6 Essentials for WebRTC Video and Voice App Dev

Since we wrote this post, we’ve made some changes to our what we do, and what we don’t do with WebRTC. Learn more here.

Okay! So let’s get this straight. Humans want everything at their fingertips in an instant. And technology is no different. Why should it be?

After all, in today’s world, it dictates majority of life aspects, right from our socialization patterns to our basic needs as reminder for drinking water or sending grocery list to the supermarket. The invasion and inclusion of gadgets and apps in our personal and professional arena is solid and will only strengthen in times to come.

1. The Future of P2P Connectivity is WebRTC

Tech organizations around the globe are trying to come up with solutions which are customer friendly and spell “Futuristic” in each of their offerings. That’s why here at PubNub, we’re always working to build demos to ‘wow’. The energy and vision of PubNub is directed towards making realtime interactivity a reality. The strength of PubNub is driven by developers who create killer real time apps with cool back-end mechanisms which make the geeky process easy and customizable.

The foundation of realtime voice and video communication starts with the WebRTC development at PubNub. The uniqueness of developing WebRTC lies in the new WebRTC SDK that goes along with it makes it easy for the engineer community to build impressive audio and video applications.

So can you guess what this means? The developers surely can. The SDK cuts out all the junk involved before creation of apps. No more required coordination for integrating different platforms, extra testing or alternate transmission negotiation for SDP and ICE packets. It’s a straight jump to creating applications making it as simple as creating a web page.

Having a hard time believing it? Believe it. For that little doubt left in your mind, take this example – Wouldn’t it be just awesome if an app established peer connections between you and your friends for the free exchange of video and audio binary? Quarter of a second is all it takes to bridge this gap. Instantaneous voila!

2. The Signal and Signaling Server in WebRTC

The keyword in this game of lightning speed communication is the signal. This makes the exchange of information immediate without any lag. The perfect feature for modern times is backed by reliable signaling packages offered by PubNub. It really allows you to go crazy with sharing of audio and video data among friends and family. Transportation companies vouch for PubNub’s Data Stream Network, which enables fast and efficient communication between drivers and passengers. It helps quick exchange of messages with tracking of location, surety of message delivery and vehicle status. PubNub rules out complex and challenges of cellular connectivity between the drivers and passengers on the move.

Comparisons are bound to happen in tech world, and you may be thinking how it this different from Google Voice? Here’s the differentiator. Google Voice works on two different protocols, one of them being VOIP. Both these protocols require signals working on separate format types. When using PubNub, you don’t need to worry about the signal type or format; data sharing is seamless on any platform.

3. The Bandwidth Savings of WebRTC Peer-to-Peer

Unlike Google Voice technology, WebRTC-based applications developed with PubNub are essentially bandwidth free. Sweet music to the ears, isn’t it? Audio and Video binary data is sent Peer-to-Peer and requires no middle man servers which incur bandwidth charges for businesses. You can make business out of this cool app or build them as one of the key features of your existing business proposition. Choice is yours!

Amazon provides a similar technology on Kindle devices called ‘Mayday’ for their customer support portal. If the customer is stuck, all they need to do is press on the “Mayday” button and a customer support representative pops up on the screen saying “Hello! I am Jennifer from Amazon, How can I help you today?” This flash speed help service is made possible through signaling stream technology like PubNub Data Stream Network. The ways in which WebRTC can benefit your business by this realtime instant signaling is unimaginable.

4. The Data Stream Network of WebRTC with PubNub

We constantly think about giving the best to our customers by making them our partners in true sense. We offer reliable and light speed data transmission service to retain them. How do we do this? PubNub boasts about globally distributed multi data center replication, with its core in pure C code engineering. This feature also sets the company apart from its competitors who provide similar kind of service and pricing model. However, while they depend on only one data center, PubNub has global POPs (points of presence), giving it that edge over other data stream network companies.

Studies galore on Amazon.com and Google library on how the lag time of running a process is directly co-related to the business revenue of a company. Appreciation of this fact makes PubNub a responsible companion in growing business revenue by ensuring high level signal replication and a reliable data stream network for their customers.

5. The WebRTC Resiliency in Unpredictable Environments

Don’t we just fret when we miss important calls or messages while switching gears from Wifi to 3G or 4G networks, as each time this happens, IP address changes and the data connection goes poof! The strong data replication centers at PubNub ensure these critical calls and message signals are remembered. This is as futuristic as it can get.

Wait a minute; the innovation odyssey doesn’t end here. PubNub has more to offer with some sleek features like “Multi Party Calling”. This can support unlimited number of callers joining in depending upon the bankability of the device. This includes videos as well. Amaze yourselves with the speed and clarity of multi-party calls the next time you do your customer support calls, sales calls, remote meetings, presentations or team announcements. Embarrassment is no longer a term in your business dictionary as even if one of the data nodes snap, the other connected locations will communicate seamlessly with bespoke data sharing.

The unpretentious engineering of PubNub data streaming allows for Peer to Peer Calling which operates smoothly in your corporate enterprise environment without the fear of getting bogged down by locked in networks, Wi-Fi, firewall security and proxy’s. We are using open source WebRTC codex – FOSS (free and open source software). It’s an aspect that is integrated with all android devices and web browsers. It allows the developer to use the codex – Vorbis and Theora for supporting audio and video sharing requirements respectively.

6. The WebRTC Dialing SDK Free and Open Source

Lastly, talking about an extra fun feature that is not provided by other WebRTC video and voice calling SDKs is a one-liner copy/paste code snippet which takes photo snapshot of the caller which can be shared as thumbnail with the dialer or uploaded to Instagram within seconds.

WebRTC Video and Voice Broadcasting

Broadcast your camera photo to all connected sessions. Also get the IMG data as base64 supported format for local display if desired for uploading to 3rd party.

Stream data, signal any device in real-time to millions or one-to-one users, manage dropped connections, stream multiple data on single connection, manage game-lobbies or chat rooms, you name it and they have it! PubNub truly redefines “Real-time” in real world, ironically through its virtual ace card!