAM_ERROR：Deprecated in v3.7.0.
• The replace parameter in startAudioMixing: Use publishMicrophoneTrack in the ChannelMediaOptions instead.

Naming changes

The naming changes in v4.0.0 cause error messages in the IDE when you compile your project, and you need to update the code of your app according to each error message.

The main API and parameter name changes are as follows:

• adjustLoopbackRecordingSignalVolume is changed to adjustLoopbackRecordingVolume.
• onFirstLocalAudioFrame is changed to onFirstLocalAudioFramePublished.
• The fileSize member in LogConfig is renamed to fileSizeInKB.
• The options parameter in joinChannel[2/2] is changed to mediaOptions.
• The report_vad parameter in enableAudioVolumeIndication is changed to reportVad.