Apple is hard at work on adding support to its Safari browser for cross-platform audio/video communications capability that won’t require any special plug-in, enterprise computing blog No Jitter learned yesterday.
The Cupertino firm’s reportedly decided to incorporate support for the open-source WebRTC project, a real-time video and audio standard originally created by Google.
Microsoft’s Edge and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers have adopted this technology recently, which lets web developers create messaging applications that run in a browser and offer two-way audio/video communications capability without a plug-in.
“Apple has given its seal of approval by placing WebRTC into development for WebKit, the engine that powers its Safari browser,” reads the article.
The Web Real-Time Communication project is what’s used in YouTube’s HTML5 video player and other software solutions for broadcasting live video from within a browser, no plug-ins required.
“WebRTC as a technology, in simple terms, gives you the ability to add live audio and video streaming into your web and mobile applications essentially for free and without forcing a user to download a plugin or install an application,” explains the publication.
All of this can be achieved with HTML5 and JavaScript code. WebRTC also makes possible making phone calls directly from your browser, sharing documents and computer screens and more.
One of the more interesting aspects of this is the possibility of Apple using WebRTC in a future version of Safari to fulfill its promise of open-sourcing its FaceTime service and making it an industry standard, which could allow cross-device communications between FaceTime users and those on non-Apple platforms.
An app called SnapDrop, which we reviewed, uses WebRTC to permit people to send and receive files from one mobile or desktop device to another through a web browser. Microsoft’s Skype for Web is another application that uses WebRTC to make possible phone calls in a browser.
Source: No Jitter via Mac Kung Fu