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Programmable Video Rest API: Recordings

Overview

Twilio Video’s Group Rooms and Recording APIs allow you to record the audio and video shared in a Programmable Video Room. To turn on Recording in a Group Room, set the RecordParticipantsOnConnect property to true when creating the Room. Check the Rooms REST API documentation for additional information.

All Recording resources are located beneath the following Base URL.

https://video.twilio.com

Legal implications of call recording

If you choose to record voice or video calls, you need to comply with certain laws and regulations, including those regarding obtaining consent to record (such as California’s Invasion of Privacy Act and similar laws in other jurisdictions). Additional information on the legal implications of call recording can be found in the "Legal Considerations with Recording Voice and Video Communications" Help Center article.

Notice: Twilio recommends that you consult with your legal counsel to make sure that you are complying with all applicable laws in connection with communications you record or store using Twilio.

Resource Properties in REST API format
account_sid
sid<AC> Not PII

The SID of the Account that created the Recording resource.

status
enum:status Not PII

The status of the recording. Can be: processing, completed, or deleted. processing indicates the recording is still being captured; completed indicates the recording has been captured and is now available for download. deleted means the recording media has been deleted from the system, but its metadata is still available.

date_created
date_time<iso8601> Not PII

The date and time in GMT when the resource was created specified in ISO 8601 format.

sid
sid<RT> Not PII

The unique string that we created to identify the Recording resource.

source_sid
sid Not PII

The SID of the recording source. For a Room Recording, this value is a track_sid.

size
long Not PII

The size of the recorded track, in bytes.

url
url Not PII

The absolute URL of the resource.

type
enum:type Not PII

The recording's media type. Can be: audio or video.

duration
integer? Not PII

The duration of the recording in seconds rounded to the nearest second. Sub-second tracks have a Duration property of 1 second

container_format
enum:format Not PII

The file format for the recording. Can be: mka or mkv. Video Room recordings are captured in Matroska container format, mka is for audio files and mkv for video files.

codec
enum:codec Not PII

The codec used to encode the track. Can be: VP8, H264, OPUS, and PCMU.

grouping_sids
object Not PII

A list of SIDs related to the recording. Includes the room_sid and participant_sid.

track_name

The name that was given to the source track of the recording. If no name is given, the source_sid is used.

offset
long Not PII

The time in milliseconds elapsed between an arbitrary point in time, common to all group rooms, and the moment when the source room of this track started. This information provides a synchronization mechanism for recordings belonging to the same room.

media_external_location
url Not PII

The URL of the media file associated with the recording when stored externally. See External S3 Recordings for more details.

status_callback
url Not PII

The URL called using the status_callback_method to send status information on every recording event.

status_callback_method
http_method Not PII

The HTTP method used to call status_callback. Can be: POST or GET, defaults to POST.

links
uri_map Not PII

The URLs of related resources.

Note: The duration of media tracks is rounded to the nearest second. Thus, sub-second duration tracks have a Duration property of 1 second.

HTTP GET

Returns a single Recording Instance resource identified by a RecordingSid.

Example: Retrieve a Recording

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        Retrieve a Recording

        HTTP GET to the /Media subresource

        Retrieves the media file associated to a given Recording Instance resource identified by a RecordingSid.

        When you make a request to this URL, Twilio will generate a temporary URL for accessing this binary data, and issue an HTTP 302 redirect response to your request. The Recording will be returned in the format as described in the metadata, with the Content-Type header set according to the codec used to record the media.

        Codec Content-Type value
        PCMU audio/x-matroska
        H264 video/x-matroska

        The URL returned will be available by default for 600 seconds, but this can be configured to a value between 1 and 3600 seconds via the Ttl request param. If the recording is not yet available, a 404 is returned. If the recording is not available (for example, if its status is processing or deleted, or if the track was muted for the duration of the recording), an HTTP 404 response is returned.

        The HTTP GET request accepts the following parameters

        Name Description
        ContentDisposition Optional. Sets the Content-Disposition header of the redirect_to URL. Possible values are attachment or inline. Default value attachment%3B%20filename%3D%22RTxxx.mk{a|v} (not PII)
        Ttl Optional. Duration in seconds for which the redirect_to URL can be used to retrieve the media file. The default Ttl is 600 seconds. The minimum supported Ttl value is 1 second and the maximum supported value is 3600 seconds. (not PII)

        The Content-Disposition header can be set in this request. By default, the value of this header is attachment%3B%20filename%3D%22RTxxx.mk{a|v}.

        NOTE: You can play these recordings in media players that support the Matroska file format, like the VLC player. You can also use other programs like Chrome, ffplay or ffplayer to play these recordings. However, these files are optimized for compactness and they are not player-friendly. Hence, you may experience different types of problems when playing these files. For generating player-friendly media files, compose your Recordings using Twilio's Recordings Composition API.

        Example: Retrieve a Recording's Media

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              Retrieve the actual recording Media

              HTTP POST

              Not supported.

              HTTP DELETE

              Deletes the recording media file.

              The metadata for the Recording is preserved for a period of 30 days, and its Status is set to deleted. After this period, the metadata will not be available. By default, Recordings with deleted status are not returned when retrieving the Recordings list. To retrieve deleted Recordings, use the Status=deleted filter.

              Note that the 30 day period starts after the Status is set to deleted. After this period expires, the metadata will not be available.

              Example: Delete a Recording

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                    Delete a Recording

                    To to delete a large set of Video Recordings, you can use the bulk deletion capabilities available in the Twilio Console.

                    Recordings List Resource

                    Recordings list is available at the following URI:

                     /v1/Recordings
                    

                    HTTP GET

                    Returns a list of all Track Recordings with paging data.

                    HTTP GET: List filters

                    The following GET query string parameters allow you to limit the list returned. Note, parameters are case-sensitive.

                    Parameters in REST API format
                    status
                    Optional
                    get enum:status Not PII

                    Read only the recordings that have this status. Can be: processing, completed, or deleted.

                    source_sid
                    Optional
                    get sid Not PII

                    Read only the recordings that have this source_sid.

                    grouping_sid
                    Optional
                    get sid[] Not PII

                    Read only recordings with this grouping_sid, which may include a participant_sid and/or a room_sid.

                    date_created_after
                    Optional
                    get date_time<iso8601> Not PII

                    Read only recordings that started on or after this ISO 8601 date-time with time zone.

                    date_created_before
                    Optional
                    get date_time<iso8601> Not PII

                    Read only recordings that started before this ISO 8601 date-time with time zone, given as YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+|-hh:mm or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ.

                    media_type
                    Optional
                    get ienum:type Not PII

                    Read only recordings that have this media type. Can be either audio or video.

                    This endpoint does not retrieve deleted recordings by default. To retrieve deleted recordings, use the status filter in your request.

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                          Get all Recordings from a given Room

                          This endpoint does not retrieve deleted recordings by default. To retrieve deleted recordings, use the status filter in your request.

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                                Get all Recordings for a given Participant

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                                      Get the list of deleted Recordings

                                      HTTP POST

                                      Not supported.

                                      HTTP DELETE

                                      Not supported.

                                      Using the Rooms API to find Recordings

                                      You can also retrieve the list of recordings for a specific room using the Rooms API endpoint.

                                      Example: Get all recordings from a given Room using the Rooms API

                                      This endpoint does not retrieve deleted recordings by default. To retrieve deleted recordings, use the status filter in your request.

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                                            Get all Recordings from a given Room using the Rooms API

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                                                  Retrieve a Recording using the Rooms API

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                                                        Retrieve the actual recording Media using the Rooms API

                                                        Size estimation of a track Recording

                                                        Video track Recording

                                                        The size of a video Recording (.mkv) will vary based on resolution, bit rate and duration. The following table shows files size for a single participant with video captured at common resolutions and bitrates:

                                                        Capture Size 1 Hr 8 Hrs 24 Hrs
                                                        720 @ 1,500 kbps 0.7 GB 5.4 GB 16.2 GB
                                                        480 @ 700 kbps 0.3 GB 2.5 GB 7.6 GB
                                                        180 @ 200 kbps 0.1 GB 0.7 GB 2.2 GB

                                                        The above table is for heuristic estimation and reference only. There are a lot of other factors influence the actual video file size such as compression ratio, variable bitrate, color depth.

                                                        Audio track Recording

                                                        The size of an audio Recording (.mka) will vary based on bit rate and duration. The following table shows files size for a single participant with audio captured at common bit rates:

                                                        Capture Size 1 Hr 8 Hrs 24 Hrs
                                                        16 kbps 7.2 MB 57.6 MB 172.8 MB
                                                        32 kbps 14.4 MB 115.2 MB 345.6 MB
                                                        40 kbps 18 MB 144 MB 432 MB

                                                        Note that the file size reported by our REST API may vary slightly from that shown due to file allocation methods and/or possible differences in the amount of header information.

                                                        Known limitations

                                                        • Recording files are generated with a format optimized for reliability and compactness. This format is not player friendly. Hence, many media players may not render Recordings media files appropriately. For generating player-friendly media files, compose your Recordings using Twilio's Recordings Composition API.
                                                        • Participants of Group Rooms on the browser Firefox Mobile could find Recording gaps due to a Firefox bug when sending temporization. Twilio recommends Video participants to use other mobile browsers.
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