Communication has always been a domain of billion dollar enterprises. Due to inefficiency and low penetration of internet networks, telecommunication has always been a preferred mode of conversation.
But that has changed. This past decade.
Cheap internet telephony is the best way to call trans-continents while technology advancements have made video calls a way of life. WebRTC is the latest advancement in video-calling technology – One that has the potential to end the dominance of at least the paid video calling solutions, to start with. So much does it has to offer that it has send them all on the RED ALERT – the bigwigs like Google, Ericsson, Oracle and Huawei, each one sending their R&D departments into full-gear.
History of WebRTC
In the starting of Y2K era, Video telephone had just started to become popular. Skype and Yahoo Chat were the only major players in the market and to say that their service was not up to the mark was an understatement. But the technology improved and real time communication improved with it. The only problem was that video calling was still the domain of large organizations and required dedicated applications to make it happen.
In short the technology was not versatile enough and high quality service was still pricey. Creating a good video calling software required licenses of expensive audio and video technologies or in the contrary was to be developed in house.
With the emergence of mobile devices and huge advancements in web technology, browser based communication became quite lucrative. Google started in this direction by rolling out Google video chat in 2008 and integrating it in Google hangouts in 2011. Google used codecs and eco-cancellation technologies developed by a company named GIPS, that Google acquired, for their video calling feature and then released the full technology as open source. Ericsson took the technology further and released in 2011 the first implementation of what is now known as Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) protocol.
What’s so special about WebRTC
Real time communication, and that can mean anything including text messages, video or voice calls or even data transfer all in real time, has always been the most researched of subject. But the main challenge in an internet based RTC is accomplishing it without any plug-ins, native apps, or downloads. Current popular video calling technologies follow the same implementations. For example, Skype requires a software, Facebook which in itself is dependent on Skype requires plug-ins and so does Google Video Hangouts.
Why this hard on plug-ins? Well it’s mainly because plug-ins are :
- difficult to develop,
- irritating to tweak them for all different browsers and operating systems,
- requires lots of debugging and troubleshooting,
- have to be updated constantly to make them work with system or browser updates, and
- they sometimes require integration or licensing with pricey and complex technologies. And mainly because normal everyday users hate to install plug-ins, as a principle sometimes.
Since browsers were already everywhere raging from supercomputers to smart watches, a technology that allows RTC communication through browser based technology was the most efficient way to implement. Combining this with the fact that WebRTC is open source and works on the guiding mantra that technology should be free and efficient, WebRTC is conclusively a very great technology to use for communication
The Future of WebRTC
The technology was pioneered by big companies like Google and Ericsson. Oracle, Huawei and other multi-billion dollar corporations are interested in it and we have already started to see companies providing services in this technology. The charm of a technology that allows video calling from browsers without any plug-ins is very enticing and latest versions of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers already support WebRTC protocols.
We here at Algoworks, being one of the few WebRTC experts, are already swamped with WebRTC projects and can assure you that the technology is here to stay. WebRTC is versatile enough to create dedicated applications or websites to enable communication, and efficient enough to allow seamless communication.
You may have seen those small “chat with us” side pop-ups in company websites. Imagine if it allows you to directly video chat with a sales representative. Imagine troubleshooting your banking experience by directly video calling the customer care executive and he can tell you exactly what you would have to do with visual aids. Possibilities of efficient video communications are endless and WebRTC is a very promising communication technology.
You can make a call on +1-877-284-1028, Our webRTC experts are always ready to help you.
Rachit Agarwal
