WebRTC , Enjoy the Real Time Communication !!
Have you experienced the messenger video call feature or WhatsApp video call feature? If yes you have experienced WebRTC. Because messenger totally use WebRTC and WhatsApp use it in some level for the video communication and there are lots of application out there that uses WebRTC. In this article, you can get a good idea about WebRTC. Here I won’t explain it in deep. I just focus on to give you a brief description on webRTC.
What is WebRTC?
WebRTC stands for web real-time communication. It is an open source project that provides real-time communication features through browsers and mobile applications via the simple set of APIs.It’s actually a collection of APIs.In simple words webRTC allows web applications or mobile applications to run following features.
- Audio and video conferencing(mainly focus on this)
- File sharing
- Screen sharing
- Broadcasting
If you use video conferencing through the web browser you have to apply plugins like flash to your web browser to communicate. Lots of people don’t like to install plugins to the browser.But WebRTC allows you to do that without using plugins. All you need is to run the webRTC. What it only requires are the HTML5, Javascript or an API to work on the browser.
Why WebRTC?
WebRTC was announced in 2011 and since then it’s getting more popular over and over because of few reasons.
Earlier days if you develop a video application you had to code in C, C++ and it’s much costly. But now you can implement the application using javascript.
webRTC supports in almost every modern browsers like chrome, firefox, safari, edge etc..
It’s an open source so its completely free and we can make it for your open source projects or commercial products.
WebRTC is not limited to the browsers. It also can use for the mobile applications. They have provided this features for android and IOS also.
WebRTC is not only for the video calling, it allows you to make group video calling, screen recording and sharing the screen.
WebRTC allows the access to devices. You can access the microphone of your device and the camera on your mobile or laptop.So they do it remotely in real time enabling live interactions
Ok, I think you got the basic knowledge of WebRTC. So want to try it out? Here you go. Follow the given steps and you will be able to try real-time communication through this simple app.
try it out.. :D
- Open apprtc.appspot.com in your browser(Chrome , Firefox , Opera or Safari)
- Now you can see the this window and click the allow button to let the app use your webcam and microphone.
- Give any number for the room number. I will set it to the default value and click the join button. Then you will be connected to the new window.
- Now copy the URL of this window and paste it to another tab of same computer or different computer.
- Now you are connecting to each other and experiencing WebRTC. :D
Hope this article will help you to get a clear idea about the WebRTC and from next articles I will explain more about the WebRTC. Cheers :D
