How to Choose the Best Cross-Platform Video SDK for Your Project

By 2027, the global video conferencing market is expected to be valued at $19.1 billion—a direct result of businesses readily adopting video conferencing to empower a wide variety of business needs, including remote workforces, remote patient-doctor consultations, and education. This wide variety of use cases emphasizes the need for an exceptional Cross-Platform Video SDK and has given rise to various complex and unique customer expectations depending on the industry.

For example, healthcare institutions will look for video conferencing software that integrates with medical equipment to facilitate better patient care, while on the other hand, the education industry prioritizes collaboration and sharing.

This evolving market space has led to organizations seeking video software development kit (SDK) integrations because it helps them deliver tailor-made, bespoke experiences to their audience. It also helps them achieve infinite flexibility in design and minimal change/modification to the user experience for their existing customer base.

Choosing an SDK and proceeding with implementation is a lengthy and time- and money- consuming task. So, with a plethora of options available, it’s important to evaluate the SDKs thoroughly before committing.

To make this easier for you, we’ve outlined the top ten factors to consider when selecting a video integration SDK for your project.

1. Business Requirements

At their core, video SDKs are customizable software that integrate video and chat capabilities into your application. Some SDKs are designed to cater to specific businesses, ensuring the software can:

• Be easily tailored to your needs and quickly deployed.
• Meets security and technical standards set by industry regulators.
• Includes plug-and-play integrations to connect with industry solutions, like EHR integrations for healthcare or LMS integrations for educational institutions.

Start by determining the app’s objective and narrowing down the available options to those that meet your specific requirements.

For example, if you are developing an app for healthcare services, you can opt for Cross-Platform Video SDK’s like Enghouse’s VideoPlatform. This platform provides reliable connectivity and superior audio and video quality to accurately assess patients in remote locations. Moreover, its HIPAA compliance ensures adherence to healthcare regulations.

2. Platform Compatibility

A 2023 study showed that 70% of users in the U.S. consumed video content on their smartphones. Other devices weren’t far behind, with Smart TVs at 62%, laptops at 44%, and tablets at 37%.

To maximize your reach, choose cross-platform video integration SDKs compatible with all major platforms. For example, Enghouse’s VideoPlatform supports iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac devices.

Moreover, check the peripheral equipment supported by the SDK, including mics, speakers, cameras, etc. By covering all your bases, you can deliver the best video experience to the widest possible audience.

NOTE: Most video SDKs, including Enghouse’s VideoPlatform, list recommended devices to ensure the best video experience.

3. User Experience

A 2021 Statista report found that 58% of users deal with technical glitches and software issues while using video conferencing platforms. Poor user experiences like this can deter customers from using your app.

To minimize such issues, ensure your video SDK includes these essential capabilities for a seamless user experience:

• Adaptive video layering: Adjusts video quality to the user’s network conditions in real-time, ensuring uninterrupted video streaming even in poor connectivity areas.
• Up-time SLAs: Guarantees minimum up-time for applications, giving you the confidence to host your video capabilities on the SDK.
• Wideband audio: Provides crystal clear audio, ensuring attendees can hear everything.
• Low latency: Minimizes lag, improving the live streaming experience and ensuring high-quality video at all times.
• Firewall traversal: Helps bypass the firewalls, allowing users to connect from any network with authorization.

Additionally, some SDK providers offer extra features that take your video chat app to the next level. For example, managed services like Enghouse’s VideoPlatform offers:

• Screen sharing: Allows attendees to showcase presentations, documents, and webpages on the call, making it easier to share information and ideas.
• Recording and playback: Provides unique insights for post-meeting analysis in customer support, webinars, sales meetings, etc.
• Voice-activated layouts: Dynamically highlight the active speaker on the screen.

4. Scalability

Video conferencing has many use cases, from online conferences to one-to-one meetings. These types of meetings have distinct network demands; conferences require higher bandwidth to accommodate more participants than one-on-one meetings.

A video SDK should easily scale its capacity and performance to meet growing user demands, adjusting network requirements based on incoming traffic.

Enghouse’s VideoPlatform, for instance, enables teams to engage in multiparty video calls, supporting both one-to-one and many-to-many communication. It accommodates projects of all sizes on major browsers and devices.

5. Customizability and Flexibility

43% of videos are used to build product awareness. This is because product-led videos help improve brand recall and affinity. Moreover, marketers have seen an increase in ROI if this content is presented to audiences live.

To successfully integrate them in your video chat app, you need a video SDK that offers a high-level of technical flexibility (like simulcast, scalable video encoding, and wideband audio) and cosmetic customizability (like custom brand colors and logos).

For example, Enghouse’s VideoPlatform enables customized multi-party layouts and compositions tailored to your app’s needs.

6. Customer Support

Ideally, your video conferencing platform would provide high-quality audio and video connectivity to your app users throughout the meeting.

However, latency, connectivity problems, and poor video quality can still occur even with the best video SDK. And the onus is on your team to resolve these issues quickly.

This is where reliable customer support helps. Their knowledge and experience can help you identify and resolve problems faster, saving time and resources.

Reliable video SDKs like Enghouse’s VideoPlatform offer comprehensive customer support to help developers resolve issues efficiently, including:

• 24/7 support to quickly get your video-enabled app operational.
• A Developer Knowledge Base with full documentation and a developer guide for SDKs and APIs.
• An active online community on forums like GitHub where developers can post questions, share how-to’s, and seek clarifications.
• Positive reviews on user-verified sites praising Enghouse’s VideoPlatform’s responsive technical support.

Additionally, Enghouse Video offers developer and professional services to support application development.

Whether you need them to build the application or require extra assistance during your development process, their developer service programs can help you bring your projects to life.

7. Security Features

The need for security in video conferencing stems from the potential exposure of sensitive information such as business strategies, personal data, and confidential discussions, which can be intercepted by unauthorized parties.

To protect against these threats, it’s crucial to invest in software that uses the latest security protocols. These protocols ensure data protection during transit and storage and comply with HIPAA and GDPR guidelines.

When choosing a video SDK, select options like Enghouse’s VideoPlatform that incorporate recommended video security protocols, such as:

• Secure real-time transport protocol (SRTP) for encrypting media during transmission.
• Transport layer security (TLS) secures strong encryption ciphers while signaling.
• Encrypted token technology for securing video sessions.
• GDPR & HIPAA compliance.

Additionally, check if the SDK offers user authentication protocols (two-factor authentication, passwords, etc.), geographic restrictions, and user permission controls to ensure that only authorized personnel can log into meetings.

8. Ease of Integration

Integrating an SDK involves several essential steps, including managing API calls, syncing data, and setting up development environments.

Choosing a video SDK that integrates seamlessly with your existing systems can speed up the process and simplify the developer’s workflow, allowing them to create secure and reliable connections with few lines of code.

For example, Enghouse’s VideoPlatform allows developers to integrate high-definition video into applications with minimal coding effort, eliminating the user’s learning curve and enhancing adoption across multiple platforms. It can quickly embed reliable and scalable multiparty video collaboration using its:

• VidyoClient SDK will integrate communication capabilities into your applications and workflows.
• Enghouse’s VideoPlatform API for call control and moderation.

9. Reporting and Analytics

Analytics in video conferencing track user participation, evaluate feature effectiveness, and enhance security through access monitoring and encryption. They provide insights into target audience preferences, distribution channel performance, and other key metrics.

By incorporating these analytics, businesses can identify which features resonate with users and pinpoint areas for improvement.

An analytics feature can help you track these crucial metrics. Besides monitoring the performance of your video SDK infrastructure, you can use the video SDK analytics to track:

• Popular devices used for video meetings, helping you optimize existing workflows for current user trends.
• Traffic patterns to understand bandwidth usage so you can adjust your licensing model accordingly.
• Server-level metrics, like failure rates, latency, and bandwidth usage, identify any irregularities and take proactive action.
• User-level metrics, including participant name, location, device, and operation system, are used to understand customer preferences.

Some video SDK offers analytics tools as separate, customizable APIs to measure your video content performance. For example, Vidyo Insights, Enghouse Vidyo’s analytics dashboard, offers visual dashboards to verify and track Enghouse’s VideoPlatform infrastructure performance, including the VidyoClient SDK.

10. Pricing Models

Pricing plans are crucial when choosing a video SDK. They define how management allocates its budget, optimizes spending, and, ultimately, whether the software is worth the investment.

Most video SDKs follow these pricing models:

• Pay-as-you-go model: Pay only for the resources used. This model is ideal for growing projects seeking a cost-effective solution. For example, the Enghouse Vidyo platform is available for as low as  $0.003/minute/participant.
• Fixed-price model: A fixed charge for accessing the software over a specific duration or user count; perfect for projects with predictable usage, such as event organizers and conferences.
• Tiered model: Different pricing plans are available for various markets and use cases, which is ideal for projects looking to scale their video conferencing operations.
• Hybrid model: This model combines two or more pricing models, offering flexibility. It lets you choose a payment plan that aligns with your project needs.

Before finalizing your choice, leverage the trial period to evaluate the Cross-Platform Video SDK’s capabilities. Experiment with the tool to understand its functions, uncover hidden costs or limits, and determine usage restrictions based on time, days, and number of users.

Thoroughly review the pricing plans for any additional charges. If you have any pricing-related questions, contact the sales team.

Enghouse’s VideoPlatform: The Best Cross-platform Video SDK For Your Project

Enghouse’s VideoPlatform is designed to effectively meet developers’ needs for integrating video capabilities, ensuring reliability, scalability, and affordability in their applications.

With 2 decades of experience in video conferencing, Enghouse created Enghouse’s VideoPlatform to help developers embed high-quality, real-time video with minimal coding. Enghouse’s VideoPlatform offers flexible deployment options, compliance features, robust security, and powerful developer services, making it an essential tool for any project.

Enghouse’s VideoPlatform comes with two packages that provide APIs to integrate video communication capabilities into various applications and workflows and enable the development of call control and moderation modules.

Enghouse’s VideoPlatform enhances the user experience by delivering the highest video quality with the lowest latency globally.

Don’t just take our word for it! Try our sample project on Stackblitz or clone it directly from our GitHub page and start integrating today.

FAQs

Which API is best for video calling?

Enghouse’s VideoPlatform offers the best API for embedding real-time video in your apps. It supports high-quality video with the lowest latency for all network environments.

What is a video call SDK?

A video call SDK, or software development kit, offers developers the tools, APIs, and libraries to integrate custom, high-quality video calling capabilities in any application or website.

Which is the best cross-platform video integration SDK?

Enghouse’s VideoPlatform is the best cross-platform video integration SDK. It offers APIs and SDKs that enable developers to quickly build video chat apps across all major platforms with minimal coding.

Which is the best telemedicine solution?

Enghouse’s VidyoHealth is the best telemedicine solution. Its EHR integrations, high-quality videos, and low latency support earned it the ”Best Telemedicine Solution” at the 2021 Wellbeing and Quality of Life Awards.