Joining a call from a link

Many video calling apps that offer video and audio conferencing features, support joining a call from a link. This is a great way to allow users to join a call without having to go through many complex steps.

In the next few steps, we will show how such a flow can be implemented using the Stream’s Video SDKs.

Define the URL structure

The first step is to define the URL structure that will be used to join a call. Typically, the URL will contain the following information:

• your app’s domain
• an optional route pointing to the calling features of your app
• the call ID
• optional call type information, in case your app supports multiple call types

In our example, we will use the following URL structure:

• https://myapp.com/join?call_id=123&call_type=default

Get call information and join a call

Once the user opens the link, your app needs to read the call ID and call type from the URL as they are required parameters for our SDK. Next, we will use the call information to setup and join the call.

In the example below, we will use standard browser APIs to read the call ID and call type from the URL.

import { StreamVideoClient } from "@stream-io/video-client";

const urlParams = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
const callId = urlParams.get("call_id");
const callType = urlParams.get("call_type") || "default"; // or your custom call type

// initialize the client, call and join the call
const client = new StreamVideoClient({ apiKey, user, token });
const call = client.call(callType, callId);
await call.join();