Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) was released in 2011 and is a free HTML5 specification that is used to implement real-time communication for browsers and mobile applications. It’s open-sourced and its source code is available for free at webrtc.org. WebRTC is a collection of communication protocols, application programming interfaces (APIs), enabling voice calling, video chat, and peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing without the need of third party software however it's still developing and its standards are changing. For this to be possible without this technology, a collection of framework and libraries dealing with typical issues like data loss, connection dropping, and NAT traversal. This is all built into the browser with WebRTC which gives this technology a lot of potential.
WebRTC fills a critical gap in the web platform, where previously, a native proprietary app like Skype could do something the web couldn’t. WebRTC provides a solution where a web of connected WebRTC devices can communicate in real time just by loading a web page.
WebRTC was created to build the key APIs for realtime communication into the web, to make an amazing media stack in Chrome so that developers can build great experiences, and to use this network of connected WebRTC devices to create a new communication ecosystem.
Right now, a single application can be built with WebRTC that connects Chrome, Chrome for Android, Firefox, and Opera. Back in May 2013, Firefox 22 went to beta, which means it was the very first WebRTC enabled version of Firefox. Below is a table containing all browsers currently supporting WebRTC as of December 2017.
| Paltform | Browser |
|---|---|
| Desktop PC |
Microsoft Edge |
| Google Chrome |
|
| Mozilla Firefox 22 |
|
| Safari 11 |
|
| Opera 18 |
|
| Vivaldi 1.9 |
|
| Android |
Google Chrome 28 |
| Mozilla Firefox 24 |
|
| Opera Mobile 12 |
|
| Chrome OS |
|
| Firefox OS |
|
| Blackberry 10 |
|
| iOS 11 |
Mobile Safari/WebKit |
| Tizen 3.0 |