Technical Details

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The Vonage Video API lets you embed fully managed real-time sessions in web and mobile apps. Client SDKs capture and distribute media while handling signalling and layout events, and Server SDKs or REST endpoints create sessions, create tokens, and manage archives, broadcasts, SIP interconnect, and callbacks.

Architecture at a glance

Every Vonage Video app has a client, an app server, and runs inside a session in the Vonage cloud.

Client

Uses the client SDK (Web/iOS/Android/Desktop)
Obtains sessionId + token from your server
Connects to the session, publishes local A/V
Subscribes to remote streams, handles events

App Server

Uses a Server SDK / REST API
Creates sessions; generates tokens and roles
Implements business logic & webhooks/callbacks
Controls recording, broadcast, moderation, storage

Session

“Room” hosted in Vonage Video Cloud
Signaling, events, media routing
Publish/subscribe of streams

Authentication and session flow

Create your account and application: generate your Vonage Video Application ID and Private Key.
Create a session: generate a sessionId with a Server SDK or REST.
Issue a token: create a token with the appropriate role and TTL.
Join a session: frontend fetches {apiKey, sessionId, token} from your endpoint and connects with the client SDK.

Server-side controls

Sessions and tokens: Create sessions; issue tokens with roles and expiry.
Archiving (recording): Start/stop archives; store/retrieve recordings.
Broadcasting (HLS/RTMP): Stream a session to CDNs or RTMP endpoints.
SIP interconnect: Bridge PSTN/SIP into a session.
Callbacks/webhooks: Receive archive/broadcast status and connection events.
Live Captions: Enable real-time transcription and caption overlays.
Audio Connector: Stream raw audio out to AI services or feed synthesized audio back in.
Experience Composer: Render branded layouts for recording, broadcast, or large-scale viewing.
Applications API: Manage which Vonage applications have Video features enabled via videoCapabilities.

Feature overview

Real-time collaboration

Sessions & publish/subscribe for multi-party audio/video with adaptive routing.
Screen sharing to capture windows, browser tabs, or entire displays.
Signaling & messaging for chat, reactions, and in-session controls.

Recording & production

Archiving to capture, store, and retrieve full session recordings.
Experience Composer to render a branded web layout into a composite stream for archives, broadcasts, or large-scale viewing.
Audio Connector to stream raw audio to AI pipelines or bring synthesized audio back into the session.

AI Integrations

Live Captions for real-time transcription and caption overlays.
Audio Connector + AI workflows to power speech-to-text, translation, or agent experiences.

Distribution

Broadcasting to stream HLS/RTMP to CDNs and social destinations.
SIP interconnect and Audio Connector to bridge telephony, bots, or compliance capture solutions.

Tools

Debugging

Inspector to trace participants, streams, and quality events.
Archive Inspector for archive timelines, expected durations, and error states.

Diagnostic tools

Pre-Call Test to verify camera, microphone, bandwidth, and firewall readiness before a session.

Insights & analytics

Insights GraphiQL Explorer to query usage data via the Insights and Advanced Insights GraphQL APIs.
Insights API guide for integrating GraphQL queries into your tooling.

Explore capabilities

Video Playground to prototype sessions, captions, experience composer, and more without writing code.

Starter guides & samples

Explore the Video sample repos on GitHub — Web, iOS, and Android — for ready-to-run projects covering captions, SIP, multi-party layouts, and more.
Fork the Video Reference Apps (Web, Android, iOS) to get production-ready meeting UX, CI, and testing workflows.

Note: TokBox is now Vonage Video.