Introducing the Amazon Chime SDKs for iOS and Android

The Amazon Chime SDK is a set of real-time communications components that developers can use to quickly add audio calling, video calling, and screen sharing capabilities to their own applications. Developers can leverage the same communication infrastructure and services that power Amazon Chime, an online meetings service from AWS, to deliver engaging experiences in their applications. For instance, they can add video calling to a healthcare application so patients can consult remotely with doctors on health issues, or add audio calling to a company website so customers can quickly connect with sales. By using the Amazon Chime SDK, developers can eliminate the cost, complexity, and friction of creating and maintaining their own real-time communication infrastructure and services.

Starting today, application developers building on the Amazon Chime SDK can choose the most appropriate tool for their application from three available client SDKs: the Amazon Chime SDKs for iOS, Android, and JavaScript. Each client SDK includes methods to start media sessions and connect to Amazon Chime media services, bind media streams to native UI elements, and manage audio and video device selection. Our customers are already using tablets to deliver lessons to students or medical care to hospital patients, developing video calling applications for embedded systems, connecting consumers on their smart phones with call center agents and retail associates with video, and supporting on-the-go attendees of online meetings with native mobile applications. Armed with the ability to provide a native experience on the most common devices, applications incorporating audio calling, video calling, and screen sharing powered by the Amazon Chime SDK are limited only by the developer’s creativity.

The Amazon Chime SDK for iOS is compromised of a common binary, the Amazon Chime SDK Media package, with an open-source wrapper written in Swift. It can be used in Swift or Objective-C projects for iOS 10.0 or newer, or as a native component for applications using React Native or similar mobile application frameworks. Visit the Amazon Chime SDK for iOS on GitHub for information on getting started along with a demo application and code examples.

The Amazon Chime SDK for Android is similarly comprised of a common binary and Kotlin wrapper. It supports Android projects written in Kotlin or Java targeting API Level 21 (Android 5.0) or greater. Visit the Amazon Chime SDK for Android on GitHub for information on getting started along with a demo application and code examples.

To learn more about the Amazon Chime SDK including overall features and pricing, visit the Amazon Chime SDK page. See “Using the Amazon Chime SDK” on the Amazon Chime Developer Guide for an overview of the components of the SDK including information on using the AWS SDK to create and manage access to Amazon Chime SDK meeting resources. See also the Amazon Chime SDK for JavaScript on GitHub for the web-based demo application and additional code examples and documentation.