How to Build Your Own Live Streaming App: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Updated on 12 Jan 2024
- 15 min
Myroslav Hryshchenko
Senior Mobile Developer
Live streaming video apps are taking off. With mobile devices, anyone can broadcast real-time content from anywhere in the world.
No wonder “how to build a live streaming app” is a hot search term for entrepreneurs.
The numbers speak for themselves:
- 66% of people name video as their preferred information source
- 75% of video views happen on mobile
- The average viewer spends almost 7 hours per week watching online video
The global video streaming market is set to hit $184 billion by 2027. But within that broader industry, live streaming is the fastest-growing segment.
People crave authentic, raw footage in real time. Whether it’s breaking news, a celebrity sighting, or a personal life update, live video offers an immediacy and connection that traditional formats lack.
The technology to support these apps already exists. All you need is a strategic concept, thoughtful design, and a smooth user experience.
This guide will explain the key steps for creating your own competitive live-streaming app. Let’s dive in!
Market Landscape
Now, if you are thinking to build a live streaming app, it is not a cakewalk at all. You need professional developers with relevant experience to do that. Moreover, you need to be aware of everything required for live streaming app development, such as tools. Most important is the need to study the market.
As per market stats,
- Users watch live video 10-20 times longer than the on-demand content.
- Facebook Live is the most commonly listed platform for live video consumption.
- 80% of users prefer watching live videos than reading a blog.
In a nutshell, we can say that the demand and scope of live video streaming are sky-high right now. This elevated growth of the market strongly favors the idea to create a live streaming app.
The billion-dollar market of video streaming will help you harness maximum ROI from your unicorn startup idea. Moreover, it will also foster more customers, as well as investments.
The following sections of the article will help you discover everything related to how to create a live streaming app in detail. Let’s begin!
4 Benefits of Launching a Live Streaming App
Before stepping into the process of how to make a live streaming app, it is necessary to consider the need for a live streaming application. Here are some of the reasons that mandate the development of a live streaming app.
- Allows Mobility: The first and foremost reason to create a live streaming app is mobility. Users can’t sit in front of their TV every day and watch their favorite show. And this creates an opportunity for you.
Besides this, it is estimated that over half of the video content is viewed on mobile. Moreover, the number of mobile phone users is expected to hit the 3.8 billion mark by 2025.
These stats show that the use of a smartphone is extremely high at the moment. Hence, it is the ideal time to build a live streaming app. The application will keep the users away from sitting in front of their TV and still let them watch their favorite show.
- The Time Factor: Time is money! We all try to save and manage time as far as we can. We want everything done on time, right. Now, what if you have some work to complete and its time for your favorite show.
You will be in a dilemma of deciding what to do. This is the problem that a live streaming application solves. You can watch anything at any time. Hence, it gives you one more reason to learn how to create a live streaming app.
- Video Quality: The video quality of television cannot be paralleled with modern-day devices, not even today’s televisions. On the other hand, some modern-day video applications’ quality is HD or 4K.
As per statistics, around 77% of the users choose a streaming service based on the playback quality. So, most of the users like to view the video content in high-quality today. It acts as a good reason for you to create a great live streaming app.
- Dedicated app: Most of the video streaming apps today have a live streaming feature as an add-on. Although, some applications are dedicated to offering just the live streaming service like Livestream, Periscope, Facebook Live, and others.
Like these dedicated apps, you can also build a dedicated live video streaming app and provide a cut-throat competition to these applications.
Today, users don’t want to use much of their energy to sit for long hours in front of the TV. Neither do they want to search for content on multiple websites. They need a source that can be accessed anytime, anywhere. This is why the development of a live streaming app is a calculated risk for you.
The next section of the article will help you in understanding how to make a live streaming app comprehensively.
How to Create a Live Streaming Video App
Well, to create a live streaming video app, you need to understand two aspects of it. The first one is the business aspect of the app. This part of how to make a live video streaming app will help you discover niches, and scope of the app. Let’s take a look at that!
The Business Plan
The business part of how to create a live streaming video app depends on a plethora of factors. Some of them are:
Select the Niche
Here are some of the niches that you can consider to build a live streaming video app.
| Niche | Description |
| Entertainment | One of the primary niches to consider for live streaming app development is Entertainment. It is estimated that the global entertainment market will reach up to $2.6 trillion by 2025. So, this is evident that there is a lot of potential in the entertainment sector. Thus, you can create a live streaming video app that streams live events and shows from around the world. |
| Tutoring | The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has disturbed all businesses around the world. The education sector is one of the badly affected ones. With social distancing in effect, there has been a massive surge in the online tutoring market. The online tutoring market has the ability to grow by $132.2 billion in the next four years (2020-24). Hence, it is a potential niche to create a live streaming app. |
| Gaming | The addition of powerful graphics and the integration of state-of-the-art tech has accelerated the gaming industry’s growth in the last few years. The online gaming market will touch the $19.015 billion mark by 2025. Moreover, many professional gamers are looking for a way to showcase their gaming skills. Your live streaming app development can be a great helping hand for them. |
| Sports | It is not possible for people to go to the stadium every time there is a game in town. Instead, they rely on live television for this. And if you build a live streaming app for them. It will completely free them from the hassle of reaching home on time, as they can stream the match right on their phone from anywhere. |
| Fitness | The fitness industry is also leveraging the power of the internet to reach out to maximum customers. Moreover, COVID-19 has pushed this trend a bit more. The fitness company Beachbody has seen a growth of 200% in its subscribers after going virtual. This clearly indicates that fitness is a potential niche for you. Thus, it gives you an opportunity to create a live streaming video app and foster high ROI. |
Customer Research
Further, in the procedure of how to make a live streaming app comes customer research. It is important to know what the customers need and what issues they are facing in the current scenario before the development of a live streaming app.
Here are the pain points that you need to get rid of in your application.
| Pain Points | Description |
| Technical Faults | Well, the very basic pain point that your users can have is the technical errors in the app. It is possible that users might have a bad internet connection. But the issue can be in your app also. So, make sure that when you build a live streaming app, you make it absolutely bug-free. |
| Timing | Timing becomes an issue when you create a live streaming app at a global level. For example, if an event is broadcasted in the US during the day, the Indian audience will not be able to see it due to the timing issue. To fix it, make sure that you allow people to broadcast their shows at any time repeatedly. This will also help you monetize the application better. |
| Video Saving | All of your viewers may not be free at one time of the day. So, you need to find a way to help them watch live streaming content later. You need to let your users save the live video so that they can watch it later. Facebook Live is a platform that helps users save live video. |
| Power consumption | Power consumption is one of the key pain points of users with respect to live streaming services. Most of the live streaming services take up more battery in less time of streaming. It is estimated that streaming live content for just 10 to 15 minutes can chew up 20% of your phone’s battery. Hence, focus on this issue in the process of how to create a live streaming app. This is possible to fix such issues with a properly made technical architecture. |
| Video Quality and data consumption | Lastly, the usage of data while streaming live content is more. So, it is important for you to make sure that you build a live streaming video app that uses the best video codec. A video codec like H.264 will help you deliver high-quality video at low data usage. |
Idea Validation
Now, if you have an idea for a live streaming app development, it is not mandatory that it will definitely work. You need to make sure that the audience likes your idea or product that you are planning to release.
Statistics suggest that 42% of businesses fail as they don’t solve a market need. Hence, it is important to confirm that your idea has a market need. The best way to do this is by developing a POC (Proof of concept).
Create a POC for live video streaming app
POC is the most crucial part of how to make a live streaming app. Why? Well, it helps you identify the scope and feasibility of your product.
A Proof of concept is a general wireframing of a product that does not have a fully functional code. It also has a simple UI and maybe some security features. Moreover, you can just include some basic features in a POC that fall within a small budget. The core is to just test the idea. Other than this, making a POC also helps you:
- Find out the validation of your idea.
- Save a lot of money. Developing a complete application that has no market demand will be more costly than a POC.
- Identify issues at the beginning of the live streaming video app development process.
- Get investments if you have an out of the box idea to create a live streaming video app.
Here ends the business part of how to create a live streaming app. Let’s dive into the technical part for the development of a live streaming app.
Technical Considerations
The technical part to build a live streaming video app begins with the features of the app. If you are developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), it is essential to include all the application’s basic features.
Basic Features
To build a live video streaming app MVP, here are the features that should be a part of it:
| Feature | Description |
| Registration and login | The key feature of an application is registration and login. Provide the users an easy way to login to the application via email and password. It will keep the account secure and enhance user experience. |
| Simple user profile | In an MVP, ask the user to add simple information like username, profile picture, name, and subscription plans. You can also ask for additional information, but it is best to keep that for the final product. |
| Online streaming | The pillar feature of how to create a live streaming app is online streaming. To enable live streaming on the app, make sure that you have a powerful server that stores the live feed. The server also needs to have streaming protocols like RTMP. |
| Live chat | To create an awesome live streaming app, do embed the feature of live chat. It will help the users interact with the artists of live events. Users can also like or comment on a video with this feature. |
| Searching | Adding the feature of searching content will help users in searching for the required content. This will save time and improve UX. |
| Push notifications | The busy schedule of people sometimes makes them forget their favorite shows. The feature of push notifications in live streaming app development will help them remember about their shows. |
| Social sharing | This is a bit unique in a live streaming app. It is not essential to include in an MVP, but it is the best to nudge the users to use the app. It will help broaden the outreach of the app. |
| Payment plans | This is the feature that is really essential to include in the process of how to make a live streaming app. Why? Well, most of the providers offer initial services for free; it should not be like that. When you create a live streaming app, make sure that you include the payment plan feature in it. It will help you monetize the app from the first day. |
While creating an MVP for a live streaming app, these are the basic features that you need to include. Further, in the process of how to make a live streaming video app, there are more!
Advanced Features
Now, to build a full-fledged live streaming app, there are some additional features that you can include. Here are some of those features:
| Feature | Description |
| Social signup | User convenience is the best thing that you can offer. Hence, it is important to include it in the process of how to create a live video streaming app. And to enhance the user experience in your app, you can add the social signup feature. Around 77% of users think that social signup is a great way of registration. Allow the users to login and register using their Facebook or Twitter ID. |
| Advanced profile | To create a full live streaming app, you can add some additional profile features also. You can ask the user for:
|
| Content delivery network | To provide seamless delivery of live streaming content to users worldwide, you need to have a strong content delivery network. Yes, it will be a bit costly, but it will never feel like a wrong investment. |
| Cloud storage | Have a primary focus on the type of storage while creating a live streaming app. It is best to opt for cloud storage as it is affordable, scalable, and reduces hardware costs. |
| Donation system | This is a voluntary action that a user can take. You can include this feature to receive donations from the users. It will become another way of monetizing the app. |
| Screen sharing | Want to do something out-of-the-box, build a live streaming app that has the screen sharing feature. Users can use it to share the live feed with other people. |
| Co-hosting | This feature allows one streamer to use the other streamer’s channel to host a show. Users get to know about the new streamer via different channels. This helps one streamer in getting more publicity while the other streamer charges for using his channel. This is another great idea for making money. |
| Complex search | The complex search feature can have filters based on which the user can search the content. It will help in saving the user’s time. Add filter like:
And others! |
The Team Required to Create a Live Video Streaming App
Further, in the technical part of how to create a live video streaming app is the team required. To build a powerful live streaming app, you need to have a team of top-notch professionals like the SpdLoad team 🙂
Here are some of the professionals that you’re gonna need for your live streaming app development.
- Project manager
- Frontend developer (Android and iOS)
- Backend developer (Android and iOS)
- Business analyst
- UI designer
- Tester
Development Steps and Tech Stack to Build a Live Streaming App
If you want to learn how to make a live video streaming app, you need to have a piece of good knowledge about the tech stack. The more advanced and powerful your tech stack, the more powerful will be your app.
Now, for a powerful tech stack, you need to get in touch with a professional who knows about it. Spdload has all the knowledge you need regarding choosing the best technologies for your live streaming video app development.
We at Spdload follow a seamless workflow and leverage the best tools and technologies in the market to deliver the finest product. Here are some of the essential tools and technologies to create a brilliant live video streaming app.
| Requirements for a live video streaming app development | Tools and Technologies to be used |
| Project requirements | For all the management purposes related to live streaming video app development, use Google Suite. The G-Suite is the collection of various communication and storage tools like sheets, word, hangouts, calendar, Gmail, etc. |
| Prototyping (Wireframing) | Harness the power of a web-based tool named Balsamiq. It will help you create a digital sketch of an app idea before writing any code. |
| Design (UI) | Design the best UI for your app using the browser-based design application Figma. |
| Web Hosting | To build the best live streaming app with seamless functioning, use:
|
| Programming | React Native or Flutter |
| Servers | Database: MySQL, Oracle |
| Streaming protocols |
|
| Media format | H.264 |
| Content Delivery Network |
|
| Media processing format | This is an essential part of how to create a live streaming app. There are many media processing formats that you can use, but we recommend:
There are numerous benefits of using Jitsi like:
|
| Notifications | Firebase Notifications |
| Testing |
|
Budgeting for a Live Streaming Video App
Next, in the process of how to make a live streaming app is the cost involved. Now, the cost of the live streaming app development varies based on some factors such as:
- From where you are getting the video streaming app developed.
- What features do you want your app to have?
Moreover, it can also depend on what type of team you hire to build a live streaming app. For that, you have the following options:
- In-house team: You can choose to hire an in-house team to create a live streaming app for yourself. The advantage that you will get here is the quality of work. It is the best as everything will be done as per your preference. The drawback here will be the pricing. It will be relatively high as compared to other methods.
- Development Agency: This is, by far, the best method to get a live streaming app made. Why? In this way, you can hire a professional app development agency like Spdload and relieve yourself from all the hassles. An agency will take care of everything for you, from designing and development to testing and release.
You will also get timely updates on your live streaming app development project. Moreover, the cost of an MVP will be less as compared to the in-house team.
- Freelancers: This is the last but not recommended way as it may not deliver you the exact quality, but yes, it will be cheap as compared to other methods.
Now, if we make an estimate of the time required to build a live streaming video app for both iOS and Android is approximately 1100 hours.
Here is the estimated cost to create a live video streaming app for one platform:
| Country | Price per hour | Total price for 1100 hours | Pros and Cons |
| USA | $150 | $150 000 | + Good quality + Easy to communicate + Same time zone
– Extremely cost – The lack of developers |
| Ukraine | $35 | $38 500 | + Same quality as in the US + Easy to communicate + Deep expertise + The wide pool of talents |
| India | $25 | $27 500 | + Very cheap + Many developers
– Poor quality – Lack of expertise – Hard to communicate – Specific time zone |
Ready to Build Your Own Streaming App?
Creating a successful live-streaming app is complex. You need an intuitive, appealing, and reliable user experience.
At SpdLoad, we specialize in building award-winning video and live-streaming products. Our agile development process and focus on quality enable us to deliver.
With over a decade of experience, our experts become an extension of your team – handling architecture to launch.
Ready to turn your idea into reality?
Let’s discuss how we can streamline development and exceed user expectations. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
