Product changelog and announcements

Today we are making the video processors JavaScript library for Twilio Video generally available. This add-on library contains processors for background blur and background replacement. It is used in conjunction with the Video Processor API in the Video JavaScript SDK.

The library provides a simple way to add virtual background support to your video application and allow your users to present a professional look when working from home or on-the-go. No separate download or browser plugin is required and the functionality can be added with a few lines of code.

For more information on this feature, see our blog post here or review the documentation here.

Video Log Analyzer records for Room and Participant summaries are now available via Event Streams. Developers can subscribe to these events and they will be sent to the provided destination. Room and Participant summary records are published to Event Streams when the processing of the summary is complete. For more information about Event Streams, see our blog post announcing the public beta.

Video Log Analyzer API is now generally available.

This API allows developers to simplify troubleshooting and help identify commonalities in reported issues by programmatically retrieving critical metadata about Participant and Room behavior. The information provided includes: why a Participant left a Room, how the Room was ended, browser/operating system details, Participant error codes, and more.

For more information, see the developer docs and our blog post Getting to Know Video Log Analyzer.

The new Recording Rules API is now Generally Available. Previously, the video recording system would record all Room participants or none based on your initial decision. As such, it did not allow any changes to the recording while the Room was in progress until it was concluded.

Using the new Recording Rules API, you can programmatically introduce a set of rules which will give you more granular control over what you choose to record in every possible situation. You will be able to start and stop the recording of the Room tracks at any moment in time and as many times as you want. You will also be able to record either video, audio or both tracks from any of the participants in the Room.

Please visit the Recording Rules API documentation page to learn more about it, including code samples for making it easier for you to use.

The following Programmable Video SDK versions will End of Life on September 8th, 2021 for all customers:

• Android - 4.x and below
• iOS - 2.x and below
• Javascript - 1.x

TThe above versions of the Video SDKs utilize infrastructure that is no longer considered reliable for customers. Therefore, they are currently not supported, and as of 5:00pm PT on September 8th, 2021, they will cease to function for all customers.

We are consistently updating the Twilio Video SDKs in order to provide the best possible experience for you. Upgrading to the latest SDK version will not only ensure you benefit from various performance enhancements and bug fixes, but will also allow you to take advantage of new capabilities such as the Track Priority API, Network Bandwidth API, and much more.

If you are still using one of these SDK versions and wish to continue using Twilio Programmable Video, you must upgrade your SDK to a supported version. If you are using a mobile SDK, please ensure your apps have been released and your end-users have updated before the End of Life date.

When upgrading your SDK, please refer to the following migration guides:

• Android - 1.x to 2.x, 2.x to 3.x, 3.x to 4.x, 4.x to 5.x, 5.x to 6
• iOS - 1.x to 2.x, 2.x to 3.x, 3.x to 4.x
• JS - 1.x to 2.x

Today we are releasing two major version increments of our mobile SDKs for Video, iOS 4.0 and Android 6.0. The Chromium WebRTC engine in these SDKs has been upgraded from m67 to m83. In addition to the security and performance improvements, this WebRTC engine supports Simulcast screensharing and private IP concealment via mDNS.

These iOS and Android SDKs have added support for remote participant reconnecting events. Opus DTX is now included and enabled by default. In addition, the Android capturing and rendering programming models have been updated to provide developers with more flexibility and control. The iOS SDK is now built with Xcode 12.0 and delivered as .xcframework, and the application screen sharing capability has been simplified.

With the WebRTC upgrade developers get the latest enhancements to WebRTC and ensure compatibility with recent browser releases. Opus DTX significantly reduces the bandwidth consumed by silent participants. Remote reconnecting events provide developers a way to provide visual cues to users when automatic reconnections are happening.

For a full description of all the changes, see the Android SDK 6.0 changelog and the iOS SDK 4.0 changelog. The migration guides for moving to these new SDK versions are documented here and here.

The Programmable Video JavaScript SDK 2.8.0 enables Opus discontinuous transmission (DTX) by default for all audio tracks. Opus DTX significantly reduces the bandwidth used by an audio track when the participant is silent. It also reduces the CPU load on the subscriber side since there are fewer audio frames to decode.

Video applications typically have a small number of participants speaking and so the audio bandwidth consumed by silent participants is wasted. Although this feature will improve performance in all Video applications the impact will be most noticeable in larger multi-party Video Rooms.

For additional information and for details on disabling DTX, see the JavaScript SDK changelog.

Following the release of Video Log Analyzer in Console, we have exposed a Video Log Analyzer API for retrieving Programmable Video Room and Participant details.

This resource allows developers to simplify troubleshooting and help identify commonalities in reported issues by programmatically retrieving critical metadata about Participant and Room behavior. The information provided includes: why a Participant left a Room, how the Room was ended, browser/operating system details, Participant error codes, and more.

For more information, see the docs.

Twilio Video WebRTC Go is a new product offering that allows developers to build and operate 1:1 WebRTC based applications for free. This developer package provides the infrastructure components (signaling, TURN, logging, & diagnostics) required to run WebRTC applications in production. Participant minutes are free and the 25 GB/month of TURN server usage ensures enough relay support for roughly 100K minutes. To learn more, visit the documentation here.

In addition, a new one-on-one UI layout has been added to the Twilio Video quick deploy apps to support the new WebRTC Go Rooms and provide developers with a clean, modern visual design. Developers can now specify the desired Room type (group, peer-to-peer, or go) when building the quick deploy video app via the Twilio CLI RTC plugin. All the source code for the apps is available here:

• Web -https://github.com/twilio/twilio-video-app-react
• iOS -https://github.com/twilio/twilio-video-app-ios
• Android -https://github.com/twilio/twilio-video-app-android

For additional information about WebRTC Go and details on the new Video troubleshooting tools visit our blog post.

To help developers troubleshoot their applications at scale we are releasing three new Video troubleshooting tools. The first is a console tool called the Video Log Analyzer. It provides detailed information about Video Rooms and Participants. This can be used to quickly investigate Room and Participant issues that occurred in the past 2 days for WebRTC Go Rooms and 7 days for all other Rooms types.

The second is the RTC Diagnostics SDK 1.0.0-beta2, which provides test functions to allow developers troubleshoot camera, microphone, speaker, and network issues. This SDK is a general purpose WebRTC SDK and does not rely on Twilio infrastructure. Developers can incorporate it into their applications for pre-call testing or troubleshooting user issues. The source code and information on using the SDK is available here.