Welcome to the Brightcove Native Player SDKs feature level documentation! Here you can find everything you will need to know about our Native SDKs for the iOS and Android platforms.
The Native SDKs are not video players themselves. Instead, they can be seen as integration points with advertising, analytics and digital rights management and closed captioning.
For a quick summary of the Native SDKs, be sure to check out this video introduction:
Native development can be complicated and there are many ways of getting video into your applications. If you’re new to the topic, we recommend reading about the options for video playback in the native environment:
Why use the Brightcove Native Player SDKs? Read the Native Video Playback guide.
Keep current with feature level information with the Brightcove blog.
Products
Designed with native platform developers in mind, the Brightcove Native Player SDKs aim to minimize time to market by following the latest standards in iOS and Android application development.
The Brightcove Native Player SDKs are built on top of native player frameworks. This allows you to take advantage of the speed, performance, and flexibility of the native OS, and extend it into a complete video experience that is easy to integrate. In addition, the Native SDKs follow established conventions for memory, naming, and design patterns in order to make getting started as simple as possible.
We provide two SDKs, each specialized for their own specific purpose:
The Brightcove SDKs support a rich set of features:
Brightcove Native Player SDK for iOS
The Brightcove Native Player SDK for iOS follows modern iOS conventions, so whether you are integrating into an established Objective-C app or a brand new Swift app, you should feel right at home.
Supported iOS Versions
In order to take advantage of the latest technology improvements from Apple, we currently offer support for:
- iOS 7
- iOS 8
Using a combination of internally gathered metrics and Apple's public iOS device usage data report, the Brightcove SDK for iOS aims to reach the vast majority of users.
If you're a developer searching for more details, read the Brightcove Native Player SDK for iOS technical documentation.
Brightcove Native Player SDK for Android
The Brightcove Native Player SDK for Android aims to balance reaching the vast majority of users while taking advantage of improvements released in the latest versions of Android.
Brightcove HLS Player
The Brightcove HLS player builds on the Brightcove Native Player SDK for Android by solving the playback issues related to HLS on Android devices.
The Brightcove HLS Player works with all the same analytics and advertising integrations that are offered for our base Android SDK. For more specifics, see the features section below.
The Brightcove HLS Player has additional costs associated with the use of additional libraries. While you can demo the Brightcove HLS Player for free, all content will be shown with a large watermark. If you are interested in obtaining the official Brightcove HLS Player, please contact your account manager.
If you're a developer searching for more details, read the Brightcove HLS Player for Android technical documentation.
Supported Android Versions
Balancing this reach with the ability to take advantage of improvements released by Google we currently offer support for the following versions of Android:
- 2.3.3
- 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4
- 5.0 +
Using a combination of internally gathered metrics and Google's public Android device usage data report, the Brightcove SDK for Android aims to reach the vast majority of users.
If you're a developer searching for more details, read the Brightcove Native Player SDK for Android technical documentation.
Features
The Brightcove Native Player SDKs for iOS and Android can be implemented to provide anything from a basic player experience, to a feature-rich user experience with analytics, advertising and more. The SDKs are adapted to easily work with both Brightcove Perform and Video Cloud, providing simple ways to deliver your video content.
The Brightcove Native Player SDKs support the following feature categories:
- Playback Formats and Captions
- Advertising
- Analytics
- Digital Rights Management (DRM)
- Media Content
- Live Playback
- Brightcove Native Player Controls [Beta]
Playback Formats and Captions
Staying on top of changing technologies is essential for providing the best playback experience to viewers. The Brightcove SDKs strive to support the most popular video and captions formats to ensure publishers are able to reach audiences around the world.
Learn more about Video Formats and Captions.
Advertising
Through partnerships with some of the biggest names in online video advertising such as DoubleClick and FreeWheel, we provide plugins that integrate with the core Brightcove SDK in just a few lines of code.
In addition, the Brightcove Native SDKs support Brightcove Once, our industry-leading server-side ad insertion solution which delivers optimized video performance and prevents ad blocking technology.
Learn more about Advertising with the SDKs.
Analytics
As data consumers ourselves, we recognize that analytics are a powerful tool for understanding trends in your content. The Brightcove SDKs allow you to easily gather data whether you're a Video Cloud customer using Brightcove Analytics, a Perform customer using the analytics API's with your own backend, or some combination with a third party integration such as Omniture.
Learn more about Analytics with the SDKs.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
We recognize that the security provided to video content using standards such as HLSe may not be enough to meet your strict protection requirements. DRM is a robust content protection program that enables you to enforce polices and rules for usage of your content.
The Brightcove SDKs enable you to integrate powerful DRM solutions and ensure the protection of your content without sacrificing the video experience your audience expects.
Learn more about Digital Rights Management with the SDKs.
Media Content
As a Brightcove Video Cloud customer, you have access to your Brightcove content (videos, image assets and playlists) through either the Media API or the Brightcove catalog. The catalog is a library of helper methods you can use to access your Video Cloud library.
The tools for accessing your content through the Media API and the catalog are built into the foundation of the Brightcove Mobile SDKs for both the iOS and Android platforms.
Note: Access to the Brightcove Media API and Brightcove catalog are not available to Brightcove Perform customers.
Live Playback
Tap into the benefits of live playback in your application with the Brightcove SDKs. Launch a live stream event to boost viewership and generate interest, or supply long form live content such as news feeds and sporting events to keep your viewers informed and entertained.
Enabling high quality playback of live streams, the Brightcove SDKs allow you to easily configure and play Live and DVR Live content.
Learn more about Live Playback with the SDKs.
Brightcove Native Player Controls [Beta]
Save developer costs, reduce time to market and keep your app clean of unnecessary code clutter. Included with our core iOS and Android player SDKs, the Brightcove Native Player Controls provide common user interface components to fit your player interface needs. Completely customizable, you can change sizes, colors, and even add or remove buttons to easily build a user interface that suits your application.
Learn more about Brightcove Native Player Controls [Beta].
Signing up
The Brightcove Native SDKs are a part of both the Brightcove Video Cloud and Perform packages! Signing up is easy, just contact us.
If you're interested in using the Brightcove HLS Player, please sign up first and then contact your account manager.
Thanks for reading through this feature-level introduction to the Brightcove Native SDKs. Below you'll find a link to the developer documentation that you'll find helpful in your quest to master video playback with the Brightcove Native SDKs:
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