WebRTC Doesn’t Fit iOS – or Does it?

Apple doesn’t support WebRTC. So what?

Stop whining please. Yes, WebRTC isn’t supported by everyone, but guess what? WebGL doesn’t either. For that matter, neither is FaceTime.

Let’s go for a reality check here, and for that I need your full attention. We’ll start from the basics: What assumptions do we have?

• iOS is an important platform, with its millions upon millions of iPhone and iPad devices. Oh – and its large fan base
• Consumption on smartphones takes place more in apps than in the browser
• We are realists and not purists – we strive for practical solutions rather than the best technical ones

Ok. With that off the table, let’s see what WebRTC on mobile means. And most of the time, that means having an app. To make things easy, I’ll start with some known WebRTC vendors that have “something” on iOS:

• Bistri has their service available for web, iOS and Android
• AddLive, the video API platform, comes with an SDK for iOS and Android
• TokBox, the company that got acquired by Telefonica? They also have their own OpenTok iOS SDK
• Voxeo, the Telco API company, has their own SDK for iOS
• And so does Twilio for that matter has their Twilio Client SDK
• OpenClove, a video cloud platform, complete with APIs has not only an SDK for iOS (and Android) but also an app of their own, called LiveBoard
• Hookflash outdid them all with SDKs for iOS, Android and now Blackberry 10

And these are only the companies I remember out of the top of my head – numerous other companies have their iOS support status in “coming soon”.

Sure. It required these companies to port WebRTC’s source code and integrate it for their own needs – but then again – do you have a clue how much it cost without WebRTC? 10 times more would be a conservative estimate.

So you tell me – does WebRTC work on iOS or is there a gap somewhere in there?