A coding manner switching method is provided. The method includes acquiring, by a transmit end, state information of the transmit end and/or a receive end, where the state information comprises central processing unit (CPU) usage, a network bandwidth, and electricity amount information that are of the transmit end and/or the receive end, and information about media content to be sent by the transmit end; determining whether the state information meets a preset condition, and switching a coding manner of the media content if the state information meets the preset condition; and notifying the receive end of the coding manner of the media content of the transmit end, so that the receive end determines a decoding manner of the media content according to the coding manner of the media content.