Media SDKs overview
Twilio Video Media SDKs let your server-side app join a Video Room and work with decoded audio and video media. With the SDK, your app can send and receive raw frames from a Room. This works without the need for a person to capture video from a camera and render it to a screen.
Media SDKs work on the server-side in the same way the client-side SDKs work on browsers, Android, and iOS. All the SDKs share the same Room, Participant, and Track model and connect with the same Access Tokens.
Direct frame access lets a back-end service participate in a Room as a media producer, consumer, or both. This participation might take one of the following forms:
- Media processing pipelines that analyze or transform frames in real time.
- AI and voice agents that consume Room audio and speak back into the Room.
- Virtual cameras that push generated or pre-recorded video into a Room.
The client-side SDKs run where a person is: a browser or a mobile device, capturing from a camera and microphone and rendering to a screen. The Media SDKs run on a server and exchange raw frames.
To understand the differences, see the following table:
| Area | Client-side SDKs | Server-side SDKs |
|---|---|---|
| Target user | Person | App |
| Languages | JavaScript, Java (Android), Swift (iOS) | Node.js |
| Runs on or as | Runs in browsers or mobile devices. | Runs as a server process. |
| Local media | Captured from a camera or microphone. | Pushed as raw frames by your code. |
| Remote media | Rendered to a UI element. | Delivered as raw decoded frames to a callback. |
| Use case | Make in-person conferencing and calling. | Automate media processing and integrate media. |
To learn how Twilio supports SDK releases across versions, see the Platform SDK Support Policy.
- Overview: Learn what the Node.js SDK does and how to install it.
- Quickstart: Connect to a Room and move your first frames.