HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) is an HTTP-based adaptive bitrate streaming communications protocol developed by Apple Inc. Currently it is the most popular and recommended streaming protocol.

HLS is designed for reliability and dynamically adapts to network conditions by optimizing playback for the available speed of landline, wifi, and cellular connections. A viewer watching a video stream over a network of 10 Mbps and above would get the highest resolution and quality video. On the other hand, a viewer watching the same video stream over a 0.8 Mbps connection would view it in lower resolution and quality. However, in both cases the video would play smoothly with minimal or no buffering, for the best experience possible on the available connection bandwidth.