Stream is excited to announce a new version of our React Native Chat SDK. This release makes it easy to add full video file/attachment support out of the box to your chat application without needing to go through a time-consuming SDK upgrade. Your end users can now upload, send, and play videos to make their in-app conversations more dynamic, which ultimately drives more engagement.
Why It Matters
Whether a doctor needs to show their patient an example of a new medical routine in a virtual appointment, a teacher wants to spice up their lesson for their students with a familiar video clip during an online class, or a gamer seeks a creative way to express their excitement over a level up with friends — sending an existing video snippet helps people say more in less time than it would take to type their message. Videos are quick to find and watch, and they can be more entertaining and engaging than other types of communication. Additionally, videos typically contain more detail than a basic spoken or text-based message, so giving users the ability to include this sort of attachment in a conversation makes everyone’s lives easier – both the sender and the reader.
How to Access Video Support
When you install thereact-native-videopackage into your application through a simple configuration process, your end users will be allowed to play video file/attachments directly in the chat. A play, pause, and progression bar on a video will be visible and available within the message bubble itself when the attachment is received. Otherwise, if no action is taken and this package isn’t installed, video files will be opened in the default browser of the device, taking your users outside of your application. If you are uninterested in taking advantage of this upgraded version of your SDK, nothing will change or expire – you can continue using it as you always have without any differences. For more information about accessing the new version of this SDK that keeps your users within your app when a video attachment is played, check out our React Native documentation.
What Else is New in v.4.7?
For a complete list of enhancements and bug fixes included in this release, check out the full changelog on GitHub. A few updated features include:
- Option to customize onPress handler for URLs
- Ability to allow video upload from image picker and file picker
- Inline video renderer/player support for the SDK
Why Develop In-App Chat With Stream & React Native?
Checking out Stream’s React Native Chat SDK for the first time? Video attachment support is only one of many reasons why developers and product leaders are choosing to integrate Stream’s React Native in-app chat solution. The React Native Chat SDK makes it easy to build a performant, scalable, and reliable in-app messaging function in less time. This SDK is feature packed with rich messages, reactions, threading, and, of course, video file uploading. Additionally, the team at Stream has developed three sample apps using React Native – they’ve built iMessage, Slack, and WhatsApp clones so that users have step-by-step guides to follow when they want to create something unique their own.
Beyond our React Native Chat SDK, Stream offers a complete set of developer tools, like our chat API, other chat SDKs, and UI kits, that make it simple and quick to add a custom messaging experience to any kind of application.
Activate Your Free Trial
The full suite of Stream Chat tools is available free to developers for personal use and qualifying early-stage projects – complete your short application for a Stream Maker Account and start coding today at no cost. For bigger projects, Stream Chat is available on a variety of pricing plans designed for teams of all sizes, from the world’s largest enterprises to new startups. To evaluate Stream for your use case, activate your free Stream Chat trial.