Chrome Beta now has browser based video calling, should companies like Skype be scared?

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Published 17 Jul 2013

NSFW AI

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There’s a technology you’re going to hear a lot about over the next few months and years called WebRTC. Simply put, it’s a way to bring audio and video calling to browsers. Why would you want to do this? Because installing applications can sometimes be burdensome. You’ve probably heard of services like Chatroulette or Omegle, which already enable browser based video and audio chats. Those, unfortunately, depend on Adobe’s now defunct Flash technology to work.

Which brings me to today’s news: Chrome for Android, the beta version at least, has just received has WebRTC support in the latest version of the app. Like I said earlier, it’s early days, so you’re going to see plenty of people calling WebRTC pointless since we have native apps that already do what WebRTC promises just fine, but just wait. Someone somewhere will figure out how to do something awesome with this stuff that screams obvious.

And besides, have any of you used Google Hangouts? Doesn’t it bring your system down to its knees? Maybe this stuff will fix that. At least I hope it does.