How to Build an Android App to Compress Video?

Nowadays we see many applications are made to compress videos and other files so that users can save memory as well as maintain the quality of that file. In this article, we are going to see how we can compress videos in the android studio and can make our own video compressing application.

What we are going to build in this article?

Below is a sample video of a video compressor that we are going to build in this article. Note that we are going to implement this project using the Java language. 

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a new project

• Open a new project.
• We will be working on Empty Activity with language as Java. Leave all other options unchanged.
• You can change the name of the project at your convenience.
• There will be two default files named activity_main.xml and MainActivity.java.

If you don’t know how to create a new project in Android Studio then you can refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio?  

Step 2: Adding required dependencies

Open Gradle Scripts > build.gradle(module). and use the following dependencies in it-

implementation 'com.iceteck.silicompressorr:silicompressor:2.2.4'
implementation 'com.googlecode.mp4parser:isoparser:1.1.22'

Click on sync now to save the changes.

Step 3: Adding required permissions

Open the AndroidManifest.xml file and add the following permissions to it-

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

Step 4: Working with xml files

Navigate to the app > res > layout > activity_main.xml and add the below code to that file. Below is the code for the activity_main.xml file. 

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:padding="16dp"
    android:gravity="center_horizontal"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <Button
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/bt_select"
        android:text="Select Video"/>

    <RelativeLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:clipToPadding="false"
        android:fitsSystemWindows="true">

        <VideoView
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="180dp"
            android:id="@+id/video_view1"
            android:visibility="gone"/>

    </RelativeLayout>

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/TextView1"
        android:text="Original Video"
        android:textSize="20sp"
        android:textStyle="bold"
        android:visibility="gone"
        android:layout_marginTop="8dp"/>

    <RelativeLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:clipToPadding="false"
        android:fitsSystemWindows="true">

        <VideoView
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="180dp"
            android:id="@+id/Video_view2"
            android:visibility="gone"
            android:layout_marginTop="32dp"/>

  </RelativeLayout>

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/text_view2"
        android:text="Compressed Video"
        android:textSize="20sp"
        android:textStyle="bold"
        android:visibility="gone"
        android:layout_marginTop="8dp"/>

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/TextView3"
        android:textSize="16sp"
        android:visibility="gone"
        android:layout_marginTop="4dp"/>

</LinearLayout>

Step 5: Working with java files

Go to the MainActivity.java file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity.java file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

Java

package com.example.videocompress;

import android.Manifest;
import android.app.Dialog;
import android.app.ProgressDialog;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Environment;
import android.provider.MediaStore;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.Toast;
import android.widget.VideoView;
import androidx.annotation.NonNull;
import androidx.annotation.Nullable;
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
import androidx.core.app.ActivityCompat;
import androidx.core.content.ContextCompat;
import com.iceteck.silicompressorr.SiliCompressor;
import java.io.File;
import java.net.URISyntaxException;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    // Initialize variable
    Button btSelect;
    VideoView videoView1, videoView2;
    TextView textView1, textView2, textView3;
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        // Assign variable
        btSelect = findViewById(R.id.bt_select);
        videoView1 = findViewById(R.id.video_view1);
        videoView2 = findViewById(R.id.Video_view2);
        textView1 = findViewById(R.id.TextView1);
        textView2 = findViewById(R.id.text_view2);
        textView3 = findViewById(R.id.TextView3);

        btSelect.setOnClickListener(
            new View.OnClickListener() {
                @Override public void onClick(View v)
                {
                    // check condition
                    if (ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(
                            MainActivity.this,
                            Manifest.permission
                                .WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE)
                        == PackageManager
                               .PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
                        // When permission is granted
                        // Create method
                        selectVideo();
                    }
                    else {
                        // When permission is not granted
                        // request permission
                        ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(
                            MainActivity.this,
                            new String[] {
                                Manifest.permission
                                    .WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE },
                            1);
                    }
                }
            });
    }

    private void selectVideo()
    {
        // Initialize intent
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK);
        // Set type
        intent.setType("video/*");
        // set action
        intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
        // Start activity result
        startActivityForResult(
            Intent.createChooser(intent, "Select Video"),
            100);
    }

    @Override
    public void onRequestPermissionsResult(
        int requestCode, @NonNull String[] permissions,
        @NonNull int[] grantResults)
    {
        super.onRequestPermissionsResult(
            requestCode, permissions, grantResults);
        // check condition
        if (requestCode == 1 && grantResults.length > 0
            && grantResults[0]
                   == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
            // When permission is granted
            // Call method
            selectVideo();
        }
        else {
            // When permission is denied
            // Display Toast
            Toast
                .makeText(getApplicationContext(),
                          "Permission Denied !",
                          Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
                .show();
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode,
                                    int resultCode,
                                    @Nullable Intent data)
    {
        super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode,
                               data);
        // Check condition
        if (requestCode == 100 && resultCode == RESULT_OK
            && data != null) {
            // When result is ok
            // Initialize Uri
            Uri uri = data.getData();
            // Set video uri
            videoView1.setVideoURI(uri);
            // Initialize file
            File file = new File(
                Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()
                    .getAbsolutePath());
            // Create compress video method
            new CompressVideo().execute(
                "false", uri.toString(), file.getPath());
        }
    }

    private class CompressVideo
        extends AsyncTask<String, String, String> {

        // Initialize dialog
        Dialog dialog;

        @Override protected void onPreExecute()
        {
            super.onPreExecute();
            // Display dialog
            dialog = ProgressDialog.show(
                MainActivity.this, "", "Compressing...");
        }

        @Override
        protected String doInBackground(String... strings)
        {
            // Initialize video path
            String videoPath = null;

            try {
                // Initialize uri
                Uri uri = Uri.parse(strings[1]);
                // Compress video
                videoPath
                    = SiliCompressor.with(MainActivity.this)
                          .compressVideo(uri, strings[2]);
            }
            catch (URISyntaxException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            // Return Video path
            return videoPath;
        }

        @Override protected void onPostExecute(String s)
        {
            super.onPostExecute(s);
            // Dismiss dialog
            dialog.dismiss();

            // Visible all views
            videoView1.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            textView1.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            videoView2.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            textView2.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            textView3.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

            // Initialize file
            File file = new File(s);
            // Initialize uri
            Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(file);
            // set video uri
            videoView2.setVideoURI(uri);

            // start both video
            videoView1.start();
            videoView2.start();

            // Compress video size
            float size = file.length() / 1024f;
            // Set size on text view
            textView3.setText(
                String.format("Size : %.2f KB", size));
        }
    }
}

Here is the final output of our application.

Output: