WebRTC Demo Apps

By: Eric Hernaez on February 24th, 2012

For anyone not following the WebRTC  project, now is the time to check it out.  The latest release of Google’s Chrome Canary browser includes support for the open source initiative, and some of the early demo apps are simply amazing.

With support from Google, Mozilla and Opera,  WebRTC  is a framework and open-sourced code for embedding real-time multimedia capabilities directly into browsers.   That means that the protocol stacks (SIP, among others) and codecs (iSAC, iLBC and VP8) needed for audio and video communication can be built right in to the browser.  In other words, it is now possible to create a multimedia SIP application that is completely contained in the browser, without the need to install 3rd party libraries or plugins.  This is a momentous event for the VoIP world because it means that any browser that adopts the framework (Firefox and Opera are expected to release versions that support WebRTC within the year) can become a SIP endpoint (a draft RFC for SIP interworking is here).

The screenshot below shows a video call between me and the wife running in Chrome Canary (me on Mac OSX and her on Windows 7).  To try it yourself, download Canary and check out one of the available demo apps.

Expect to see a load of exciting new unified communications applications in 2012 as vendors (including NetSapiens) start to embrace these capabilities.