WebApp using webRTC for cross-platform videochat in iOS Browser and Android Chrome

Question

We are trying to build a webapp for videochat that will run in a browser across platforms (desktop, iOS, Android).

At this time we are not aware of how to run webRTC in a browser on iOS -- it only runs in several desktop browsers and chrome for Android (e.g. peerjs).

Are there tools to get webRTC to run in a browser on iOS? Are there tools already built to create a webapp that runs webRTC on iOS by using a hybrid app approach (tools specifically for the hybrid iOS app, not just a webRTC SDK for iOS)?

When webRTC will be supported by Safari or Chrome on iOS?

Answer 1

• [update February 2017] - It looks like webrtc arrival in the apple world is imminent. All the code is here and the integration in progress. Expect some part of the API for H1 2017.
• Apple policy forces other browser to use their version of webkit which does not support webRTC, so you will not have webRTC support in a web app on iOS anytime soon. Activity in webkit hints as a change, but time for this to land, it will be months.
• webRTC is only an API but in its open source implementation (webrtc.org) you also have a full application (appRTC) with the infrastructure, a web client, android client and iOS client. The last two are called "appRTCDemo". The feature of the iOS one are not yet at parity with the web client and android client, but it's getting There. Disclaimer: I belong to one of the company that contribute the open source code, especially the iOS part.
• There are lots of SDK out there that can help you with cross platform / os / browser support. Some are flash based (add live), some are proprietary and suppose that you use their infrastructure (tokbox), some are free without movie support (peerjs), some are free for the web client and the infrastructure, but you have to pay for the movie SDK (easyRTC). I guess all of those could due of interest to you. You can see a non exhaustive list of webRTC vendors here and query it depending on what you want: http://webrtchacks.com/vendor-directory/

Answer 2

There are frameworks like easyrtc theoretically allowing developers to write webRTC apps without needing to worry about browser-specific issues. However, webRTC is quite new and not completely stable, yet. As far as I know, webRTC does not work reliably for Chrome for iOS and not at all for Safari.

Answer 3

Update as of June 2017: WebRTC and getUserMedia are available in WebKit since iOS 11.

See also: Release notes from Safari 11.0

New in Safari 11.0 – Support for real-time communication using WebRTC.

New in Safari 11.0 – Camera and microphone access. Added support for the Media Capture API. Added ability for websites to access camera and microphone streams from a user's device (user permission is required.)