WebRTC World Feature Article Free eNews Subscription

December 18, 2012

WebRTC Expected to Greatly Improve Social Apps


WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) is bringing about major changes in the way people communicate – especially in the social sector.

Being drawn up by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WebRTC provides Web browsers with real-time communication capabilities via Javascript APIs, according to Webrtcworld. There are many benefits to the new tool – such as for video conferencing and gaming. It is also well-suited for social apps.

“Sometimes when you’re chatting with a friend, you just want to click on their name and see and talk with them in real-time,” said Maire Reavy, product lead, Firefox Platform Media in a recent blog post. “Imagine being able to do that without any glitches or hassles, and then while talking with them, easily share almost anything on your computer or device: vacation photos, memorable videos – or even just a link to a news story you thought they might be interested in – simply by dragging the item into your video chat window.”

In a recent video, Todd Simpson, chief of innovation at Mozilla, (the developers of the Firefox Web browser) explains how integration takes place between a social API and WebRTC.  

It allows for a video/audio call with the stream of the other person appearing in a window. The window floats as a user changes websites, so the conversation continues wherever the user goes on the web. The user can also provide the other person video, audio, images, files or other content – just by dropping it on the other person’s site. That way, both people can see the same content – and can discuss or review it at the same time.

Some of the other features include getUserMedia, which allows a developer to easily capture a user’s microphone and camera data, and PeerConnection, which allows for encrypted video/audio calling. A third feature is DataChannels, which sends accessible data.

Mozilla expects to add video conferencing app features, quicker call connections and additional video/audio options.

The WebRTC initiative is supported by Google, Mozilla and Opera. The WebRTC API is now available in Chrome for developers.


Edited by Rachel Ramsey
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]




FOLLOW US

Free WebRTC eNewsletter

Sign up now to recieve your free WebRTC eNewsletter for all up to date news and conference details. Its free! what are you waiting for.