How record video in flutter_webrtc?

2 min read 04-10-2024

Recording Your Flutter WebRTC Video Calls: A Comprehensive Guide

In the world of real-time communication, Flutter WebRTC offers a powerful toolkit for building video chat applications. But what if you want to go beyond live interaction and capture those precious moments? This article will guide you through the process of recording video calls within your Flutter WebRTC application.

Understanding the Challenge: Beyond Live Communication

Flutter WebRTC provides a robust framework for real-time video and audio communication. However, the library itself doesn't offer built-in functionality for recording the video stream. This means you need to implement a separate mechanism to capture the video data and save it to a file.

The Solution: Leveraging External Libraries

To achieve video recording in Flutter WebRTC, we'll turn to external libraries. The most popular option is **video_recorder **. This library allows you to access and record the video stream directly from the platform's camera.

Step-by-Step Implementation

Let's break down the implementation process into clear steps:

Set up Flutter WebRTC:
- Ensure you have Flutter WebRTC installed in your project. You can install it via:
```
flutter pub add flutter_webrtc
```
Integrate video_recorder:
- Install the video_recorder package:
```
flutter pub add video_recorder
```
Create a recording instance:
- Instantiate a VideoRecorder object.
- Choose the desired output file path and format.
Capture the video stream:
- Access the video stream from the Flutter WebRTC RTCVideoRenderer.
- Feed the video data to the VideoRecorder instance.
Start and stop recording:
- Call start on the VideoRecorder to begin recording.
- Call stop to end the recording and save the file.

Code Example: Recording a Video Call

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_webrtc/flutter_webrtc.dart';
import 'package:video_recorder/video_recorder.dart';

class VideoCallScreen extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _VideoCallScreenState createState() => _VideoCallScreenState();
}

class _VideoCallScreenState extends State<VideoCallScreen> {
  // ... WebRTC initialization and call setup code ...

  late VideoRecorder _videoRecorder;
  String _videoPath = 'path/to/output.mp4'; // Replace with your desired path

  void _startRecording() async {
    _videoRecorder = VideoRecorder();
    await _videoRecorder.initialize();
    await _videoRecorder.start();
  }

  void _stopRecording() async {
    await _videoRecorder.stop();
    setState(() {});
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Video Call')),
      body: Center(
        child: Column(
          mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
          children: [
            // ... Display the remote video stream ...

            ElevatedButton(
              onPressed: _startRecording,
              child: Text('Start Recording'),
            ),
            ElevatedButton(
              onPressed: _stopRecording,
              child: Text('Stop Recording'),
            ),
          ],
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Key Considerations:

Permissions: Ensure your app has the necessary permissions to access the camera and storage on the user's device.
File Formats: Choose an appropriate file format for your video recordings. MP4 is a common and widely supported format.
Performance: Recording video can be resource-intensive. Consider optimizing your app's performance and memory usage.
Platform-Specific Implementation: video_recorder works across different platforms, but you may need to adapt the code for specific platforms like Android or iOS.

Conclusion

Recording your Flutter WebRTC video calls unlocks a new level of functionality for your application. By leveraging external libraries like video_recorder, you can easily capture and save precious moments from your real-time video conversations. Remember to consider platform-specific details and optimize for performance to ensure a seamless recording experience.