Skype, Viber and other services for instant communication had become ingrained in our everyday lives when WebRTC technology appeared and rapidly gained great popularity. WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) is an open source software promoted by Google and used for sharing of text, audio and video messages. After launching the project in 2012, all the popular browsers started to release updates with support for Web Real-Time Communications one by one. Google Chrome was first browser that picked up the trend. At the moment the format is supported almost by all popular web browsers. Apple is the only player who is in no hurry to implement WebRTC in its product. In this article we will try to understand whether the process of implementing WebRTC on IOS progresses or not and if there are other ways for owners of IPhone and IPad to use the technology now.
WebRTC is rapidly gaining popularity and is used almost everywhere, therefore the support for devices from Apple, always striving to be in trend, is a matter of time. In February 2016, corporation has released an updated array of tools for web developers. And in this array WebRTC has appeared as a "draft under development". Still the corporation hasn`t specified any deadlines or expected release dates officially. At the same time, the vacancy of WebRTC developer in the Apple has been already open.
The lack of IOS support for WebRTC is a serious obstacle for use of many modern communication services created on the basis of this technology. At the same time, there are alternative ways of providing communication through the Internet, which makes it painless to wait for the realization of WebRTC in Apple products.
Such an alternative method is to use the Flash version of such services. Availability of the Flash version is one of the main advantages of Excitel telecommunication product – Click-to-Call. While developing WebRTC service Excitel team has took into account the problem of WebRTC support on Ipads and IPhones, and therefore implemented the possibility to use Click-to-Call both in WebRTC and Flash format.
At the moment, Adobe Flash is supported in some browsers that you can use for IOS. Among them are Puffin Web Browser, Maxthon, Dolphin US Browser, Photon Flash Browser.
In addition, it is possible to use WebRTC technology via the app. Google has released the SDK (set of development tools) for its implementation in Apple apps. Data sharing via WebRTC in this case is done not through browser but via special application , which starts after the initiation of call.
By the way, the browser for IOS with support for WebRTC, after all, was once created. The first mobile WebRTC browser, Bowser, was developed by Ericsson research in cooperation with OpenWebRTC team in October 2012. But the program was soon removed from Apple's app store and Google play for unknown reasons.