IVS Broadcast SDK | Real-Time Streaming - Amazon IVS
Platform RequirementsWebviewsRequired Device AccessSupport

IVS Broadcast SDK | Real-Time Streaming

The Amazon Interactive Video Services (IVS) Real-Time Streaming broadcast SDK is for developers who are building applications with Amazon IVS. This SDK is designed to leverage the Amazon IVS architecture and will see continual improvement and new features, alongside Amazon IVS. As a native broadcast SDK, it is designed to minimize the performance impact on your application and on the devices with which your users access your application.

Note that the broadcast SDK is used for both sending and receiving video; i.e., you use the same SDK for hosts and viewers. No separate player SDK needed.

Your application can leverage the key features of the Amazon IVS broadcast SDK:

  • High quality streaming — The broadcast SDK supports high quality streaming. Capture video from your camera and encode it at up to 720p.

  • Automatic Bitrate Adjustments — Smartphone users are mobile, so their network conditions can change throughout the course of a broadcast. The Amazon IVS broadcast SDK automatically adjusts the video bitrate to accommodate changing network conditions.

  • Portrait and Landscape Support — No matter how your users hold their devices, the image appears right-side up and properly scaled. The broadcast SDK supports both portrait and landscape canvas sizes. It automatically manages the aspect ratio when the users rotate their device away from the configured orientation.

  • Secure Streaming — Your user’s broadcasts are encrypted using TLS, so they can keep their streams secure.

  • External Audio Devices — The Amazon IVS broadcast SDK supports audio jack, USB, and Bluetooth SCO external microphones.

Platform Requirements

Native Platforms

Platform Supported Versions
Android

9.0 and later -- note customers can build with version 5.0 but will not be able to use real-time streaming functionality.
iOS

14 and later

IVS supports a minimum of 4 major iOS versions and 6 major Android versions. Our current version support may extend beyond these minimums. Customers will be notified via SDK release notes at least 3 months in advance of a major version no longer being supported.

Desktop Browsers

Browser Supported Platforms Supported Versions
Chrome Windows, macOS

Two major versions (current and most recent prior version)
Firefox Windows, macOS

Two major versions (current and most recent prior version)
Edge Windows 8.1 and later

Two major versions (current and most recent prior version)

Excludes Edge Legacy
Safari macOS

Two major versions (current and most recent prior version)

Mobile Browsers (iOS and Android)

Browser Supported Platforms Supported Versions
Chrome iOS, Android

Two major versions (current and most recent prior version)
Firefox Android

Two major versions (current and most recent prior version)
Safari iOS

Two major versions (current and most recent prior version)

Known Limitations

  • On all mobile devices, we do not recommend publishing/subscribing with four or more participants at the same time, due to issues with video artifacts and black screens. If you require more participants, configure audio-only publish and subscribe.

  • We do not recommend compositing a stage and broadcasting it to a channel on Android Mobile Web, due to performance considerations and potential crashes. If broadcast functionality is required, integrate the IVS real-time streaming Android broadcast SDK.

Webviews

The Web broadcast SDK does not provide support for webviews or weblike environments (TVs, consoles, etc). For mobile implementations, see the Real-Time Streaming Broadcast SDK Guide for Android and for iOS.

Required Device Access

The broadcast SDK requires access to the device's cameras and microphones, both those built into the device and those connected through Bluetooth, USB, or audio jack.

Support

The broadcast SDK is continually improved. See Amazon IVS Release Notes for available versions and fixed issues. If appropriate, before contacting support, update your version of the broadcast SDK and see if that resolves your issue.

Versioning

The Amazon IVS broadcast SDKs use semantic versioning.

For this discussion, suppose:

  • The latest release is 4.1.3.

  • The latest release of the prior major version is 3.2.4.

  • The latest release of version 1.x is 1.5.6.

Backward-compatible new features are added as minor releases of the latest version. In this case, the next set of new features will be added as version 4.2.0.

Backward-compatible, minor bug fixes are added as patch releases of the latest version. Here, the next set of minor bug fixes will be added as version 4.1.4.

Backward-compatible, major bug fixes are handled differently; these are added to several versions:

  • Patch release of the latest version. Here, this is version 4.1.4.

  • Patch release of the prior minor version. Here, this is version 3.2.5.

  • Patch release of the latest version 1.x release. Here, this is version 1.5.7.

Major bug fixes are defined by the Amazon IVS product team. Typical examples are critical security updates and selected other fixes necessary for customers.

Note: In the examples above, released versions increment without skipping any numbers (e.g., from 4.1.3 to 4.1.4). In reality, one or more patch numbers may remain internal and not be released, so the released version could increment from 4.1.3 to, say, 4.1.6.