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Quickstart

Updated

Build a basic Video Calling app with the Agora Video SDK.

This page provides a step-by-step guide on how to create a basic Video Calling app using the Agora Video SDK.

Understand the tech

To start a Video Calling session, implement the following steps in your app:

  • Initialize the engine: Before calling other APIs, create and initialize an engine instance.

  • Join a channel: Call methods to create and join a channel.

  • Send and receive audio and video: All users can publish streams to the channel and subscribe to audio and video streams published by other users in the channel.

Prerequisites

  • A camera and a microphone.

  • A valid Agora account and project. See Agora account management for details.

  • Flutter 2.10.5 or higher with Dart 2.14.0 or higher.

  • Android Studio, IntelliJ, VS Code, or another IDE that supports Flutter. See Set up an editor.

  • Prepare your development and testing environment according to your target platform.

    Run flutter doctor to confirm that your development environment is set up correctly for Flutter development.

Set up your project

From the Terminal, run the following commands to create a new project named agora_project, or follow the steps for your IDE:

flutter create agora_project
cd agora_project

To add Video Calling to your existing project:

  1. Open your Flutter project and navigate to the lib folder.
  2. Add a new file to the lib folder and name it agora_logic.dart.

Install the SDK

Install the Agora Video SDK and other dependencies.

  1. Add the latest version of Agora Video SDK to your Flutter project:

    flutter pub add agora_rtc_engine

  2. Add the permission processing package:

    flutter pub add permission_handler

    The dependencies in your pubspec.yaml file should look like the following:

    dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter
  agora_rtc_engine: ^6.5.0  # Agora Flutter SDK, please use the latest version
  permission_handler: ^11.3.1  # Package for managing runtime permissions
  cupertino_icons: ^1.0.8

  3. Install the dependencies.

    Execute the following command in the project path:

    flutter pub get

Implement Video Calling

This section guides you through the implementation of basic real-time audio and video interaction in your app.

The following figure illustrates the essential steps:

This guide includes complete sample code that demonstrates implementing basic real-time interaction. To understand the core API calls in the sample code, review the following implementation steps.

Import packages

Import the following packages in your dart file.

import 'dart:async';

import 'package:agora_rtc_engine/agora_rtc_engine.dart';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:permission_handler/permission_handler.dart';

Initialize the engine

For real-time communication, initialize an RtcEngine instance. Use RtcEngineContext to specify the App ID, and other configuration parameters. In your dart file, add the following code:

// Set up the Agora RTC engine instance
Future<void> _initializeAgoraVoiceSDK() async {
  _engine = createAgoraRtcEngine();
  await _engine.initialize(const RtcEngineContext(
    appId: "<-- Insert app Id -->",
    channelProfile: ChannelProfileType.channelProfileCommunication,
  ));
}

Join a channel

To join a channel, call joinChannel with the following parameters:

  • Channel name: The name of the channel to join. Clients that pass the same channel name join the same channel. If a channel with the specified name does not exist, it is created when the first user joins.

  • Authentication token: A dynamic key that authenticates a user when the client joins a channel. In a production environment, you obtain a token from a token server in your security infrastructure. For the purpose of this guide Generate a temporary token.

  • User ID: A 32-bit signed integer that identifies a user in the channel. You can specify a unique user ID for each user yourself. If you set the user ID to 0 when joining a channel, the SDK generates a random number for the user ID and returns the value in the onJoinChannelSuccess callback.

  • Channel media options: Configure ChannelMediaOptions to define publishing and subscription settings, optimize performance for your specific use-case, and set optional parameters.

For Video Calling, set the clientRoleType to clientRoleBroadcaster.

// Join a channel
Future<void> _joinChannel() async {
  await _engine.joinChannel(
    token: token,
    channelId: channel,
    options: const ChannelMediaOptions(
      autoSubscribeVideo: true, // Automatically subscribe to all video streams
      autoSubscribeAudio: true, // Automatically subscribe to all audio streams
      publishCameraTrack: true, // Publish camera-captured video
      publishMicrophoneTrack: true, // Publish microphone-captured audio
      // Use clientRoleBroadcaster to act as a host or clientRoleAudience for audience
      clientRoleType: ClientRoleType.clientRoleBroadcaster,
    ),
    uid: 0,
  );
}

Subscribe to Video SDK events

The SDK provides the RtcEngineEventHandler for subscribing to channel events. To use it, pass an instance of RtcEngineEventHandler to registerEventHandler and implement the event methods you want to handle.

Call registerEventHandler to bind the event handler to the SDK.

// Register an event handler for Agora RTC
void _setupEventHandlers() {
  _engine.registerEventHandler(
    RtcEngineEventHandler(
      onJoinChannelSuccess: (RtcConnection connection, int elapsed) {
        debugPrint("Local user ${connection.localUid} joined");
        setState(() => _localUserJoined = true);
      },
      onUserJoined: (RtcConnection connection, int remoteUid, int elapsed) {
        debugPrint("Remote user $remoteUid joined");
        setState(() => _remoteUid = remoteUid);
      },
      onUserOffline: (RtcConnection connection, int remoteUid, UserOfflineReasonType reason) {
        debugPrint("Remote user $remoteUid left");
        setState(() => _remoteUid = null);
      },
    ),
  );
}

When a remote user joins the channel, the onUserJoined callback is triggered. Use the remote user's uid returned in the callback, to create an AgoraVideoView control for displaying the video stream from the remote user.

To ensure that you receive all Video SDK events, register the event handler before joining a channel.

Display the local video

To display the local video, enable the video module by calling enableVideo, then start the local video preview with startPreview.

Future<void> _setupLocalVideo() async {
  // The video module and preview are disabled by default.
  await _engine.enableVideo();
  await _engine.startPreview();
}

To render the local video, add the following widget inside your UI’s widget tree, such as in the build method of your StatefulWidget:

// Displays the local user's video view using the Agora engine.
Widget _localVideo() {
  return AgoraVideoView(
    controller: VideoViewController(
      rtcEngine: _engine, // Uses the Agora engine instance
      canvas: const VideoCanvas(
        uid: 0, // Specifies the local user
        renderMode: RenderModeType.renderModeHidden, // Sets the video rendering mode
      ),
    ),
  );
}

Display remote video

To render a remote video, add the following widget inside your UI’s widget tree, such as in the build method of your StatefulWidget:

// If a remote user has joined, render their video, else display a waiting message
Widget _remoteVideo() {
  if (_remoteUid != null) {
    return AgoraVideoView(
      controller: VideoViewController.remote(
        rtcEngine: _engine, // Uses the Agora engine instance
        canvas: VideoCanvas(uid: _remoteUid), // Binds the remote user's video
        connection: const RtcConnection(channelId: channel), // Specifies the channel
      ),
    );
  } else {
    return const Text(
      'Waiting for remote user to join...',
      textAlign: TextAlign.center,
    );
  }
}

Handle permissions

Request microphone and camera permissions for Video Calling.

Future<void> _requestPermissions() async {
  await [Permission.microphone, Permission.camera].request();
}

Information

If your target platform is iOS or macOS, add the microphone and camera permission declarations required for real-time interaction to Info.plist.

DeviceKeyValue
MicrophonePrivacy - Microphone Usage Descriptionfor audio calls
CameraPrivacy - Camera Usage Descriptionfor video calls

Start and close the app

To start Video Calling, request microphone and camera permissions, initialize the Agora SDK instance, set up event handlers, join a channel, and display the local video.

await _requestPermissions();
await _initializeAgoraVideoSDK();
await _setupLocalVideo();
_setupEventHandlers();
await _joinChannel();

To stop Video Calling, leave the channel and release the engine instance.

// Leaves the channel and releases resources
Future<void> _cleanupAgoraEngine() async {
  await _engine.leaveChannel();
  await _engine.release();
}

Warning

After you call release, you no longer have access to the methods and callbacks of the SDK. To use Video Calling features again, create a new engine instance.

Complete sample code

A complete code sample demonstrating the basic process of real-time interaction is provided for your reference. To use the sample code, copy the following code to replace the entire contents of the .dart file in your project.

Information

In the appId and token fields, enter the corresponding values you obtained from Agora Console. Use the same channel name you filled in when generating the temporary token.

Create a user interface

To connect the sample code to your existing UI, ensure that your widget tree includes the _remoteVideo and _localVideo widgets used to Display the local video and Display remote video.

Alternatively, use the following sample code to generate a basic user interface:

Sample code to create the user interface

// Build UI to display local video and remote video
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  return Scaffold(
    appBar: AppBar(title: const Text('Agora Video Call')),
    body: Stack(
      children: [
        Center(child: _remoteVideo()),
        Align(
          alignment: Alignment.topLeft,
          child: SizedBox(
            width: 100,
            height: 150,
            child: Center(
              child: _localUserJoined
                  ? _localVideo()
                  : const CircularProgressIndicator(),
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ],
    ),
  );
}

Test the sample code

Take the following steps to test the sample code:

  1. In main.dart update the values for appId, and token with values from Agora Console. Fill in the same channel name you used to generate the token.

  2. Connect a target device to your development computer.

  3. Open Terminal and execute the following command in the project folder to run the sample project:

    flutter run

  4. Launch the App, grant microphone and camera permissions. If you set the user role to host, you see yourself in the local view.

  5. On a second target device, repeat the previous steps to install and launch the client. Alternatively, use the Web demo to join the same channel and test the following use-cases:

    • If users on both devices join the channel as hosts, they can see and hear each other.
    • If one user joins as host and the other as audience, the host can see themselves in the local video window; the audience can see the host in the remote video window and hear the host.

    On an Android device, the app UI appears similar to the following:

Reference

This section contains content that completes the information on this page, or points you to documentation that explains other aspects of this product.

  • If a firewall is deployed in your network environment, refer to Connect with Cloud Proxy to use Agora services normally.

Next steps

After implementing the quickstart sample, read the following documents to learn more:

  • To ensure communication security in a test or production environment, best practice is to obtain and use a token from an authentication server. For details, see Secure authentication with tokens.

Sample project

Agora provides open source sample projects on GitHub for your reference. Download or view join_channel_video.dart for a more detailed example.

API reference

Frequently asked questions

See also

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