Integrating Tencent Cloud Real-Time Audio/Video SDK for Android: A Step-by-Step Guide

Background

The author, a senior engineer from Tencent Cloud Terminal team, was assigned a task to implement a multi‑person video call feature similar to WeChat/QQ, with an additional text‑chat function in the video interface. After researching solutions, he chose Tencent Cloud's real‑time audio/video service because of its stability, quality, and built‑in IM capability.

Four main steps to get started

1. Register a Tencent Cloud account

Visit the official website and create an account. You can log in directly with a QQ or WeChat account.

2. Apply for an APPID

Log in to the Tencent Cloud console, navigate to Cloud Products → Real‑Time Audio/Video → Create New Application , fill in the required information, and generate a unique APPID that will be used when integrating the SDK.

3. Purchase a 1‑yuan package

After the APPID is bound to the service, call usage is billed by minute. The cheapest 1‑yuan package provides 10,000 minutes per month, which is sufficient for testing.

4. SDK Integration

The core of the integration consists of several sub‑steps:

4.1 Integrate the SDK

Tencent provides four SDK modules. The essential ones are:

SDK

Description

IMSDK

Instant messaging functionality

AVSDK

Low‑level audio/video capabilities

ILiveSDK

Higher‑level wrapper over AVSDK for easier use

BeautySDK

Beauty preprocessing for video streams

Download the SDK package and import it into your Android project.

4.2 Generate userSig

Each user needs a userSig (a signed token) for authentication. The steps are:

Download the private key from the console.

Copy the private key (no need to unzip).

In the console’s Development Assistance section, paste the key, enter the user name, and click Generate Signature . Copy the resulting userSig.

4.3 Initialize and login

Place the initialization code in your application start‑up (e.g., Application.onCreate() ).

// Initialize iLiveSDK
ILiveSDK.getInstance().initSdk(this, Constants.SDKAPPID, Constants.ACCOUNTTYPE);
// Initialize iLiveSDK room manager
ILiveRoomManager.getInstance().init(new ILiveRoomConfig().setRoomMsgListener(this));

Then log in with the generated userId and userSig:

ILiveLoginManager.getInstance().iLiveLogin(userId, userSig, callback);

4.4 Enter a room and render video

Add an AVRootView to your layout:

<com.tencent.ilivesdk.view.AVRootView
    android:id="@+id/av_root_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" />

Bind the view to the SDK:

ILiveRoomManager.getInstance().initAvRootView(avRootView);

Create or join a room (roomId is provided by your business logic):

// Create room
ILiveRoomManager.getInstance().createRoom(roomId, new ILiveRoomOption(), callback);
// Join existing room (same API is used)
ILiveRoomManager.getInstance().createRoom(roomId, new ILiveRoomOption(), callback);

4.5 Message handling (text chat in video)

Enable IM support when entering the room and set a message listener. Sending a text message is straightforward:

// Send a text message
ILiveMessage message = new ILiveTextMessage(test);
ILiveRoomManager.getInstance().sendGroupMessage(message, callback);

The received messages are delivered via the listener set in ILiveRoomConfig.setRoomMsgListener .

Result

Within a day, a functional multi‑person video call with text chat was built. The article concludes with a screenshot of the final UI and invites readers to leave comments for any issues.