All thanks to the increasing capabilities of the web/mobile browsers, WebRTC, and free WebRTC video call tutorials, real-time video communication is now easier than ever. 

However, not all developed video chat applications are providing the best user experience in a challenging environment, i.e., poor internet connection, more team members. 

The technology or platform developers use to build a video chat application directly influences the outcome.  

But before discussing that, let’s first discuss the 3 major challenges associated with WebRTC video chat app development.

WebRTC video call tutorial – The 3 challenges of an ideal video chat application  

Though all modern video chat applications should have some useful features such as screen sharing, call recording, it should also meet some basic requirements. 

And since almost all developers fail to meet these requirements or give cold shoulder to them, these basic requirements emerge as the challenges. 

1. Video Quality 

The first ‘quality’ of any video conferencing platform should be high video quality. 

One way to bring in the highest quality of the calls is by setting the 1280×720 resolution constraint as shown in the following image. 

This constraint makes sure that all team members in the video conference receive the video on their screen in the highest quality.  

This definitely solves your first challenge, but it creates one more fresh challenge. 

2. Bandwidth Consumption 

The high-quality video calling comes at the cost – the cost of the internet! 

Even with the single-person video call, the video chat app seeks the high speed of the internet and unfortunately, not all users enjoy the very high speed of the internet and if they have, it wouldn’t be consistent. 

So, if – for the sake of high video quality – you deliver the highest quality of videos, a user ends up having a frozen window or with a buffering loop! 

Things get worse when there are more team members as now you have to capture the video of multiple users in high quality and deliver it to multiple users in the same quality. 

3. Device Support 

Needless to say that users are using multiple mobile and computer devices running on different operating systems to have video calls. 

This simply means that the video calling platform or technology i.e., WebRTC you are using to build the video chat application should support all devices and operating systems. 

Will you be able to solve these challenges with WebRTC? 

To make your understanding more clear, let’s answer this for each individual challenge. 

• Video Quality vs WebRTC 

WebRTC supports videos in several resolutions. Because of this, you can set the highest resolution and achieve the highest video quality very easily. 

However, it does have some limitations when it comes to adaptive video calling or dynamic video configuration. 

WebRTC is not able to downgrade or upgrade the video quality for each team member based on his internet speed. 

For instance, a user is having a video call in the highest quality as his internet speed is too good. 

But during the call, his internet speed drops below a certain limit. 

In response, the chat application shows him the ‘poor connection’ error rather than adjusting the video quality based on the new internet speed. 

• Bandwidth Consumption vs WebRTC 

As discussed above, the WebRTC lacks the ability to change the resolution of the videos based on the upload and download speed of a user’s internet connection. 

It also does not adjust the bandwidth consumption based on the number of team members in a call. 

Because of such inabilities, the video chat app consumes more bandwidth.  

Let’s understand this with an example. 

User 1 and User 2 are having a video call. 

Bandwidth consumption for each user is 200kb. 

Now, if User 3 joins this ongoing call, the 200kbps bandwidth consumption will now increase to 300kbps as the video chat app now has to stream 3 videos at a time. 

• Device Support vs WebRTC 

WebRTC supports all popular browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and even Edge. 

However, it only supports the latest versions of browsers. 

Source 

Talking about the operating system, it supports Windows, Android, Linux, Mac OS X when using any of these browsers. 

Here, it is worth noting that WebRTC has not yet supported iOS Safari. 

How does Zujo Now help you solve these challenges easily? 

First of all, Zujo Now is a WebRTC-based real-time communication platform that aims to take the capabilities of WebRTC to the next level by filling the existing gaps. `

With Zujo Now, you can solve all challenges WebRTC just failed to decode. 

• Video Quality vs Zujo Now 

Like WebRTC, Zujo Now supports videos in all resolutions. 

However, unlike WebRTC, it supports adaptive video calling or dynamic video configuration based on the internet speed of the team members having a video conference. 

Zujo Now facilitates developers to build a video chat application that downgrades the resolution of the video or prioritizes audio over video when the internet speed of the team members falls – rather than directly showing them a ‘poor connection’ error. 

• Bandwidth Consumption vs Zujo Now 

We’ve engineered Zujo Now with an underlying goal – low bandwidth consumption – and we’ve achieved it! 

Thanks to this following mechanism, Zujo Now consumes around 50% less bandwidth than WebRTC. 

As described in the above image, when a new team member joins a video conference, Zujo Now decreases the video resolution and keeps the bandwidth consumption unchanged. 

However, to not downgrade the video quality below a certain limit, Zujo Now makes smart decisions and plays brilliantly between bandwidth consumption and video quality. 

• Device Support vs Zujo Now 

We all know that the major drawback of the WebRTC is that it does not support iOS Safari. 

Talking about Zujo Now, it supports all popular app browsers and operating systems including iOS Safari. 

As if this is not enough, it is equipped with the native capability to change the aspect ratio of video based on the number of participants. (WebRTC lacks similar capability, natively.) 

Explore More About Zujo Now: FAQs

1. What are the APIs Zujo Now provides? 

Zujo Now provides APIs for real-time video and audio calls, video transcoding and storage, and real-time video streaming.

2. Can Zujo Now be integrated into the iOS application? 

Yes, iOS is the supported platform of Zujo Now. 

3. Does Zujo Now provide documentation and tutorials? 

Comprehensive documentation and tutorials with easy terminologies are available for free for anyone. 

4. For which purposes I can utilize Zujo Now? 

Major use cases of Zujo Now are enterprise and team communication, sales and customer support calls, anonymous communication, live streaming of gaming, student and teacher communication, etc.