Integrating YouTube Live Streaming API in a React Native Mobile App: A Comprehensive Guide

React Native is a popular framework for building mobile applications. The YouTube Live Streaming API integration can significantly enhance the functionality of a React Native app by allowing users to broadcast live video directly from their mobile devices.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the steps required to integrate the YouTube Live Streaming API into a React Native mobile application, including connecting via OAuth 2 to Google Services.

Before we dive into the integration process, let’s first go over the prerequisites:

1. A Google account
2. A YouTube account
3. A YouTube channel
4. A React Native app
5. Basic knowledge of React Native, OAuth 2, and the JavaScript programming language

Once you have all these in place, you can move on to the next step: obtain your API key from the Google Developers Console and set up OAuth 2 authentication.

To do this, you will need to go to the Google Developers Console, create a new project, and enable the YouTube API. You will then need to create OAuth 2 credentials, including a client ID and secret, which you will use to authenticate your app.

Google Developer Console oAuth 2 and Enabled Youtube API

Next, you must install the Google Sign-in library for JavaScript into your React Native app.

“@react-native-google-signin/google-signin” is a library that can be used to implement Google sign-in in a React Native mobile app. It provides an easy-to-use API for handling the authentication flow, and it supports both Android and iOS platforms.

To start using “@react-native-google-signin/google-signin” in your React Native app, you will first need to install the library by running the following command:

npm install @react-native-google-signin/google-signin --save 

Next, you will need to link the native modules to your React Native app by running the following command:

react-native link @react-native-google-signin/google-signin

With the library installed and linked, you can now use it in your app. The first thing you need to do is to import the library and configure it with your Google API credentials. Here is an example of how to do this:

import GoogleSignIn from '@react-native-google-signin/google-signin';

GoogleSignIn.configure({
  webClientId: 'your-web-client-id',
  offlineAccess: true,
});

In this example, the configure method is used to set the web client ID, which is your Google API project's ID, and specify that your app requires offline access.

Credentials of Google API & Web Client ID

Next, you can add a Google sign-in button to your app by using the GoogleSignInButton component:

import { GoogleSignInButton } from '@react-native-google-signin/google-signin';

<GoogleSignInButton
  style={{ width: 192, height: 48 }}
  size={GoogleSignInButton.Size.Wide}
  color={GoogleSignInButton.Color.Dark}
  onPress={this.signIn}
/>

the GoogleSignInButton component displays a sign-in button, and the onPress prop specifies a function that will be called when the button is pressed.

To sign in the user, you will need to call the sign-in method, which returns a Promise that resolves with the user’s Google account information:

const signIn = async () => {
  try {
    const user = await GoogleSignIn.signIn();
    console.log(user);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
  }
};

In this example, the signIn method is called when the Google sign-in button is pressed and returns a Promise that resolves with the user’s Google account information.

With these steps, you have successfully integrated the “@react-native-google-signin/google-signin” library into your React Native app for Google OAuth sign-in.

Setting up YouTube API Scope with the @react-native-google-signin/google-signin Library

The “@react-native-google-signin/google-signin” library provides a configure method that allows you to set up the Google API credentials for your app. To enable the “https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube" scope for your Google API project, you will need to add it to the scopes property in the options object passed to the configure method.

Enable Youtube API Auth scope

Here is an example of how to configure the “@react-native-google-signin/google-signin” library with the “https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube" scope:

import GoogleSignIn from '@react-native-google-signin/google-signin';

 GoogleSignin.configure({
    scopes: [
      'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube',
      'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly',
    ], // what API you want to access on behalf of the user, default is email and profile
    webClientId: webClientId,
    offlineAccess: true, // if you want to access Google API on behalf of the user FROM YOUR SERVER
    hostedDomain: '', // specifies a hosted domain restriction
    forceCodeForRefreshToken: true, // [Android] related to `serverAuthCode`, read the docs link below *.
    accountName: '', // [Android] specifies an account name on the device that should be used
    iosClientId: iosClientId, // [iOS] if you want to specify the client ID of type iOS (otherwise, it is taken from GoogleService-Info.plist)
    googleServicePlistPath: '', // [iOS] if you renamed your GoogleService-Info file, new name here, e.g. GoogleService-Info-Staging
    openIdRealm: '', // [iOS] The OpenID2 realm of the home web server. This allows Google to include the user's OpenID Identifier in the OpenID Connect ID token.
    profileImageSize: 120, // [iOS] The desired height (and width) of the profile image. Defaults to 120px
  });

Scopes of APIS

In this example, the configure method is called with an options object that includes the scopes property. This property is an array of strings that specifies the desired scopes for the user’s Google account, including the “https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube" scope.

With this code, you have successfully configured the “@react-native-google-signin/google-signin” library with the

[“https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube", “https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly"]

scope for YouTube API access.

Retrieving Scheduled Live Broadcasts from the YouTube API using REST API

Now, we can use the fetch method to make a REST API request to the YouTube API for a list of live broadcasts. The API endpoint for this request is “https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/liveBroadcasts”.

Here is an example of how to make a GET request to the liveBroadcasts endpoint using the fetch method in React Native:

async function getLiveBroadcastSchedules() {
  const API_KEY = 'your-api-key';
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/liveBroadcasts?part=id,snippet&key=${API_KEY}`
  );
  const data = await response.json();
  console.log(data);
  return data;
}

Live Broadcast Schedules List

In this example, the getLiveBroadcasts function makes a GET request to the liveBroadcasts endpoint with the part parameter set to id, snippet, and the key parameter set to your API key. The API response is then converted to JSON using the JSON method and logged to the console.

“If you cannot retrieve the live broadcast list, make sure to enable the YouTube API in the Google Cloud Console.”

Here are the steps to enable access to the YouTube Data API v3 in the Google Cloud Console:

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console: https://console.cloud.google.com/
2. Select a project or create a new project.
3. Click the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top left corner and select “APIs & Services”.
4. Click on the “Library” tab.
5. Search for the “YouTube Data API v3” in the search bar.
6. Click on the “YouTube Data API v3” card.
7. Click the “Enable” button.
8. On the “YouTube Data API v3” page, click the “Create credentials” button.
9. Select “API key” as the type of credentials to create.
10. Your API key will be generated and displayed. You can restrict the API key to specific IP addresses or referrers if desired.
11. Save your API key and use it in your code to make requests to the YouTube Data API v3.

With these steps, you have successfully enabled access to the YouTube Data API v3 in the Google Cloud Console.

Creating a New Scheduled Event for YouTube Streaming with the YouTube API

Here is an example of creating a newly scheduled event for YouTube streaming using the liveBroadcasts endpoint of the YouTube API. This is a POST request that requires authentication with OAuth 2.0.

async function createScheduledEvent(accessToken) {
  const API_KEY = 'your-api-key';
  const headers = new Headers({
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${accessToken}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  });
  const body = JSON.stringify({
    snippet: {
      title: 'My Scheduled Event',
      scheduledStartTime: '2023-02-06T12:00:00Z'
    },
    status: {
      privacyStatus: 'private'
    }
  });
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/liveBroadcasts?part=snippet,status&key=${API_KEY}`,
    {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: headers,
      body: body
    }
  );
  const data = await response.json();
  console.log(data);
  return data;
}

Create a newly scheduled event for YouTube streaming

In this example, the createScheduledEvent function makes a POST request to the liveBroadcasts endpoint with the part parameter set to the snippet,status, and the key parameter set to your API key. The request headers include the OAuth 2.0 access token in the Authorization header and the Content-Type header set to application/json. The request body includes the details of the scheduled event, such as the title and scheduled start time, as well as the privacy status.

The API response is then converted to JSON using the JSON method and logged to the console.

With this code, you have successfully integrated the YouTube API’s liveBroadcasts endpoint into your React Native app to create a newly scheduled event for YouTube streaming.

Source Code: GitHub

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