Quick Start

Get up and running with the Talker Web SDK in minutes.

Overview

The Talker SDK provides two main classes for building PTT applications:

  • TalkerAdmin - For managing users, channels, and credentials (uses SDK key)
  • TalkerClient - For real-time PTT communication (uses user auth token)
Important

Keep your SDK key secret. Avoid exposing it in publicly accessible code.

TalkerAdmin Setup

Use TalkerAdmin to create users and manage credentials.

Node.js / Next.js API Route 
import { TalkerAdmin } from '@talker-network/talker-sdk';

// Initialize with your SDK key (keep secret!)
const admin = new TalkerAdmin({
  sdkKey: process.env.TALKER_SDK_KEY!,
});

// Create a new user
const user = await admin.createUser({ name: 'John Doe' });

// Or get an existing user
const existingUser = await admin.setUser({ userId: 'existing-user-id' });

// Use these credentials to initialize TalkerClient
const credentials = {
  userAuthToken: user.userAuthToken,
  userId: user.userId,
  a_username: user.aUsername,
  a_password: user.aPassword,
};

TalkerClient Setup

Use TalkerClient with credentials from TalkerAdmin to enable real-time communication.

JavaScript / TypeScript 
import { TalkerClient } from '@talker-network/talker-sdk';

// Use credentials obtained from TalkerAdmin
// Initialize client - connection starts automatically
const talker = new TalkerClient({
  userAuthToken,
  userId,
  a_username,
  a_password,
});

// Monitor connection status
talker.on('connection_change', ({ connected, status }) => {
  console.log(`Connection: ${status}`);
  // status: 'connected' | 'connecting' | 'disconnected'
});

// Listen to broadcast events
talker.on('broadcast_start', (data) => {
  console.log(`${data.senderName} started speaking`);
});

talker.on('broadcast_end', (data) => {
  console.log(`User ${data.senderId} stopped speaking`);
});
Built-in Audio Player

The SDK includes a built-in audio player that automatically plays incoming broadcasts. No additional audio setup is required — received broadcasts are queued and played in order. You can control playback with pauseQueue(), resumeQueue(), and stopPlaybackAndPause(). See Audio Devices for speaker selection and volume control.

Push-to-Talk Implementation

Implement PTT with simple event handlers.

JavaScript 
// PTT button handlers
const pttButton = document.getElementById('ptt-button');

pttButton.onmousedown = async () => {
  const result = await talker.startTalking(channelId);

  if (!result.success) {
    switch (result.code) {
      case 'not_connected':
        // Show "Connecting..." UI
        break;
      case 'error':
        alert(result.message);
        break;
    }
  }
};

pttButton.onmouseup = () => talker.stopTalking();

PTT Result Codes

The startTalking() method returns a result object with the following codes:

Code Success Description
success true PTT started successfully
already_talking true Already in a PTT session (no action needed)
not_connected false Not connected, auto-reconnecting in background
no_user_id false User ID not set
error false Other error (check message)

Connection States

The SDK manages connections automatically. Monitor the status to update your UI:

Status Meaning
connected Socket and WebRTC data channel both connected, ready for PTT
connecting Connection is being established
disconnected Not connected (will auto-reconnect)
Auto-reconnect

The SDK automatically reconnects if the connection is lost. If startTalking() is called while disconnected, reconnection is triggered automatically.

Next Steps

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