Products
Products
Video Hosting
Upload and manage your videos in a centralized video library.
Image Hosting
Upload and manage all your images in a centralized library.
Galleries
Choose from 100+templates to showcase your media in style.
Video Messaging
Record, and send personalized video messages.
CincoTube
Create your own community video hub your team, students or fans.
Pages
Create dedicated webpages to share your videos and images.
Live
Create dedicated webpages to share your videos and images.
For Developers
Video API
Build a unique video experience.
DeepUploader
Collect and store user content from anywhere with our file uploader.
Solutions
Solutions
Enterprise
Supercharge your business with secure, internal communication.
Townhall
Webinars
Team Collaboration
Learning & Development
Creative Professionals
Get creative with a built in-suite of editing and marketing tools.
eCommerce
Boost sales with interactive video and easy-embedding.
Townhall
Webinars
Team Collaboration
Learning & Development
eLearning & Training
Host and share course materials in a centralized portal.
Sales & Marketing
Attract, engage and convert with interactive tools and analytics.
"Cincopa helped my Enterprise organization collaborate better through video."
Book a Demo
Resources
Resources
Blog
Learn about the latest industry trends, tips & tricks.
Help Centre
Get access to help articles FAQs, and all things Cincopa.
Partners
Check out our valued list of partners.
Product Updates
Stay up-to-date with our latest greatest features.
Ebooks, Guides & More
Customer Stories
Hear how we've helped businesses succeed.
Boost Campaign Performance Through Video
Discover how to boost your next campaign by using video.
Download Now
Pricing
Watch a Demo
Demo
Login
Start Free Trial
Expo is a framework for building cross-platform video apps using React Native, simplifying development by handling much of the configuration and setup. With Expo’s managed workflow, developers can integrate native modules like video playback, camera access, and real-time communication with minimal setup. With Expo’s SDK, you can implement features like video streaming, media control, and live broadcasting while maintaining platform consistency. Additionally, Expo’s build and deployment processes streamline app updates and ensure quick testing across iOS and Android. By using Expo’s rich ecosystem, developers can focus on app functionality without dealing with complex native code. Getting Started with Expo for Video Apps Expo provides an entry point into React Native development without requiring a deep understanding of the native build process. Developers can set up a project, use pre-built components, and test the app instantly on their devices. This makes Expo ideal for video apps, where fast iterations and efficient testing are essential. Installing Expo CLI Step 1 : To start using Expo, you need to install the Expo CLI, which is the command-line tool that allows you to initialize, run, and manage your Expo projects. You can install it using npm: npm install -g expo-cli Step 2 : Once installed, you can create a new Expo project by running: expo init videoApp Step 3 : You’ll be prompted to choose a template. Select the blank template or any other template that suits your app requirements. After the project is created, navigate into the project directory: cd videoApp Step 4 : Now you can start the development server using: expo start This will launch the Expo development environment in the browser, where you can scan the QR code with the Expo Go app on your mobile device to see the app in action. Expo for Video Playback Integration Expo simplifies the integration of video playback within React Native apps, providing built-in support for media handling with libraries like expo-av. The expo-av package includes components for video playback, helping to integrate video content into your app. This is true whether it is hosted on a platform or locally stored. Using expo-av for Video Playback To get started with video playback in React Native, first install the expo-av package by running expo install expo-av in your terminal. This package provides APIs to handle video and audio, including playback controls, buffering, and event tracking. After installation, you can integrate video playback functionality into your app with minimal configuration and leverage built-in controls. expo install expo-av Once installed, you can use the Video component from expo-av to embed video playback functionality. The following example shows how to integrate video streaming from a URL. import React from 'react'; import { View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native'; import { Video } from 'expo-av'; const VideoPlayer = ({ videoUrl }) => { return (
); }; const styles = StyleSheet.create({ container: { flex: 1, justifyContent: 'center', alignItems: 'center', }, video: { width: '100%', height: '100%', }, }); export default VideoPlayer; Explanation : uri : videoUrl: Specifies the video URL. shouldPlay : Auto-starts the video upon rendering. resizeMode : Controls how the video fits within the Video component. This makes it easy to integrate video content directly into your app without complex setup. Managing Video Content in Expo In video-centric applications, handling video metadata is a fundamental requirement. Using Expo, developers can interface with backends such as Firebase to store and retrieve relevant video information, including media URLs, metadata attributes, and user-specific settings. This integration supports efficient data management and access patterns necessary for delivering consistent user experiences across devices. Storing Video Metadata with Firebase Expo provides easy integration with Firebase for data storage and synchronization. To store video metadata like titles and descriptions, you can use Firebase Firestore, Firebase’s cloud database. Step 1 : Install Firebase SDK: expo install firebase Step 2 : Initialize Firebase and store metadata: import firebase from 'firebase/app'; import 'firebase/firestore'; const firebaseConfig = { apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY', authDomain: 'YOUR_AUTH_DOMAIN', projectId: 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID', storageBucket: 'YOUR_STORAGE_BUCKET', messagingSenderId: 'YOUR_SENDER_ID', appId: 'YOUR_APP_ID', }; if (!firebase.apps.length) { firebase.initializeApp(firebaseConfig); } else { firebase.app(); } const db = firebase.firestore(); const storeVideoMetadata = async (videoId, title, description) => { try { await db.collection('videos').doc(videoId).set({ title: title, description: description, timestamp: firebase.firestore.FieldValue.serverTimestamp(), }); } catch (error) { console.error('Error storing video metadata: ', error); } }; Explanation : const firebaseConfig = { ... }; : Defines the configuration object containing keys and identifiers required to connect to your Firebase project. if (!firebase.apps.length) { firebase.initializeApp(firebaseConfig); } else { firebase.app(); } : Initializes the Firebase app if it hasn't already been initialized. const db = firebase.firestore(); : Creates a reference to the Firestore database, allowing read and write operations on collections and documents. const storeVideoMetadata = async (videoId, title, description) => { ... }; : Declares an asynchronous function that stores video metadata in the Firestore database using the provided videoId. await db.collection('videos').doc(videoId).set({ ... }); : Writes the video’s title, description, and a server-generated timestamp to a document in the videos collection. timestamp: firebase.firestore.FieldValue.serverTimestamp() : Assigns the current server timestamp to the timestamp field. In this example, video metadata such as the title and description is stored in Firestore. Hence, you can further link them with video URLs to provide a full video app experience. Expo for Building Cross-Platform Video Apps You can use Expo to write code once and deploy it on multiple platforms. For video applications, this means you can run the same codebase on both iOS and Android, ensuring consistent behavior and performance across devices. With Expo, video apps can focus on building great user experiences, such as smooth playback, personalized video content, and intuitive controls. Moreover, you also need not worry about managing platform-specific code or configurations. Optimizing Video Playback Performance Playback Performance helps in video applications, especially when streaming or rendering high-definition content. Expo provides several mechanisms to optimize video playback, ensuring smooth and efficient experiences for users. Some of the key optimization strategies include: Preloading Video Preload the video content in the background while the app is initializing, reducing wait times and improving the user experience. This technique helps the app to start playback almost immediately when requested. Adaptive Streaming For apps that offer live or on-demand video content, adaptive bitrate streaming is essential. It allows the app to adjust the video quality dynamically based on the user’s network conditions, ensuring optimal playback without buffering or interruptions. By integrating libraries like react-native-video within an Expo environment, developers can apply these performance techniques effectively. For instance, the react-native-video component allows automatic buffering and adaptive bitrate streaming to maintain stable playback performance across varying network conditions. Here’s a simple code snippet to implement video preloading and adaptive streaming with react-native-video: import React, { useState } from 'react'; import { View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native'; import Video from 'react-native-video'; const VideoPlayer = () => { const [videoReady, setVideoReady] = useState(false); const handleLoad = () => { setVideoReady(true); }; return (
); }; const styles = StyleSheet.create({ container: { flex: 1, justifyContent: 'center', alignItems: 'center', }, video: { width: '100%', height: 250, }, }); export default VideoPlayer; Explanation : Preloading is handled with the onLoad event, which triggers when the video is ready to play. Adaptive Bitrate Streaming is supported by the react-native-video library, which automatically adjusts video quality depending on the network conditions. Testing and Debugging Video Apps in Expo Expo simplifies testing and debugging video apps by providing a fast development cycle and easy integration with emulators and physical devices. When building video-based apps, ensuring consistent video performance across devices is crucial. Expo provides: Fast Refresh : Enables real-time updates to your app, allowing you to see changes immediately without restarting the app. Expo Go : Allows you to scan a QR code to preview the app on a physical device for testing video playback in a real-world environment. Debugging : Expo provides debugging tools to track performance, check for memory leaks, and optimize video playback.