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Television was the only source of video entertainment back in the date. There was no easy access to the video content for the people. Well, the time has completely altered now. Everything available on that big screen can be streamed on our small handy screens and can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Mobile apps have made this thing possible.
It’s not long when the craze of television will become extinct and mobile apps will take over. Back in the date, there was just one or two video streaming app with very limited content which is altered. Video streaming apps are among the highest revenue-generating apps. The big players of the app industry are investing massively in this sector and made a permanent place in the user’s device, users routine, and their hearts.
Some of the popular apps are Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Hotstar. If you take an example of Netflix, it has 137 Million subscribers and worldwide revenue of 27.4 Billion USD in the past year. However, not every video streaming app would be able to achieve this level of acceptance and success. Variegated factors affect the success of a mobile app and most of all, the features you pick. Here is a list of top features a video streaming app must-have.
1) Multiple Registration Options
The apps despite the category of them have multiple registration options. The user must be provided with every sought of the convenience they get from other apps. Multiple registrations, as well as login options, must be provided. The user can login through Facebook or Google or with the email or with Mobile number through OTP. The choice lies with the user.
2) Personal Profile
The video streaming app must allow the user to create their profile and make edits as and when necessary. The user can manage saved videos, watched videos, history, and subscribed channels through their profile. Also, the developers can track the subscribers, category of videos, type of content shared, number of replays, and such other things. With the help of this data, developers will be able to provide relevant content to their users.
3) Video Sharing
Just like the real-life incident, videos are also something the user will want to share it with their near and dear ones if they are interesting. Not all the video streaming apps have this feature which can be an opportunity if you are on the verge of launching one of your own. Video sharing is one such feature which can give a competitive edge and help in generating a loyal user base.
4) Adaptive Video Streaming
It is one of the polished features to have in a video streaming app. This feature will make the app work and work flawlessly even when the network bandwidth is low. The video streaming app with this feature allows the user to play with low quality streaming 144p and also with the high quality streaming 1080p to full HD. The user can decide which quality they want to watch based on the network conditions.
5) Subscribe
Every app wants to keep their users connected to the app and that is why subscribe feature is very important. The user will be notified instantly whenever a new episode of their favorite channel is added to the app.
6) Downloads
The videos in the app can be downloaded and can be watched even without any internet access. It’s not necessary that the user is available with the internet connection all the time and hence download feature becomes one of the inevitable ones in the video streaming app.
7) Search
An app has a bunch of content and users have a particular list of their own. They won’t like to scroll the entire list of contents which is why having a search feature is mandatory. It will help the user to search for a particular movie or a series or even a specific category.
8) Watchlist
This feature will allow the user to make a bucket of all the content they find interesting. They can add as many things as they can for watching it at a further date.
9) Notifications
Websites were developed and accepted way before the mobile apps. However, the trend is shifting to apps very rapidly and one of the reasons is personalized notifications. The app owners can keep the users notified about the addition of new content, or changing app policies, reminders of payment due, or any other thing as they deem fit.
10) Ratings and Reviews
The users can give ratings and share reviews about the app. This will give a voice to the users and insight to the app owners about the goods and bad’s of the app.
Challenges in Video Streaming App Development
One of the biggest challenges in developing an app of this category is about storage and transfer of massive data. This entire process can be an expensive one, slow, and also bandwidth-intensive. When there are high-level features of live video and on-demand video streaming, the cost of building the infrastructure would be very high and the chances of reusability will be very low. Another challenge in developing video streaming app is content transcoding and content distribution analysis.
This is why hiring an experienced mobile app development company becomes mandatory for developing complex and complicated apps.
Technology To Be Used For Developing Video Streaming App
1) Languages to be used
• Java
• Swift
• PHP
2) Frameworks to be used
• Gradle
• Codeigniter
• Retrofit
• Push notifications
• Cocoa touch
• 3D Touch
• In-app purchase
3) ORM and Database
• Core data
• MySQL
• Realm database
4) AWS
• S3
• EC2
• Elastic transcoder
• CloudFront
Wrapping Up
Everything about developing a video streaming app is covered from features to challenges to technology. All you need to do is a lookout for the leading companies expert in this field and handover your project.[/blog_single_full_content][/vc_column][/vc_row]