Mute / Unmute Peer

Mute is something that applies to both audio and video. When you mute audio, you can't be heard by other people i.e your audio is OFF. When you mute a video, you will not be broadcasting your video to other people i.e your video is OFF.

Methods to mute/unmute

This example shows implementation of three methods namely :

1. toggleMicMuteState : To switch local peer's audio on/off.

2. toggleCameraMuteState : To switch local peer's video on/off.

3. switchCamera: Switch camera to the front or rear mode

Let's look at their implementation:

class Meeting implements HMSUpdateListener,HMSActionResultListener{

    ...
    /// To switch local peer's audio on/off.
    hmsSDK.toggleMicMuteState(); //This toggles the current mic status(mute/unmute)


    /// To switch local peer's video on/off.
    hmsSDK.toggleCameraMuteState(); //This toggles current camera status(mute/unmute)

    /// Switch camera from front or rear mode
    hmsSDK.switchCamera(hmsActionResultListener: this);

    ...

    @override
    void onSuccess({HMSActionResultListenerMethod methodType = HMSActionResultListenerMethod.unknown, Map<String, dynamic>? arguments}) {
        switch (methodType) {
          case HMSActionResultListenerMethod.switchCamera:
          // Switch Camera called successfully
          break;
          ...
        }
      }

}

How to mute microphone

Let's look at how we can mute microphone:

class Meeting implements HMSUpdateListener,HMSActionResultListener{

...
/// To switch local peer's audio on/off.
hmsSDK.toggleMicMuteState(); //This toggles the current mic status(mute/unmute)
...

}

class Meeting implements HMSUpdateListener,HMSActionResultListener{

bool isMicOff = true;
...
@override
void onTrackUpdate(
    {required HMSTrack track,
    required HMSTrackUpdate trackUpdate,
    required HMSPeer peer}) {
    
        //To check mute/unmute status for local peer
        if (peer.isLocal) {
            if ((track.kind == HMSTrackKind.kHMSTrackKindAudio) &&
                (track.source == "REGULAR") && (trackUpdate == HMSTrackUpdate.trackUnMuted)) {
                //Here we will receive the trackUnmuted update for audio track of local peer.
                //i.e. track.isMute will be false
                isMicOff = track.isMute;
            }
            ...
        }
    }
...

}

How to get the current mute/unmute state

To get the current mute/unmute state for local peer we will use local peer's HMSTrack object.

class Meeting implements HMSUpdateListener,HMSActionResultListener{

bool isMicOff = false;
bool isCameraOff = false;
...
@override
void onTrackUpdate(
    {required HMSTrack track,
    required HMSTrackUpdate trackUpdate,
    required HMSPeer peer}) {
    
        //To check mute/unmute status for local peer
        if (peer.isLocal) {
            if (track.kind == HMSTrackKind.kHMSTrackKindAudio &&
                track.source == "REGULAR") {
                isMicOff = track.isMute;
            }
            if (track.kind == HMSTrackKind.kHMSTrackKindVideo &&
                track.source == "REGULAR") {
                isCameraOff = track.isMute;
            }
        }
    }
...

}

When to show mic/camera buttons on UI

On UI we only want to show mic or camera buttons when the peer has permissions to publish audio or video respectively. This can be done by leveraging publish permissions for a particular role.

Display mic mute/unmute button

//Setting a variable for checking whether to display mic button or not
bool displayMicrophoneButton = true;

//Here we get all the track updates in the room
@override
void onTrackUpdate(
      {required HMSTrack track,
      required HMSTrackUpdate trackUpdate,
      required HMSPeer peer}) {

    //Checking whether peer is local or not
    if (peer.isLocal) {
       if(peer?.role.publishSettings?.allowed.contains("audio")??false){
            displayMicrophoneButton = true;
       }
       else{
        displayMicrophoneButton = false;
       }
       setState(() {});
    }

}

///Here we will add the check to render the widget on screen or not based on [displayMicrophoneButton] variable
if(displayMicrophoneButton){
    //Show the mic button widget here
}

Display camera mute/unmute button

//Setting a variable for checking whether to display camera button or not
bool displayCameraButton = true;

//Here we get all the track updates in the room
@override
void onTrackUpdate(
      {required HMSTrack track,
      required HMSTrackUpdate trackUpdate,
      required HMSPeer peer}) {

    //Checking whether peer is local or not
    if (peer.isLocal) {
       if(peer?.role.publishSettings?.allowed.contains("video")??false){
            displayCameraButton = true;
       }
       else{
        displayCameraButton = false;
       }
       setState(() {});
    }

}

///Here we will add the check to add the widget on screen or not based on [displayCameraButton] variable
if(displayCameraButton){
    //Show the camera button widget here
}

Mute Remote peers locally

To mute peers all the peers for yourself HMSSDK provides dedicated methods muteRoomAudioLocally for audio and muteRoomVideoLocally for video. Execution of this method mutes audio and video only locally others will still be able to hear audio and video.

//To mute room audio locally
hmsSDK.muteRoomAudioLocally();

//To mute room video locally
hmsSDK.muteRoomVideoLocally();

Similarly their counterparts:

//To unmute room audio locally
hmsSDK.unMuteRoomAudioLocally();

//To unmute room video locally
hmsSDK.unMuteRoomVideoLocally();

If you are looking to Mute other (remote) Peers in Room, checkout the Remote Mute here.