How to Create a Live Streaming App: Features, Monetization Models, and More!

The live-streaming bandwagon is the king of media today and also has a very bright future at the same time. According to reports, global live streaming will reach a net worth of $223.98 billion by 2028. These numbers are a fact that more and more businesses will invest in this and build their own live-streaming applications. 

Although to build a reliable live streaming app, you should have a little bit idea of this concept. So to help you in aspect, here in this blog we will explain to you in detail how to create a live-streaming application. 

But before we deep dive into the concept of live streaming, let’s first have a look at some of its basic types. 

Types of Streaming Applications

Live Broadcasting Apps

This is one of the most popular types of streaming applications that are used to capture, record, and share live-streaming content. Its popularity has skyrocketed in recent years, leading to an abundance of apps for creating and sharing live content. 

some of the most popular live-streaming apps are Instagram Live, Facebook Live, Periscope, etc.  

Additionally, just like video streaming, there are audio streaming apps as well. These apps allow users to listen to music without downloading it. Pandora, Spotify, and Apple Music are some of the audio streaming apps. 

Video On Demand (VOD) Streaming Apps

These types of streaming apps allow users to watch TV series and movies at a top-notch without downloading them on mobile devices. Its distinctive feature is that they can pause the video, resume and rewind it. Now, some of the leaders in this industry are Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, and Hulu. 

TV Live Streaming Apps

This streaming service allows users to watch TV online. However, VOD platforms are great but they might lack plenty of channels such as sports, talk shows, and so on that people love. That’s why to bridge this gap, TV live-streaming apps came into being. 

Although Hulu and Amazon Prime Video are video-on-demand platforms but they also have plans for TV live streaming. 

Now let’s have a look at the step-by-step guide on building a live streaming app. 

Step-by-Step Guide On Live Streaming App Development

A clear-cut development strategy ensures a hassle-free app-building process. So here are some of the steps that you can follow to create a live-streaming app. 

1. Define a Niche & Pick Your Team

The first step in this process is to find your main goal which can be accomplished by doing in-depth market research. 

Next, it’s time to hire a team of dedicated developers. If you have enough budget and want to build a complex application, then you can hire an in-house app development team. Additionally, if you are someone who is not from a technical background, then firstly you have to hire a specialist who will help you to carry out the hiring process. 

On the other hand, if you are looking for a cost-effective strategy then you can go for project outsourcing. All you have to do is reach out to an app development company, tell them about your project requirements and enter into cooperation. Also, you can reach out to DianApps for the best software outsourcing services. 

2. Choose a Monetization Model

Generally, live streaming apps provide monetization in three ways. 

• Ad-based monetization

This business model implies streaming content without charging users but also gaining profit at the same time through paid advertising. 

• Subscription-based monetization

This type of service refers to offering paid monthly, quarterly, or annual subscriptions for your OTT service. After that, you will have the access to all the functionality of the application. For instance, the famous Twitch platform has a prime subscription which provides users with free games, access to their favorite channels, and much more for $12.99 per month. 

• Transaction-based monetization

In this type of monetization, you can get revenue by selling videos so that the users can watch them an unlimited number of times, or also you can sell one-time watch access to them. 

3. Decide The Tech-Stack

Here is a list of technologies that you can integrate with mobile app development services to make a live-streaming app. 

• Programming languages are used to create the app logic. So the programming that can be used is Swift, Kotlin, and Java. additionally, node.js can be used as an API server. 
• Databases such as MySQL and Oracle can be used to store the information and VODs of previous streams. The flawless database structure is something that grants access to video streaming content. 
• Media processing platforms such as DaCast and Wowza can be used to convert audio and video files to formats that are compatible with different devices such as smartphones, PCs, and so on. 
• Now if we talk about streaming protocols, then there are two famous names WebRTC (Web real-time communications)and RTMP (Real-time messaging protocol). 

Basically, RTMP is used for the live streaming of videos. Moreover, it is used to transfer audio and video data over the internet between a flash player and a server. On the contrary, WebRTC is a streaming protocol that allows the exchange of data between two different web browsers.

• Finally, select a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to ensure adequate stream performance. Some of the best CDN providers are Cloudflare, and Amazon CloudFront. Furthermore, this is a very important step if you want to scale your server and build a live-streaming app. Also, it ensures flawless delivery of content without any interruptions. 

4. Building an MVP

MVP or minimum viable product is a very important step in the whole process of app development. And in the case of building video streaming apps, this step is even more crucial to ensure great performance and low streaming latency. Here are some of the basic features that you can integrate into the MVP.

• User Registration
• A personal user profile
• Online streaming
• Comments to broadcasts
• Search bars

So these features are more than enough to build the skeleton of an application. 

After this as soon as you get feedback from your audience, then you can develop additional features into the application. Here are some of those additional features which you can use. 

• Signup options

To build an interactive live-streaming application only one registration option is not enough. You have to add several signup options via social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In this way, the users will be able to log in through their suitable option. 

You should always keep in mind that a good user experience is one of the main success factors of an application and this can seamlessly be achieved by a reliable UI/UX company. 

• Chatting Option

It is an essential feature that should definitely be included in a live-streaming application. With the help of this option, streamers can connect with their audience. Also, this option is very important for them because they can monetize it. For instance, if Twitch streamers want they can grant chat access only to their subscribers. In this way, they can earn some additional money. 

• Video Quality

There are some users who may have a weak internet connection, so your app must have the feature to automatically switch to video quality. On the contrary, some users have a high-paid internet plan so they want to watch the video with a high bitrate. 

That’s why you should remember to consider the bandwidth of every user. 

Lastly, the live streaming app development company with whom you are collaborating should know how to handle the video encoding algorithms.  

Test & Release

It is a fact that there are so many alternatives available in today’s market for every kind of app. That’s why if something will work not properly for your users, then it is apt that they will stop using your service and find something more reliable. 

So the quality assurance of the app should be performed seamlessly to ensure that there are no bugs and errors in the application. After all the testing processes, the app can finally be launched in the market. 

How Much Does It Cost To Create a Video-Streaming App

However, there are no accurate figures that define the final cost of mobile app development for a video streaming app. Basically, its costs depend on various factors such as the size of the app, the number of features, scalability, the complexity of the app, and many other factors. 

Above all these aspects, the overall costs of app development greatly depend on the custom software development company you choose and their developer’s hourly costs. 

Now if considering all the above parameters and estimating the app development costs, then it will be USD 20K for the very basic version which will approximately take around 4 to 6 months to complete the project. 

On the other hand, if you will go for a moderate to advanced level app with modern features, then it will take 9+ months and cost between USD 25K to 35k. 

Lastly, these are only rough estimations so we recommend you reach out to our app development team to discuss your app idea, then we will help you to get the actual development costs accordingly. 

Conclusion

Custom video streaming app development is gaining huge momentum and also in the future will open up a lot of immense business opportunities. So if you want to build your own, you can follow this guide. 

Moreover having your own live streaming app gives that opportunity for freedom and flexibility which is a compelling reason to spend on this service. 

We hope this blog will help you in your next project of live-streaming app development.