What is WebRTC and what is it good for?

If you are here, then you probably heard about WebRTC, but what is WebRTC exactly? WebRTC is an HTML5 specification that you can use to add real time communications directly between browsers and devices. Simply put, WebRTC enables you to add voice and video communications that works between web pages, and you can do that without any prerequisites about what you need to do with the browser. WebRTC was announced in 2011 and since then it has grown in popularity and adoption. During the pandemic we've seen a huge surge in WebRTC use and while that has come since then, we still see a healthy increase in use with four times the page loads prior to the pandemic. WebRTC is here to stay and it is powering a variety of new use cases including work from home, remote work, healthcare and education. Looking at the history of WebRTC, the initial four years were focused around exploration. During that time we asked should we use it? And the browsers supporting it were Chrome and Firefox. Then we entered the era of growth where our main concern was how to use it. At that point all modern Browsers started supporting WebRTC. In 2020 we entered the current era of differentiation. Now that everyone is using it, we find ourselves how do we compete? And into that question we need to factor the maturation of the specification to version 1.0, the popularity of Zoom and the effects of the pandemic. WebRTC today is widely popular for video calling, but it is capable of so much more. WebRTC is also completely free. It comes as an open source project that has been embedded into browsers PC, but you can take and adopt it and use it wherever you want. This in turn has created a vibrant and dynamic ecosystem around WebRTC of different vendors, open source frameworks and commercial offerings from companies that help you build your products. WebRTC is constantly evolving and improving, so whatever you know about it today might change in a few years down the road. How does WebRTC exactly work? It is first important to understand where we're coming from. If you wanted to build anything that includes voice and video, a few years ago you would have needed to use C and C in order to build your application. This means writing code in these languages and then porting and working to build everything around that. Now WebRTC changes all that. It takes the need for C and C, replacing it with the need of understanding and knowing. JavaScript WebRTC comes with an API layer on top that you can use inside the browser that is built using JavaScript. While the code internally in WebRTC does use C and C, most developers don't need that in order to build their applications. If you want to position WebRTC in the world, then it is somewhere between voice over ip. How we build and run voice and video calling services in the digital world and the web, where we interact with services and people over the Internet. WebRTC is located right there between them, which gives it a lot of power. One of the things that you can do with WebRTC and you couldn't do with VoiceOver IP before is the ability to run a call just by going into a website. You click a URL you and you are there talking to someone else. The other person can be someone that you know already because it is a social kind of an interaction and application, or it can be a service provider. You are going into a website, into an e commerce site, trying to buy something or get some kind of a service. WebRTC today is available in all modern browsers. While there are differences in behavior and level of support, developers are finding ways to overcome most of them. You can also take WebRTC and embed it into an application without the need for a browser at all. What WebRTC does is allow you to access the peripherals on your device. That can be the microphone on your device, it can be the camera that you have on your phone or laptop, and it can also be the screen itself where you capture whatever is being displayed and then sending it to another person during a conversation or recording it for later use. Whatever RobRTC does, it does that in real time. The idea here is to lower the latency into a point that you can have a conversation with someone with no delay. WebRTC allows us to send any type of arbitrary data. We are not only limited to voice and video. One thing that some companies are doing with OBRTC today is decentralizing a lot of services that are focused on server delivery. That includes file sharing services or CDNs, content delivery networks where WebRTC can be used to augment these services or replace their servers altogether. And yes, WebRTC is an important component in Web3 and in the coming metaverse. So why use WebRTC at the end of the day? First, it is open source. It is completely free for commercial or private use. So why not use it? It is constantly evolving and improving, which means that if you are banking on technology and service for years to come, then WebRTC is a pretty solid choice for that. It has created a vibrant ecosystem around it of different vendors and companies that can assist you in building your application. WebRTC is available in the browser and all modern browsers today support it. This has enabled and empowered the creation of new use cases and business models. From taking guitar or yoga lessons through medical clowns or group therapy to hosting online virtual events, WebRTC is capable of serving all of them and more. Now, WebRTC isn't only limited to the browser, it is also available for mobile applications. The source code is portable and is being used in a lot of different mobile applications. Today. There are SDKs available for both mobile and embedded platforms, so you can use WebRTC to run anywhere. Remember, WebRTC isn't only about voice and video calling. It is quite powerful and versatile. It is up to you what it is that you are going to do with WebRTC. You can even use it to develop cloud gaming services. At its heart, WebRTC is only a building block within your own product. What WebRTC really does is to take the notion of communication service and change that by downgrading it into a feature inside a different type of a service. So now you can take WebRTC and simply add communications into whatever business process that you need within your application or business. So what other choices do you really have? Just go and use WebRTC. The ideas of what is WebRTC and what you can use it for are limitless. So go on, start building whatever it is that you need and use WebRTC for that. I am Sahil Leventlevi and I invite you to learn more about WebRTC on my website, Blogic Me.