HLS streaming from mobile device

TRUETECH is engaged in the development, support and maintenance of iOS, Android, PWA mobile applications. We have extensive experience and expertise in publishing mobile applications in popular markets like Google Play, App Store, Amazon, AppGallery and others.
8+Years of work900+Completed projects100+In house employees19+Partners
Development and support of all types of mobile applications:
Information and entertainment mobile applications
News apps, games, reference guides, online catalogs, weather apps, fitness and health apps, travel apps, educational apps, social networks and messengers, quizzes, blogs and podcasts, forums, aggregators
E-commerce mobile applications
Online stores, B2B apps, marketplaces, online exchanges, cashback services, exchanges, dropshipping platforms, loyalty programs, food and goods delivery, payment systems.
Business process management mobile applications
CRM systems, ERP systems, project management, sales team tools, financial management, production management, logistics and delivery management, HR management, data monitoring systems
Electronic services mobile applications
Classified ads platforms, online schools, online cinemas, electronic service platforms, cashback platforms, video hosting, thematic portals, online booking and scheduling platforms, online trading platforms

These are just some of the types of mobile applications we work with, and each of them may have its own specific features and functionality, tailored to the specific needs and goals of the client.

Offered services
Showing 1 of 1 servicesAll 1735 services
HLS streaming from mobile device
Complex
from 1 week to 3 months
FAQ
Our competencies:
Development stages
Latest works
  • image_mobile-applications_feedme_467_0.webp
    Development of a mobile application for FEEDME
    757
  • image_mobile-applications_xoomer_471_0.webp
    Development of a mobile application for XOOMER
    624
  • image_mobile-applications_rhl_428_0.webp
    Development of a mobile application for RHL
    1054
  • image_mobile-applications_zippy_411_0.webp
    Development of a mobile application for ZIPPY
    947
  • image_mobile-applications_affhome_429_0.webp
    Development of a mobile application for Affhome
    874
  • image_mobile-applications_flavors_409_0.webp
    Development of a mobile application for the FLAVORS company
    449
Show more works

HLS Streaming from Mobile Device

HLS streaming from mobile — not the same as HLS playback. Here the phone is the source: records video in segments, uploads them to server, and updates m3u8 playlist. This is a less common scenario than RTMP streaming, but needed for CDN service integrations that accept origin-push via HTTP.

How HLS-push Works from Device

Classic scheme: phone → HTTP PUT/POST TS-segments + update .m3u8 → origin HTTP server → CDN → viewers. Alternative: phone → RTMP → media server → HLS for viewers (then HLS generated by server, not phone).

Direct HLS-push from device supported by: Apple Media Stream Segmenter (macOS only), CloudFront with WebDAV, Akamai Media Services, custom nginx with ngx_http_dav_module.

iOS: ReplayKit + HLS Segmenter

iOS has no built-in HLS encoder for live streaming — only AVAssetExportSession for files. For live HLS from device you build pipeline manually:

AVCaptureSession → AVCaptureVideoDataOutput → VideoToolbox (encode H.264) → accumulate NAL units into TS-segments by 2–4 seconds → URLSession.uploadTask to server → update m3u8 manifest.

Assembling MPEG-TS from NAL units — manual PES packet packing with PAT/PMT tables. No ready Swift library. So in practice:

Option 1: FFmpegKit. FFmpegKit.executeAsync with HLS output:

-f avfoundation -i 0:0 -c:v h264_videotoolbox -b:v 2M -hls_time 2 -hls_list_size 5 -hls_flags delete_segments -method PUT http://origin/stream/index.m3u8

h264_videotoolbox — hardware encoder. -method PUT uploads segments and playlist to server. Works, moderate CPU load.

Option 2: RTMP → server → HLS. Phone pushes RTMP via HaishinKit, media server (Nginx-RTMP, MediaMTX) converts to HLS. More reliable but adds 1–2 seconds latency.

Android: MediaMuxer + HLS

Android MediaMuxer supports output format MUXER_OUTPUT_MPEG_4 — this is mp4, not TS. For HLS need either TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream) or fMP4 (fragmented MP4, supported HLS v7+).

fMP4 segments with MediaMuxer: write to ByteArrayOutputStream via custom MediaMuxer with MUXER_OUTPUT_MPEG_4, set fragmented MP4 flag via MediaFormat.KEY_IS_ADTS + vendor-specific path. Non-standard and unreliable.

Reliable way: FFmpegKit — same approach as iOS, just for Android. h264_mediacodec instead of h264_videotoolbox:

-f android_camera -i 0 -c:v h264_mediacodec -b:v 2M -hls_time 2 -hls_list_size 5 -method PUT http://origin/stream/index.m3u8

Low-Latency HLS (LL-HLS)

Standard HLS — 6–30 seconds latency. LL-HLS (HLS Part) reduces to 2–4 seconds. For this server and client must support EXT-X-PART directives (Apple WWDC 2019).

Generating LL-HLS parts from mobile (0.2–0.5 sec part duration) — extremely difficult without specialized encoder. More practical: device pushes RTMP with small buffer, media server (Nimble Streamer, Wowza with LL-HLS plugin) generates LL-HLS for viewers.

Use Case: Recording and Simultaneous Streaming

Often needed: record video → save to device + simultaneously stream. AVCaptureSession with two outputs: AVCaptureMovieFileOutput (local recording) and AVCaptureVideoDataOutput (capture for streaming). Both work in parallel — modern CPU (A15+) handles both streams without issues.

Timeline

HLS streaming from mobile via FFmpegKit with upload to origin server — 2–3 days. With custom TS-segmenter and LL-HLS — 1–2 weeks.