API vs SDK

API and Webhooks
1

Ok,  I have been researching different video platforms to use in a new app. Zoom support says that I am getting to specific and need to come here to get my question answered. So here goes!

I am trying to build a new app that does 2 major things.

  1. Moderated Chat View

So I would like to use the API to create a window that has the Zoom video/audio on the left, a chat client (custom or zoom… doesn’t matter) on the right, and then some custom interactions (outside of zoom) underneath. Zoom support suggests that the only way to do this is with the SDK because the API can’t do that. Is this right? Building an electron app is a lot more expensive than a web client so I am hoping it is incorrect.

  1. Course View

We start in a video room with 1 video… 100 people are in the room. The presenter talks for 30 minutes then breaks the group up into 25 rooms of 4. The UI resets to show now 3 other people video chatting. After 30 minutes the 25 groups merge back into 1 big room. Can I do this on the web so I can integrate it with all my customs stuff (API) or do I have to use the SDK, or is this not possible outside of the zoom app?

The zoom support guy mentioned a concept called breakout rooms, but I don’t see anything about that in the documentation except for a boolean value in a response field… Is that an option?

Sorry… I know this is a lot. Any direction would be very helpful.

Thanks,

David

2

Hi David,

 

(1) yes - you do need to use our SDK. API are interfaces to manage users, meetings, async data content etc. You might be able to build a web app using our java script SDK interface but our browser client is not feature compatible with native clients. Building a desktop app involves more engineering effort but you need to evaluate the pros and cons to check if this is right for your workflow and the business case

(2) You can’t do this at present outside of the zoom app. Our SDKs do not have breakout features at this moment but it will be available in the next 3-6 months. But, you do need to use the SDK. 

 

Hope this helps.