What Exactly is Video Chat SDK?
Over the past decades, technology has seeped into every aspect of our lives. Never before has it been so evident than when Covid-19 swept through the planet, throwing social lives and work environments into chaos.
The positive side of this “chaos” is that video calls, video chats, and video conferencing once again became one of the main focuses in the technology sector. Many developers and investors alike started scrambling to develop better and more marketable products, one of which is CometChat.com video chat. Right now, it is one of the most promising sectors in this time of economic uncertainty.
New technologies and terms have also come into the picture. It may seem not easy at times to keep up with terminology and new technology that come up.
This article will concentrate specifically on SDK for video chat; we will examine what it is, why it is useful, and how it is different from API video chat technology.
What Exactly is Video Chat SDK?
First of all, we need to understand what SDK is. SDK is an acronym, the “S” stands for Software, the “D” stands for Development, and the “K” stands for Kit. This acronym helps us understand better what SDK is, keep reading to discover why.
For example, the word “Kit” is very fitting. To understand why just think of a that is used to construct a model car. Model car kits contain everything that is needed from start to finish to construct the model car. If such a kit is incomplete, it cannot be finished correctly. The entire kit is essential; if the tools, instruction sheet, or model pieces are missing, the kit won’t work properly.
SDKs are comparable in that they include an entire kit: tools, documents, libraries, guides, code samples, etc. These kits can also be compared to a whole workshop stocked with all of the tools, materials, and information necessary for developers to work on software for a determined application.
SDK basically makes up the foundation of a software application. It can be found in almost all modern programs, from video games to web browsers and video chat software.
What is API for Video Chat?
One of the main reasons people get confused about defining SDK is because they have a hard time differentiating it from API. As we will see, they are actually very different, and it is very easy to understand the difference.
First of all, let us define what an API is. The “A” stands for Application, the “P” stands for Programming, and the “I” stands for Interface. An API provides an interface that allows two programs to communicate with each other.
A simple illustration to understand APIs is to compare them with interpreters. If you were to speak English to a person who only speaks Chinese, your words have no way of interacting with the person. You would need an interpreter; an interpreter adjusts the words in a way that they can interact with the other speaker. In its most basic sense, that is what a web API does.
How is SDK Different from API for Video Chat?
If you compare the above definitions and uses of SDK and API, it is very obvious that they are two completely different things. So why do people get so confused between them? The main reason is that they are often presented as similar tools, some novices actually consider them to be the same thing, which generates even more confusion when they write about the two. The other reason is that SDKs often contain and use APIs.
This makes perfect sense if you think of the two illustrations that we used above. SDK, as a complete kit, has space for and may contain an API. However, an API is not complete on its own and cannot contain an SDK.
We compared and API to an interpreter above and we compared an SDK to a model car kit. Taking these ideas, a step further: if your model car kit’s instructions were in Chinese, how would you understand or interact with them? You would need someone to interpret them for you. As we saw above, that is the main purpose of an API.
Conclusion
As we mentioned in the introduction, video chat is an excellent market to be in right now. Developing mobile chat apps can really pay off.
Our goal in writing this article was to help clarify some of the most commonly misunderstood terms for those that are getting started in the industry. We hope to have helped understand clearly what SDK is, why it is beneficial, and how it is different from but interacts with APIs.
Continue getting a deeper understanding of the terminology involved, and you will indeed be set up to excel in this market!
About the Author
Bibhuranjan Editorial Officer, technofaq.org I'm an avid tech enthusiast at heart. I like to mug up on new and exciting developments on science and tech and have a deep love for PC gaming. Other hobbies include writing blog posts, music and DIY projects.
