livekit-client

JavaScript/TypeScript client SDK for LiveKit

livekit-client is the official client SDK for LiveKit. With it, you can add real time video and audio to your web apps.

Docs

Docs and guides at https://docs.livekit.io

Installation

Yarn

yarn add livekit-client

NPM

npm install livekit-client --save

Usage

Examples below are in TypeScript, if using JS/CommonJS imports replace import with:

const LiveKit = require('livekit-client');

LiveKit.connect(...);

Connecting to a room, publish video & audio

import {
  connect,
  RoomEvent,
  RemoteParticipant,
  RemoteTrackPublication,
  RemoteTrack,
  Participant,
} from 'livekit-client';

connect('ws://localhost:7800', token, {
  audio: true,
  video: true,
}).then((room) => {
  console.log('connected to room', room.name);
  console.log('participants in room:', room.participants.size);

  room
    .on(RoomEvent.TrackSubscribed, handleTrackSubscribed)
    .on(RoomEvent.TrackUnsubscribed, handleTrackUnsubscribed)
    .on(RoomEvent.ActiveSpeakersChanged, handleActiveSpeakerChange)
    .on(RoomEvent.Disconnected, handleDisconnect);
});

function handleTrackSubscribed(
  track: RemoteTrack,
  publication: RemoteTrackPublication,
  participant: RemoteParticipant
) {
  if (track.kind === Track.Kind.Video || track.kind === Track.Kind.Audio) {
    // attach it to a new HTMLVideoElement or HTMLAudioElement
    const element = track.attach();
    parentElement.appendChild(element);
  }
}

function handleTrackUnsubscribed(
  track: RemoteTrack,
  publication: RemoteTrackPublication,
  participant: RemoteParticipant
) {
  // remove tracks from all attached elements
  track.detach();
}

function handleActiveSpeakerChange(speakers: Participant[]) {
  // show UI indicators when participant is speaking
}

function handleDisconnect() {
  console.log('disconnected from room');
}

In order to connect to a room, you need to first create an access token.

See access token docs for details

Manually publish, mute, unpublish

When a video track is muted, the camera indicator will be turned off. When the video is unmuted, the same camera source and capture settings will be re-aquired.

import { createLocalVideoTrack } from 'livekit-client';

const videoTrack = await createLocalVideoTrack();

const publication = await room.localParticipant.publishTrack(videoTrack, {
  name: 'mytrack',
  simulcast: true,
});

videoTrack.mute();

room.localParticipant.unpublishTrack(videoTrack);

Audio playback

Browsers can be restrictive with regards to audio playback that is not initiated by user interaction. What each browser considers as user interaction can vary by vendor (for example, Safari on iOS is very restrictive).

LiveKit will attempt to autoplay all audio tracks when you attach them to audio elements. However, if that fails, we'll notify you via RoomEvent.AudioPlaybackStatusChanged. Room.canPlayAudio will indicate if audio playback is permitted. LiveKit takes an optimistic approach so it's possible for this value to change from true to false when we encounter a browser error.

In the case user interaction is required, LiveKit provides Room.startAudio to start audio playback. This function must be triggered in an onclick or ontap event handler. In the same session, once audio playback is successful, additional audio tracks can be played without further user interactions.

room.on(RoomEvent.AudioPlaybackStatusChanged, () => {
  if (!room.canPlayAudio) {
    // UI is necessary.
    ...
    button.onclick = () => {
      // this function *must* be triggered in an click/tap handler.
      room.startAudio().then(() => {
        // successful, UI can be removed now
        button.remove();
      });
    }
  }
});

Switching input devices

At any point after publishing, you can switch the input devices and other capture settings on both audio and video tracks. For example, switching between regular and selfie camera or changing microphone inputs. This is performed with restartTrack on the LocalAudioTrack or LocalVideoTrack.

await room.localParticipant.publishTrack(videoTrack);
await room.localParticipant.publishTrack(audioTrack);

await videoTrack.restartTrack({
  facingMode: 'environment',
});
await audioTrack.restartTrack({
  deviceId: 'microphoneId',
});

Configuring logging

This library uses loglevel for its internal logs. You can change the effective log level with the logLevel field in ConnectOptions.

Examples

SDK Sample

example/sample.ts contains a demo webapp that uses the SDK. Run it with yarn sample

Browser Support

Browser	Desktop OS	Mobile OS
Chrome	Windows, macOS, Linux	Android
Firefox	Windows, macOS, Linux	Android
Safari	macOS	iOS
Edge (Chromium)	Windows, macOS