Client & Authentication

Before joining a call, it is necessary to set up the video client. Here's a basic example:

1. Create the IStreamVideoClient instance

   _client = StreamVideoClient.CreateDefaultClient();

2. Connect user to the Stream API

   var authCredentials = new AuthCredentials("api-key", "user-id", "user-token");
   await _client.ConnectUserAsync(authCredentials);

• The API Key can be found in your Stream dashboard.
• The User can be either authenticated, anonymous or guest.
• Note: You can store custom data on the user object, if required.

Here's a complete example of a MonoBehaviour that initiates the client and connects to the Stream API:

using System;
using StreamVideo.Core;
using StreamVideo.Libs.Auth;
using UnityEngine;

public class VideoClient : MonoBehaviour
{
    async void Start()
    {
        _client = StreamVideoClient.CreateDefaultClient();

        try
        {
            var authCredentials = new AuthCredentials("api-key", "user-id", "user-token");
            await _client.ConnectUserAsync(authCredentials);

            // After we awaited the ConnectUserAsync the client is connected
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Debug.LogError(e.Message);
        }
    }

    private IStreamVideoClient _client;
}

Generating a token

Tokens provide a way to authenticate a user or give access to a specific set of calls. They're similar to passwords but offer more flexibility, allowing you to set the expiry date. For security reasons, tokens need to be generated server-side. Typically, you integrate this into the part of your codebase where you login or register users. You can use our server-side SDKs to easily add support for this. For detailed instruction, refer to our server-side docs on installation and users and tokens.

Here's a valid user and token to help you get started on the client side before integrating with your backend API:

Client options

Here's an example showing how you can pass configuration options through the StreamClientConfig instance passed to the CreateDefaultClient method:

var config = new StreamClientConfig
{
    // Enabling Debug level logging can be helpful during development
    LogLevel = StreamLogLevel.Debug,
    Audio =
    {
        // RED sends redundant audio data, improving audio quality on lossy
        // networks in exchange for higher bandwidth
        EnableRed = false,

        // DTX encodes silence at a lower bitrate, saving bandwidth and battery
        EnableDtx = false
    },
    Video =
    {
        // The resolution requested for incoming participant video.
        // Defaults to Res_1080p - lower it to save bandwidth in larger calls.
        DefaultParticipantVideoResolution = VideoResolution.Res_720p
    }
};
_client = StreamVideoClient.CreateDefaultClient(config);

Both audio options are off by default — the snippet above shows the defaults. Set them to true when:

Video.DefaultParticipantVideoResolution sets the resolution requested for every incoming participant, and defaults to VideoResolution.Res_1080p. See Video Optimization for how to tune this per participant at runtime.

LogLevel accepts four values: