During the recent pandemic, many aspects of what is considered normal working conditions and requirements have changed; seeing in person became less frequent, going to the office became optional (or did not exist at all), and having an option to work completely remotely became a must, at least for all jobs where this is possible. The new situation has greatly increased the development and demand for various software technologies that support remote working. The most important of these is web technology for real-time communication, where once again WebRTC comes into the spotlight.
Rising to the top
Before the 2020-2021 pandemic, WebRTC had been increasing in popularity, but the pace of increase was moderate as real-time communication web technologies slowly made their way into more and more aspects of modern industry. After the outbreak of the pandemic, demand and popularity increased so dramatically that suddenly everyone felt the need to either use WebRTC-based software or create one. Some industries, such as education and healthcare, became so dependent on remote communication that their day-to-day life would not be possible without the use of WebRTC-based software. According to Transparency Market Research Inc, this demand for WebRTC made the value of the global WebRTC market stand at $4.3 billion in 2021 with the forecast of reaching $87.8 billion by 2031. This unbelievable leap in popularity has only strengthened WebRTC and its development, enlarged the WebRTC community, and helped solving some of the problems WebRTC has faced in the past, thus leaving the possibility of even more use cases being covered and quality solutions being developed in the future.
Connecting the business world
As the world of the “new normal” emerged, WebRTC-based software has reached almost every corner of human life. The business world has also been affected by this change, meaning that without WebRTC, almost every modern business would mostly not be possible.
General communication
Most people don’t even realize it, but they’ve been using WebRTC almost every day, using their favorite communication app(s). Google Meet/Hangouts/Duo, Microsoft Teams, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Discord, and WhatsApp are just a few examples of apps that utilize WebRTC under the hood. It is estimated that over 1.5 billion of weekly audio/video minutes are streamed via WebRTC-based apps, and that’s just using Google Chrome. Knowing that WebRTC is also supported on Firefox, Edge, Safari, and many mobile browsers, one can only conclude that everyday general communication via WebRTC is already massive and only increasing.
Educations
According to UNESCO, 80% of students worldwide were affected by the closure of educational institutions during the pandemic. This meant that the entire education sector suddenly had to go online and rely entirely on online communication tools such as WebRTC-based ones. This was a huge challenge, but also a great opportunity for WebRTC, as it further increased its importance in people’s lives, but also introduced some new possibilities in education in general. From remote tutoring and virtual classrooms, to entire learning management systems, new learning methods were created or popularised, which even after the pandemic gave distance learners a way to acquire the knowledge they had not known before.
Healthcare
Needless to say, the healthcare industry faced some serious challenges during the recent pandemic, and going remote was essential. Thankfully, telemedicine was already growing rapidly, which only gave it a further push in its development. Today, healthcare isn’t even imaginable without telemedicine, and WebRTC-based solutions found their usage here, as their accessibility, scalability, and ease of use are a perfect fit for this industry. Some of the examples where telemedicine is nowadays used with the help of WebRTC-based tools include lifelong remote proctoring by doctors in remote locations, helping people in hard-to-reach places (e.g. on islands and low-populated areas), and remote coaching/learning for medical students.
Entertainment
When the pandemic broke out and people were forced to stay indoors, entertainment platforms became an important aspect of many people’s lives. Many WebRTC-based platforms such as Discord and YouTube (for live streaming) helped fill that need, as it allowed people to stay connected and enjoy their free time. Going further, WebRTC is also finding its use in the gaming industry, as creating real-time web-based games on one hand, and the creation of live streaming platforms on the other both represent an important field in the modern gaming world.
WebRTC is better than its competitors
As WebRTC establishes itself as the absolute leader in the field of real-time communication web technologies, it is important to note that all this popularity and success did not come undeserved. WebRTC has been competing with its competitors (such as other free/paid RTC solutions as well as traditional VoIP technologies) for many years in the recent past, but it ultimately got to the top due to many of its advantages that others have yet to match. The list of key advantages includes the following:
It is open source
Maybe a key advantage of WebRTC is its license – open source and free to use. This fact alone has encouraged many developers to try it out, building the WebRTC community in the process and making it easier for new developers (and users) to find any answers they might have struggled with. Alongside that, being open source and accepted by many experts resulted in WebRTC being standardized by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), as well as supported by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and their web browsers and native platforms.
It is easy to develop and use
Due to its predefined and well-documented APIs, WebRTC is as easy as it gets when it comes to developing a real-time communication platform, which developers appreciate. On the other hand, users of WebRTC apps find them easy to use, as they do not need to download and install any additional software. All of this is possible thanks to the fact that WebRTC is supported by all major modern web browsers and mobile operating systems. How are we using it? Check out in our previous blog posts How to build a reliable and secure WebRTC solution with native API and Building a modern and secure WebRTC solution with Microsoft SignalR and Angular.
It is efficient and secure
The final and (according to some experts) most important advantage is its efficiency and security which comes out-of-the-box, that other WebRTC alternatives just do not deliver. Its efficiency can be seen in its implementation of an auto-quality algorithm (to deliver the highest quality audio/video stream), its support for different codecs and media parameters, its adaptability to poor network conditions, and its overall reliability that the media connection will work (or make it easy to understand why it does not work). In terms of security, WebRTC uses SCTP – Stream Control Transport Protocol – and SRTP – Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol to ensure audio/video secure encryption in all stages of the media connection lifetime.
What does the future hold for WebRTC?
Even though none of us can predict the future, I think it is safe to say that the future of WebRTC, as it currently stands, looks bright. From a development point of view, WebRTC will surely only grow and more APIs will be implemented making it easier for developers to support even the most challenging features (such as real-time communication under extreme network conditions, 4K streaming, extremely large conference calls, and similar). From the business usage point of view, WebRTC will most likely spread to even more different industries, solving real-life challenges along the way, ultimately doing what has been its main purpose from the very start – making life easier through real-time communication!
