FAQ

FAQ

Is this affiliated with the original FFmpegKit project?

No. This is an independently maintained continuation of arthenica/ffmpeg-kit, started after its original author archived the repository in April 2025. All credit for the original design and years of work goes to the upstream project; this fork continues maintenance under the same license family.

Does this replace the Maven Central dependency 1:1?

Yes, for Android, at the API level. Same package (com.arthenica.ffmpegkit), same classes and method signatures — your call sites don't change. See Migration for the exact steps. The distribution model is different though: see the next question.

Why are there four tiers instead of one package?

Codec/filter coverage and licensing scale together: more codecs/filters means more LGPL-licensed (or, for one tier, GPL-licensed) external libraries linked in. Splitting into Free/Basic/Full/Full GPL lets you pick exactly the coverage (and licensing obligations) your app needs instead of pulling in everything. See Compatibility for the full breakdown and Licensing for what each license means for your app.

Why was FFmpegKit removed from Maven Central in the first place?

The original author archived the upstream repository in April 2025 and stopped publishing new artifacts. Existing Maven Central coordinates for com.arthenica:ffmpeg-kit-* stopped resolving for new/clean builds, breaking CI pipelines and release builds for any app depending on it.

Why Android-only? What about iOS/macOS/tvOS/Linux/Flutter/React Native?

This fork intentionally narrows scope to Android — see README, Scope section. Upstream source for other platforms is not imported here. If you need FFmpeg on those platforms, look for other actively maintained forks targeting them specifically.

Which ABIs are supported?

Only arm64-v8a is published as a prebuilt .aar/Maven artifact. Other ABIs (armeabi-v7a, x86_64) can be built from source — see Building.

What is the license?

Depends on the tier — Free, Basic, and Full are LGPL-3.0; Full GPL is GPL-3.0 (it links in x264/x265/xvidcore/libvidstab/rubberband). See Licensing for what that means for your own app.

Is Maven Central publication available?

Yes, for the Free tier: dev.ffmpegkit-maintained:ffmpeg-kit-free. The other three tiers are paid and distributed as .aar downloads via Gumroad instead — see the Releases page for links.