Today, 66% of all internet traffic is being driven by live-streaming video, and by 2020, that number will grow to 82%, according to research by Cisco. Rapidly-successful User Generated Content apps, like Facebook Live and Periscope, are among the driving forces behind this growth, as live video and interactive online broadcasting is being widely adopted across industries, including webinar platforms.
In previous posts, we have looked at some key considerations for building apps for social video calling on mobile devices, and some of the features you can include to make sure your users have a great experience.
Here, we’re going to look in depth at CallKit, a framework for iOS which is an important component for creating frictionless, delightful apps, especially voice and video calling apps.
Part 2 – Creating the best possible user experience for social video apps
In Part 1, we looked at some of the key considerations for building a group live video app for mobile along the lines of Houseparty and Facebook Bonfire, and how the OpenTok platform can provide the solutions to some of the hurdles caused by using WebRTC off-the-shelf. In Part 2, we’ll look at some specific features and code which can be used to create an awesome user experience so your users will fall in love with the app.
Looking at the top charts of your favorite mobile app store you’ll find two kinds of apps, games and social apps. Without a doubt, social platforms are where you’ll spend a big chunk of your internet time.
The way we interact on these social platforms has been evolving since they first appeared on the screen. Whilst in the early days you couldn’t expect much more than simply exchanging text messages with other people, the evolution of several technologies has led to users expecting richer ways of communicating.
Who are the world’s biggest social video chatterboxes? What’s the record for the most people in a group video chat? And which region is staying up late into the night to use their video chat apps?
We’ve answered these questions and more through our Global Social Video Study. Social video chat apps have seen explosive growth in the last few years (see Facebook Bonfire, Houseparty, Live.ly), and WebRTC provides a unique platform for them to include live video communication in their offering.
We continue to be excited by the customer use cases that WebRTC on Safari will enable, especially the “spontaneous” customer interaction situations we see in Retail and eCommerce, Customer Service and regulated industries – as we discussed in our previous blog. On June 22nd we held a WebRTC on Safari Developer Workshop in San Francisco to make more information available to local developers about the details of the Apple announcement and how to get started experiencing and developing WebRTC apps for Safari 11.
We are pleased to now provide this information online for everybody!
NEWS: In the San Francisco Bay area? Come to our Developer Workshop on WebRTC in Safari on June 22 @6pm.
Today we’re rolling out an exciting new beta – the OpenTok.js SDK 2.12. With this release developers can begin building beta projects that are compatible with Safari 11. That’s right, WebRTC is available in Safari in beta.
Given the large number of devices running the Safari browser, this not only provides broader device reach for TokBox customers once it releases to general availability, but introduces a new set of use cases for browser based video chat on iPhones and iPads. On Monday our CEO Scott Lomond wrote about what this development means for WebRTC. Our goal today is to help you understand how you can start leveraging the OpenTok platform and WebRTC in the Safari beta.
NEWS: In the San Francisco Bay area? Come to our Developer Workshop on WebRTC in Safari on June 22 @6pm.
I’ve been waiting a long time to be able to publish this blog post. It was easy to miss, but if you were paying close attention to today’s WWDC keynote you would have seen Apple indicating WebRTC support for iOS 11, which will be available later in the year.
From the early days of WebRTC in 2011 until yesterday, the single biggest outstanding question about this standard had been when will it be supported in all major browsers? Supporters could see that WebRTC was loaded with the potential to change how we use communications, but there was always that lingering sense that WebRTC wouldn’t cross over to the mainstream and be used for mission critical applications until it was supported by all browsers. With today’s iOS 11 announcement, Apple has answered this question. WebRTC is here to stay. This is a major turning point for embedded communications.
We are excited to announce the release of the OpenTok 2.11 Client SDKs which were released recently.
What’s New?
In addition to powering live video experiences, TokBox is also in the business of making it simple to create content. Whether it’s for a social live stream that is delivered to millions of viewers, or a webinar recorded for post-event distribution, the OpenTok platform makes it possible.
There is no one-size-fits-all video layout that accommodates this wide range of use cases. You wouldn’t use the same UI/UX for a broadcast app as you would a customer service app, right? Developers using our platform need adequate control and flexibility to create UI/UX optimized for their experience.
For this reason, we’re excited to release new REST APIs to customize video layout for content creators using the Archiving API and Broadcast API for HLS & RTMP. Now developers using these two features can create a custom layout using CSS, or select one of the following prebuilt layouts:
