Video recording in Android games

The video recording API enables you to easily add video recording to your game and let users share their videos with friends on YouTube in a few simple steps. For example, you could add a button off of a battle replay screen that when pressed would bring up the Play Games video recording experience.

This guide shows you how to implement video recording in games using the Google Play Games Services. The APIs can be found in the com.google.android.gms.games.video and com.google.android.gms.games packages.

Before you begin

Before you start to use the video recording API:

• Download and review the code sample.

• Familiarize yourself with the recommendations described in the Quality Checklist.

Get the videos client

To start using the video recording API, your game must first obtain a VideosClient object. You can do this by calling the Games.getVideosClient() method and passing in the activity and the GoogleSignInAccount for the current player. To learn how to retrieve the player account information, see Sign-in in Android Games.

Video recording API basics

You can use the video recording API to integrate a video recording experience directly from within your game.

The video recording experience for users includes the following:

• The video recording overlay, which has three buttons:

  1. Start / stop recording
  2. Turn on / off mic
  3. Turn on / off forward facing camera

• A developer-provided button to initiate recording, or an alternate recording trigger

• A clickable toast that pops up at the end of recording that enables players to upload the video to YouTube, or view the video through the Photos app (Note: recorded videos are stored under the category ScreenCasts in Photos)

Launch the video recording overlay

To initiate video recording for the currently signed-in player, follow these steps:

1. Call the VideosClient.getCaptureOverlayIntent() method.
2. If the call is successful, Google Play games services returns a Task object which asynchronously loads an intent to launch the video recording overlay.
3. Use the intent from the previous step to start an activity.

Here's an example of how to bring up the video recording overlay:

private static final int RC_VIDEO_OVERLAY = 9011;

public void showVideoOverlay(View myview) {
  Games.getVideosClient(this, GoogleSignIn.getLastSignedInAccount(this))
      .getCaptureOverlayIntent()
      .addOnSuccessListener(new OnSuccessListener<Intent>() {
        @Override
        public void onSuccess(Intent intent) {
          startActivityForResult(intent, RC_VIDEO_OVERLAY);
        }
      });
}

Tips for using video recording data

The video recording API lets you integrate a video recording experience directly in your game.

Tip	Description
Make the video recording trigger easily discoverable	Prominently place a recording button off your main menu Automatically trigger the overlay from a dedicated and clearly labeled recording mode menu option
Promote use of the feature in your store listing and inside the game	Use a screenshot in your store listing that displays the video recording overlay Promote the video recording feature through in-game promotions Consider providing in-game rewards for replay sharing
Engage your player community with replay competitions	Encourage players to record and share game replays with weekly / monthly / yearly replay competitions Recognize top videos and creators in-game or through social media