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Cédric Montet

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Product updates

**I couldn't be more excited to share news of api.video $12m Series A, led by Mina Samaan at MMC, with participation from Open Ocean, Blossom Capital, and Financière St James!**

## We are living in a video-first world.
Yet, managing online video is complex, and building a mashup of services to let your users upload and share a video from your app is a nightmare for every developer.

We’re thrilled to have already empowered +30,000 developers and +500 products, while most of them haven’t a single clue of what’s a video codec or a CDN over the last 18 months.

Implementing video features into their apps and platforms in minutes drastically increases their end-users engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Moreover, unlocking videos everywhere lets great new use cases flourish every day on top of the API.

From a few new videos uploaded every hour in 2020, half a dozen are uploaded every minute today while viewers from +100 countries enjoy a buffer & latency-free streaming experience.

Building our own Infrastructure from Day1 has been seen as a crazy bet (and not a quiet ride, to be honest 🙂), but the difference is real. We cannot recount how many times customers were stunned by the speed of the service and asked us, « how are you doing that? » 

### The tailwinds are shaping new video usages

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As video production is highly commoditized thanks to the smartphones we have in our pocket, new networks —5G, fiber— let us upload heavy videos in seconds, this bet was the right thing to do. We use to say that we are more than a software company: we are building a true video backbone that can be reached through an API. And the tipping point is now.

### Focus on new milestones

We can't wait to deploy this new capital to keep building the video EDGE infrastructure beneath api.video, providing its outstanding performances to a broader audience, and executing our product roadmap.

With this new round comes new milestones, and ours is to ingest 1 Million new videos within the next six months and 1 Billion by 2027. It will massively increase the size of our Infrastructure while, in the meantime, after Crypto, Video has the most important carbon footprint over the Web. We have to address this global problem at our level and join our effort against global warming.

### Team effort

I owe a huge thank you to the tremendous api.video team that is brilliantly tackling the complex, technical and deep challenges daily and to all our investors, advisors, customers, and coaches for their unwavering dedication to our mission.

As a founder, this is the most incredible reward you can get, and I can’t wait to meet you if you want to [join our journey](https://jobs.api.video/)!

We raised $12M to let you join our video-first world

api.video closes $12M in Series A funding

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video api

api video plugin

strapi

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Github Mathieu Thiry

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LinkedIn Mathieu Thiry

Mathieu Thiry

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Tutorials

JavaScript

Typescript

React

[Strapi](https://strapi.io/) is a headless CMS used to develop websites, mobile applications, eCommerce sites, and APIs. Strapi allows you to create an API without knowing anything about backend development or databases. 

Today, we're pleased to announce our new plugin on the Strapi marketplace 🎊. A powerful, easy, and secure way to bring video content to your websites and applications using the Strapi interface. 

In this tutorial, we will focus on how to use the [api.video](https://api.video) plugin, and provide a basic example on how to integrate the api.video plugin into your project. 

## Install the api.video plugin for Strapi

Take a look at the following video which goes through the following:

* How to install the api.video uploader on your Strapi CMS with a few simple steps.
* How to add your api.video key to the Strapi CMS to connect your accounts.




You will need to have your instance of Strapi installed. If you haven’t installed a Strapi project yet follow this [guide](https://docs.strapi.io/dev-docs/quick-start). 

We are going to install the [api.video uploader](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@api.video/strapi-uploader-plugin) Strapi plugin in this step. Run the following command from within the project root of Strapi.

🎉 Congrats, the *api-video-uploader* plugin should appear in the **Plugins** section of Strapi sidebar after you run app again.

## Connect your api.video API Key

Before getting started, you will need to obtain an **API Key** which can be generated from the [api.video dashboard.](https://dashboard.api.video/)

On your Strapi dashboard, you will see the api.video uploader on the left side. Click on the api.video uploader and you will see the *Go to settings* button. Enter your API Key you have obtained on your api.video dashboard and copy it here. 

Now you are all set to upload your videos 🎖️

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## Manage and integrate your videos 

Take a look at the following video which goes through the following:

* How to add, update, and delete your videos on the api.video uploader in your Strapi CMS.
* How to integrate your videos into your application using the Postman application for testing.



## Upload your first video

As you can see, you have two options to add a video. Click any of the buttons, and a pop-up window will appear.

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You can choose to upload your video file by either clicking on the Select a video box or drag and drop your video file into the boxed area. As you can see, the video must have a title. Once you select a video and enter a title, you can go ahead and click the Upload button. Wow! You have just uploaded your first video 🎈

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Before clicking the *Upload* button, you can also add several video attributes that would help you or your business to organize and rank your videos in a more efficient way. You can write a description of the video, list a number of tags to categorize your video, and add metadata. 

By default, the metadata sends the value Strapi as upload source and can’t be deleted. However, you can add as many other metadata as needed.

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It’s worth mentioning that behind the scenes, it uses our home made [`typescript uploader`](https://github.com/apivideo/api.video-typescript-uploader) for fast uploading.

### Edit or delete your videos

You can edit and update your videos at any time. The information modified will be applied and visible on the Strapi dashboard. The delete option is available on the thumbnail.

### Configure the external resources**

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If you encounter an issue in visualising the thumbnail and the video like the image above, please add those 2 external resources `embed.api.video` and `cdn.api.video`. Modify the `middlewares.js` file like below:

## Permissions

With the Community Edition of [Strapi](https://strapi.io/), any user with the role of super administrator can configure and use the plugin.

With *Strapi Enterprise* the permissions can be fine tuned according to the role of the users. This is done in the **Roles** view in the **Administration Panel**.

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## Integrate the api.video uploader with your application

The `api-video-asset` collection type gives users a way of easily integrate [api.video](https://api.video) assets in their front-end application thanks to custom api call. 

The info that is stored on the `api-video-asset` collection type is the following: 


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The endpoint is protected, so you need a token to authenticate. Go to the *Settings* section on your Strapi dashboard and then select *API Tokens*. Click on Create new *API Token*. Select *Custom*  as your *Token type* and then scroll down to *Api-video-uploader* and choose what type of permission you want.

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After clicking on the Save button, copy the bearer token published. We are going to test it on Postman. Copy the following URL address ```http://localhost:1337/api/api-video-uploader/api-video-asset``` and paste it next to your request type. Go to Authorization, select the Type Bearer and paste the copied token. Click send and you will get your videos details! 

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## Final thoughts

We're super excited to see what folks will build with the api.video and Strapi 🤩 

If you're looking for an easy way to integrate video into your application, check out our **[docs](https://docs.api.video/)** and **[sign up for a free account](https://dashboard.api.video/register).**

api.video Strapi Plugin: Add videos to your headless CMS

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api.video Strapi Plugin: Add videos to your headless CMS.

Player

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GitHub Yohann

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LinkedIn Yohann

Yohann Martzolff

Dart

Flutter

Flutter has a strength that only a handful of frameworks have: the power to build a multi-platform application with a single codebase. 

What if you need to display some videos in your new or future worldwide famous app? At the time I write this article, it’s fair to say that there aren’t many video players available for Flutter out there. Here comes our solution at [api.video](https://api.video)!

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## A single video player for all platforms

If you’re new to Flutter or cross-platform development, welcome to this wonderful, fast, and simple world! No more separate logics or codebase to create an application that works across multiple platforms. Better yet, no need to have multiple developers working to create different applications for various operating systems. Create an application once, and use it everywhere!

The api.video player for [Flutter](https://pub.dev/packages/apivideo_player) is built natively for Android, iOS, and web and can be implemented on these three platforms easily. All you need is a computer and an [api.video](https://dashboard.api.video/register) account.

Continue reading this article for a full tutorial 👀

## Upload a video to display it

In order to display a video, you need to first upload it! To upload a video, [login](https://dashboard.api.video/login) to your api.video account or if you are not registered already, you can easily [create an account](https://dashboard.api.video/register) for free.

Once you reach the dashboard, check if you have previously uploaded any videos, and if not, no worries! You can easily upload a video by clicking the “Create Video Object” button on the overview and follow the steps on the dashboard. 

💡 You can also upload videos to your workspace with one of our [SDKs](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos#upload-a-video)

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## Add the api.video player to your application on Flutter

If you’re new to Flutter, or if you don’t already have a Flutter app running, [please follow the official guide](https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install).

Once your application is running, add the api.video player package to you Flutter.

### Option 1

Run the following command at the root of your project:

### Option 2

Modify your project’s `pubspec.yaml` file:

## For iOS usage

This package only works on iOS 13 and above. Please update your `ios/Podfile` platform property as follows, or update the iOS version in xCode.

## Display your first video

You can display your first video by following the easy steps below 👇

### 1. Import the package

Add the following line at the top of the file where you want to use the api.video player:

### 2. Create a new video player controller

You need to first instantiate a `ApiVideoPlayerController` to be able to use the video player widget.

To instantiate the `ApiVideoPlayerController`, you will need an api.video video id. Find the video id in the api.video dashboard by clicking on one of your videos found under the section called [videos](https://dashboard.api.video/videos).

Create a new widget or modify an existing one like this:

Run your application on the device of your choice and a simple line of text should appear on your application.

## 3. Create a new video player

Now that you have a functional `ApiVideoPlayerController`, you can create a new `ApiVideoPlayer` and associate your controller to the player.

Modify your widget by replacing the `Text` widget with an `ApiVideoPlayer` one:

`ApiVideoPlayer` comes with a parameter `fit` or type `BoxFit` to set how it will behave in its parent widget.

### 4. Make it yours!

You can customize your brand new video player the way you want by changing its colors and adding some event listeners.

## Add some event listeners

There are two ways to add an event listener to your video player controller:

1. When you instantiate the player controller

2. After the player controller has been initialized.

The following sample code shows you how to add an `onPlay` event listener on `ApiVideoPlayerController` instantiation and an `onPause` event listener after the controller has been initialized in the `initState` method.

Modify your code like this to test these two event listeners:

## Customize the theme of your player

You can change your video player’s style by attributing a `PlayerStyle` class to the `style` parameter of your `ApiVideoPlayer` widget:

## Go further

You can access and control the video player features such as the play button, reverse, or forward features from outside of the player. 

Let’s see how we can retrieve the video’s information and control our video player from elsewhere.

### Retrieve the video’s information

The `ApiVideoPlayerController` gives you access to a lot of information about the current video: duration, current time, volume, and many more.

Let’s add a simple button to retrieve the current video duration.

Modify your widget as follows:

## Control the video from outside of the player

You can control the video player from outside of the player thanks to the controller methods.

For instance, we can add an icon button to mute and unmute the video on press.

Modify your widget as follows:

## Full documentation and example

Find the [full documentation](https://github.com/apivideo/api.video-flutter-player) and a [full sample app](https://github.com/apivideo/api.video-flutter-player/tree/main/example) in our GitHub repository. 

If you're looking for an easy way to integrate video into your application, check out our **[docs](https://docs.api.video/)** and **[sign up for a free account](https://dashboard.api.video/register)**.

api.video player for Flutter: playback videos on your apps

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codec

transcoding

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Video trends

Have you ever uploaded a video on YouTube and wondered how your video is magically available in 5+ different qualities and 5+ different sizes? It’s not magic ✨ it’s *video transcoding*. 

Well, it’s kind of magic 🌟

In this article, we’ll tell you everything you want to know about video transcoding — from what it is, to its importance in video streaming and [video APIs](https://api.video/). With that said, let’s get started! 🚀

## The difference between video encoding and video transcoding 

Encoding and transcoding sound very similar but, in fact, are two very [different processes](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/what-is-the-difference-between-encoding-and-transcoding/). To learn about video transcoding, let’s first describe video encoding.

### What is video encoding? 

[Video encoding](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/guide-to-video-encoding-video-codec/) digitally compresses raw video from a digital or analog camera. You almost never have to worry about video encoding as your device encodes all videos automatically. The video you recorded of your dog this morning and stored on your phone - it is there on your phone because of video encoding. Similarly, the video that you shared with your friend using WhatsApp wouldn't have been be possible to share without video encoding.

In shirt, encoding is necessary for creating manageable file sizes.

### What is video transcoding?

Video transcoding re-compresses an encoded file which means that video transcoding cannot happen without an initial video encoding.

Transcoding, compresses a file from one digital [codec](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/every-video-format-codec-and-container-explained/) to another. Being able to play videos across a wider range of devices, or to improve playback experience are two of the many reasons that we transcode videos today.

An example of video transcoding is to transcode an encoded AV1 video to an H264 video codec. Why do you need to do that, you may ask? AV1 codec, despite being an efficient codec, is not supported on a wide range of devices. H264 codec on the other hand, is supported on almost all of the devices out there.

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## Types of video transcoding

When transcoding a video file, some data is lost, which is what we call lossy—the greater the compression, the smaller the file size and the lower the quality. Let’s now look at three main types of video transcoding.

### 1. Lossy-to-lossy

It occurs when one type of lossy data is converted into a different kind of lossy data. Having a file of lower quality before transcoding means the quality will drop even further during the process. Reducing the bitrate for use on portable devices is one of the justification for this transcoding method.

### 2. Lossless-to-lossy

This transcoding reduces quality loss relative to lossy-to-lossy methods while creating files with manageable sizes for mobile devices. To make good use of this transcoding technique, you will need to save archives of files that have been compressed losslessly.

### 3. Lossless-to-lossless

This type of transcoding involves using improved compression to shrink a file without altering its quality. This transcoding method saves quality when switching between formats, but the generated files are sometimes too large to transfer to mobile devices.

## Why is video transcoding used?

The use of video transcoding is based on requirements. Here we can look at some of the top reasons for using video transcoding:

- **Adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR streaming)** - ABR streaming ensures the best video experience on a wide range of devices depending on your internet connection’s speed and stability. Transcoding is a crucial intermediate step to get the highest quality streaming output based on HLS or DASH. For example, video playback on Youtube could be switching between 1080p and 720p versions of the video stream, depending on your device and connection. This leads to the fewest buffering instances and higher-quality playbacks.

- **Limited storage capacity** - The word cloud is one of the biggest tricks played by marketers. It allows us to imagine a world with an infinite storage capacity for data. This is far from reality. Cloud is some hardware located in a room somewhere. No matter where you store your videos, cloud or not, you are using certain storage space. Transcoding is the key to maximizing your storage capacity, resulting in lower carbon footprints. Yes, actual carbon footprints.

- **Quality of user experience** - Transcoding is about more than just reducing a file size. Transcoding is also used to improve the playback experience.

- **Multiple target devices, browsers, and applications** - Transcoding is used for video compatibility amongst different devices, browsers, and applications.

## Who uses video transcoding?

Many individuals and businesses use video transcoding.

- Video streaming APIs for businesses and developers such as [api.video](https://api.video/). Video transcoding is an integral element of an adaptive video streaming workflow to get video content ready for a delivery protocol — like the current industry standard, HLS or DASH — that can play on as many devices as possible.
- Video-On-Demand (VOD) services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube use video transcoding on large scales.
- Content Management Systems (CMS) targeting multiple devices with a variety of video formats and sizes.
- Video Editors. As a video editor, you may prefer to work on the highest quality video codec, and once you're done editing, you could transcode your video to other codecs for delivering to a wider range of devices.

## Video APIs and video transcoding

As one of the more important users of video transcoding, video APIs are beneficial for businesses, both big and small, to create and host on-demand videos. 

[High-quality video APIs](https://api.video/) such as api.video can change your video into HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) for smooth streaming at high speeds anywhere in the world without you needing to worry about doing the process yourself. For the highest possible video quality on any connection, it handles the nitty-gritty of transcoding in different qualities for ABR streaming over HLS while keeping the best playback quality on a wide range of devices.

## Final thoughts

New gadgets are being introduced to us every day. This means there will be more cameras with greater capturing capacities and there will be more screens with higher display qualities.  At the same time, the video world is booming, and more and more businesses need to reach out to users with all sorts of devices and bandwidth. 

Transcoding is not magic, but it certainly has a magical aspect to it. It makes it possible for us to connect through high-quality videos.

Hopefully, now you know more about transcoding and why it’s used in our industry. 

Would you like to start your video journey today? 🎬 Go ahead and start testing in the [api.video](https://dashboard.api.video/register) dashboard for free.

Video transcoding: What, why, and how?

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Android

Mobile

Private Videos

Player update

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Thibault Beyou

Kotlin

We have now released an [api.video](https://api.video/) player for Android. The api.video player helps you to include your videos in your Android applications very easily and quickly. In this tutorial, we are going to show how to add an api.video player to your Android application. It will only take 5 minutes. Let’s do this! 👊

Before starting this tutorial, you can upload a video to your api.video. If you haven’t yet, you can check [Upload your first video guide](https://docs.api.video/vod/upload-a-video-regular-upload), which will walk you through your first video upload. The video that you have uploaded to your api.video account will have an assigned `videoId`. In the following steps, we will call for your videoId using the `YOUR_VIDEO_ID` parameter.

To just give you a quick preview, we are going to create an Android application with an api.video player that looks like this:

## The api.video player for Android

The api.video Android player is available on GitHub and comes with an example application, and the artifact is hosted on Maven Central.

The minimum Android API version supported by the api.video Android player is 24. Make sure that you don’t have a `minSdk` version under 24.

The API is divided into 2 main components:

- **The player view:** This component displays the video and its controls: `ApiVideoExoPlayerView` class.
- **The player controller:** This component controls the video and its events: `ApiVideoPlayerController` class.

## Add api.video Android player to your project

If you don’t have an Android application yet, you need to create one before you go further. The [Build Your First Android App in Java](https://developer.android.com/codelabs/build-your-first-android-app#0) is a simple guide that will help you create your Android application. 

### Dependency

The first thing is to add the [api.video](https://api.video/) Android player to your project dependencies. In your application `build.gradle`, add your `dependencies` tag as shown below:

It’s always good to check out if a [new version](https://github.com/apivideo/api.video-android-player/releases) is available.

To have access to the view, I am going to use `ViewBinding` in this tutorial because it is elegant to use as it will be more user-friendly. Now we add the `android` tag:

### XML Layout

In your `Activity` layout, add a player view:

You might have some constraints to add depending on the parent layout.

With `ViewBinding`, we can access our `ApiVideoExoPlayerView` by using the following field:

### Implementation

The main part of the implementation is to create a player controller, but it depends on several other components.

To manipulate video from api.video, the `videoId` is wrapped in an object called `VideoOptions`:

Create a player controller in your `Activity`. For example, in the `onResume`:

Launch the application. You have successfully integrated the [api.video](https://api.video) Android player in your application! 🥳🥳🥳

### Video privacy setting

For more information on changing video privacy settings, see this [article](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/video-access-management-how-to-create-deliver-and-manage-private-videos-and-what/).

If your application requires the use of private videos, then pass your private token to the `VideoOptions`:

### Fullscreen

For the fullscreen button, you will have to develop the fullscreen behavior. The base principles are: 

* When full screen is activated, hide all surrounding views, menu,…, and lock the application in landscape mode.
* When the full screen is deactivated, display surrounding views and unlock the application orientation.

These behaviors must be implemented on the `onFullScreenModeChanged` of `ApiVideoExoPlayerView.Listener`:

In this quick tutorial, you learned about how to simply add an [api.video](https://api.video) player for your Android application. Now you know how to add the api.video player as a dependency, configure the XML layout, and implement the player controller. Moreover, you learned how to change your video privacy and how to set up a fullscreen behavior. 

You can successfully integrate the api.video Android player in your own application by following the steps in this tutorial. For an example of api.video Android player, see the [example](https://github.com/apivideo/api.video-android-player/tree/main/example) provided in the player repository.

If you miss any features, face any bugs, or come across any other issues, we will be happy to help you on our [GitHub issues](https://github.com/apivideo/api.video-android-player/issues) page.🤝

Video on demand

Live streaming

Analytics

Video infrastructure

Video player

See all features

Online learning

Short-form videos

Marketplace & E-commerce

Video messaging and recording

Quickstart guides

Documentation

Ecosystem catalog

Clients & SDKs

Community

Blog

Demos

Help center

Blog

Huge pricing update! Introducing video encoding at zero cost