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Video streaming app development is too popular today. The world of VCRs, DVDs, and CDs has disappeared and is about extinct with streaming apps.

Traditional video content is dying a slow death and the old method is being replaced with video streaming apps. The increasing accessibility of the internet has given video streaming apps more advantages for growth.

Earlier, users need to stick to a particular timeline for watching a TV program or movie. Now, there are no time limits and the user can enjoy their favourite series online without ever thinking about the time.

There are many famous video streaming app services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc. Here in this article, we will discuss video streaming apps and their working models along with a little detail about popular apps.

In simple words, Live Streaming is the active mode of video streaming and audio content anywhere using the Internet connection. The fast internet connection avails live streaming anywhere around the world.

Today, online tutorials, online movies, events, online games, and wildlife broadcasting are common examples of a video streaming app development company

Advantages of Video Streaming app Development

  1. High-quality video content
  2. Wider audience potential
  3. Multilingual
  4. Convenience

1. High-quality video content

Live video streaming avails of the different qualities of video content. Users can enjoy 720p, 1080p, 2k, or 4k high-quality video formats.

2. Wider audience potential

Live streaming covers a wider range of audiences owing to the flexibility of the device and display screen size. The videos can be seen irrespective of the time.

3. Multilingual

Subtitles and multiple languages are catchy ways to attract more customers. The subtitles can be integrated to make live streaming more powerful.

4. Convenience

Live video streaming is available on cross-platform and is accessible over the internet. Online video streaming is easily available and convenient to use.

Online video streaming service has gained huge popularity over time, which led to massive competition. The services such as Hulu and Netflix offer original content with the perfect support for 4k, subtitles, HDR, and multi-audio channels in available pricing.

Here are a few popular video streaming apps, which are widely used for watching movies and shows. Let’s know some salient features of video streaming apps, which make them popular.

Types of streaming mobile apps

  1. Live Broadcasting apps
  2. Audio streaming
  3. Video on Demand
  4. TV live streaming app

1. Live Broadcasting apps

These are the popular streaming media, which allow you to watch videos in real time. The event is recorded and broadcast simultaneously.

The famous app Twitch allows broadcasting of how users play games, and how people talk about different things. The social media apps such as Instagram, and Facebook allow for live video streaming, which is a great tool for business and the best example for video streaming application development.

2. Audio streaming 

Audio streaming also works with the same technology as video streaming. Here a user can listen to music without actually downloading it. These audio streaming services are provided by a music streaming app development company. Famous apps such as Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, Wynk, etc.

3. Video on Demand

This model is widely popular today. Users can watch television shows, movies, and other serials without the need to download them on the device.

Also, the video can be paused, resumed, or rewound. These videos are made available on subscriptions. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu are popular examples.

4. TV live streaming app

The final streaming type allows the user to watch TV online. When a user switches to on-demand video, it loses their favourite TV shows, serials, or channels. This is why companies go for TV live-streaming apps. Youtube TV is a fine example of this.

Best video streaming apps

  1. Netflix
  2. Amazon Prime Video
  3. Hulu

1. Netflix

Netflix is the largest online streaming service with a massive load of content. Netflix offers a diverse range of titles in different languages and is available in a number of countries. The profit lies in native content availability.

netflix

Netflix content supports HDR, 4k resolution, Dolby Vision, and subtitles. The streaming services can be streamed on Micracast, Smart TV, Chromecast, and gaming consoles. Parents can filter unsuitable content for children. Also, users can watch TV episodes and movies without streaming.

Features of Netflix 

  • High-quality video content
  • Subtitles and multiple languages
  • Parental controls
  • Regular Updates
  • High-quality movies

2. Amazon Prime Video

Amazon Prime Videos is also one of the leading video streaming services around the globe. Here viewers can see their niche of videos such as thriller, drama, romance, action, and other genres. The service gives a nice collection of local content too, where movies are available for every genre, mood, and language.

amazon-prime-video

Watch later is an interesting feature available in Amazon Prime Video where the user can watch the selected video later, even if the internet is not available.

The service is cross-platform available, where users can get access to movies, music, and other premium services with an Amazon prime membership.

Features of Amazon Prime Video

  • Regional content
  • Latest video content
  • Subtitles and multi-audio tracks
  • Amazon original

3. Hulu

Hulu is a famous video streaming app, which also offers live streaming TV along with streaming for other content such as movies, shows, and anime. The Hulu service offers around channels with an option for expansion. A user can watch browse shows and watch episodes at the same time.

hulu

In Hulu, the user has six personalized profiles for everyone where you can browse shows, networks, and movies. Here users can also personalize the content, and add shows to their favourites. The app is available for smartphones, tablets, and TVs. The video streaming service app also offers HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax.

Features of Hulu

  • Live TV support
  • Free user plan
  • Chromecast support

What is Video Streaming Mobile Application Development?

Earlier, websites and web pages used to be very simpler and used to comprise a few images along with the text. Gradually, the website goes heavier and flooded with a load of images and videos.

The loading of these web pages becomes possible with the web service called streaming. The mobile app development company is the backbone of the internet industry today. Video conferencing and video calls over the internet are made possible using streaming.

video-streaming

Streaming is the continuous transmission of video files and audio files on demand from the client. The data transfer takes place between the client and the server.

In simple terms, streaming occurs when the user watched TV, listens to podcasts, and surfs videos. With streaming the media, files are stored remotely and data is transferred faster over the internet.

Difference Between Downloading and Video Streaming?

Streaming is the real-time action where the videos are directly played without being stored on the storage. When the video file is downloaded in the traditional method, the copy of the file is stored on the client side, which is then played by the user.

Here the user cannot play the video until the downloading finishes. Whereas live streaming allows the user to pay song whenever at the time of downloading without even copying and saving.

streaming-downloading

With live video streaming, the video downloads a little bit, instead of the entire file loading at once. The entire video information is not saved locally on the system.

Video streaming and downloading can be compared with the stream of the river and the lake respectively. Both contain water, but the difference is that the stream does not contain all water at the same place, whereas they contain all water at the same place.

A downloaded video is like a lake that takes up large storage space, whereas live streaming is the river streaming continuously flowing.

How Does Streaming Work?

Just as the data sent over the internet, audio and video are also broken into the chunk of audio and video data called data packets. Each data packet contains the byte codes, which are received by the client browser.

The client device receives this flow of data packets and then interprets them as video. Unlike the images and text transferred over the internet, live streaming demands faster data transmission than TCP/IP protocol.

How TCP/IP is Replaced With the UDP Protocol for Video Streaming?

User Data Protocol is the file-transferring protocol, used for moving data packets across the network. UDP is used with the IP protocol and together, it is known as UDP/IP protocol.

  • TCP
  • UDP

TCP:

In the TCP protocol, reliability is more concerned than the speed of data transfer. When the data is transmitted over the internet, it involves careful back-and-forth acknowledgement for data connection opening.

It is checked that the data connection is open and the communicating devices make the two transactions, TCP ensures the reliability of transmission. Alongside this, it also focuses on the packet order.

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UDP:

In the UDP protocol, the data does not send messages back and forth for opening the connection. Also, the UDP protocol does not ensure the order of the data packet arrival.

A few of the data packets are also lost in the process, but there are so many data packets in the stream where the user hardly notices the loss of data packets.

This makes data streaming faster and preferable to live video streaming. For the users wishing to watch the live episode, it is more important to watch the video instead of sitting idly and letting the whole video download.

Also, not every pixel of the frame is usually noticeable if lost. This is why UDP is preferred by video streaming app development companies.

What is Buffering in Video Streaming?

Buffering is the method to let users play video up to a certain time even when the connection is interrupted. Streaming media player uses buffering to load a few seconds of video streaming so that the users can watch the video even if the connection is broken for a while.

tenor

This loading of the video is called buffering. However, if a video connection is slow, the network has a great latency, and then the video can take a long buffer.

What Slows Down the Streaming?

  1. Network latency
  2. Network congestion
  3. Wi-Fi network issues
  4. Slow bandwidth
  5. Slow devices

1. Network latency

The network latency is affected by multiple factors including the location of the storage data, the users are approaching.

2. Network congestion

If a heavy load of data is being transferred on the network, it can degrade the streaming performance.

3. Wi-Fi network issues

This is the problem arising from the user’s side. Restarting the LAN and switching to the Ethernet connection can improve the streaming performance.

4. Slow bandwidth

Video streaming generally requires about four MBPS bandwidth and for the high definition videos, more bandwidth is required.

5. Slow devices

For playing videos, it needs good processing power. If the device, which is streaming the video, is slower and has many more processes running in the background, the video streaming performance is reduced.

How Streaming is Made Faster?

Speeding up video streaming follows the same rule as the lighter web page data transfer. A similar chunk of data packets is transmitted over the internet.

The location of the data storage matters a lot when it comes to downloading the data. If the data storage is 3000 miles distant from you, it is hardly possible that the video will load and be accessed.

fast streaming

To solve the data-streaming problem, the video streaming service provides uses a distributed delivery network, also known as a distributed content delivery network. CDN is known for storing the content in locations closer to the users.

Distributed CDNs make a huge impact on streaming performance. The CDN network uses distributed video content storage across the globe, which reduces buffering and startup times.

Wrap Up

Video streaming apps are the most popular content on smartphones today. The video streaming service has gained a huge reputation after years of innovation.

There are numerous companies in the market which work over providing video streaming services. CDN makes it easy for sharing, and watch, video content without network latency.

If you are looking for video streaming app development, you can easily hire an android programmer at a low cost, while having reliable competency levels from a country like Ukraine.