Our latest WebRTC code sample now works in Android Chrome browser too effectively enabling cross-platform video calling from one codebase.

Note that you can still connect iOS users via our native video calling SDK which is fully compatibly with WebRTC.

Video calling is now becoming truly cross-platform thanks to emerging WebRTC technology.

QuickBlox has brought easy “drag’n’drop” video calling to iOS in early 2013 and to Android later same year. iOS and Android video calling libraries in QuickBlox were made compatible with each other allowing users of two most popular mobile platforms to call each other as seen in Skype, Facetime etc. In addition to Chat, Push Notifications and other APIs of QuickBlox it allowed thousands of our users to seamlessly connect their user base and enable multi-channel communication in their mobile apps.

Integrating video calls into web or desktop apps however has always been challenging. Existing SDKs and libraries were mainly represented with buggy and cumbersome solutions typically powered by Flash Media Server. Good reliable code samples were literally not existent and obviously Apple deciding not to support Flash made this solution totally incompatible with iOS devices.
We know from lots of clients requests this has been a pain and solutions from other vendors didn’t really work too.

WebRTC, backed by Google, W3C and many others, is a technology that is designed to resolve that and enable cross-platform video chat, voice calling and p2p file transfer without.

It is now several months that QuickBlox team has worked on integrating WebRTC into our core products. We have successfully managed to integrate the technology and effectively enable truly CROSS PLATFORM communication, now with video calling support added for Web / Desktop clients too.

I therefore wanted to provide a general update on the current progress with our WebRTC powered implementations and provide the latest actual links for developers to use.

Web (Javascript) SDK WebRTC code sample
Use this to add video calling support to any web and desktop clients.

• Code sample documentation: http://quickblox.com/developers/Sample-videochat-web
• Code sample git source: https://github.com/QuickBlox/sample-webrtc-web/

Web Chat/IM widget with WebRTC video calling
Use this when you need to add a complete chat room supporting Facebook login, ‘now typing’, user profiles, group and 1:1 (private) chats, emoticons etc. This works via iframe and can be easily inserted into a ready HTML page or a website sidebar. Also compatible with WordPress CMS through a special plugin.

• Documentation page: http://quickblox.com/developers/XMPP_Chat_Sample
• WordPress plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/quickblox-chat-room/

iOS WebRTC code sample
Use this to add video calling support to iPod / iPhone / iPad apps.

[in progress, publishing the stable release link in few days]

Android WebRTC code sample
Use this to add video calling support to Android apps.

[in progress, publishing the stable release link in few days]

Out-of-the box messenger app (‘WhatsApp’ / ‘Skype’ style) code sample

Aside from WebRTC implementations, following our users’ requests and demands, last 6 months we have been working on a new generation of code samples where all the essential bits are implemented, from instant messaging / video calling / push notifications down to smaller bits and features which were not parts of our code samples previously and developers had to build them manually. Stay in touch to get updates on this coming release!

This post is going to be updated with most relevant code samples links as soon as they are released.

Today, our super talented Andrey Povelichenko finalised Quickblox’s official Javascript WebRTC SDK. You can now add high quality video and audio calling, using the native WebRTC API, to any webapp, using the same familiar Quickblox Javascript SDK.

What this means is that any user with a webcam or microphone (basically everyone) and a modern browser can initiate a video or audio call with a few clicks – no downloads, no plugins, and no flash! And it’s as simple as QB.webrtc.call . If you’re unfamiliar with WebRTC, you should check out the Google I/O presentation – it’s a very cool technology with a lot of potential. If you are familiar however, you’ll know that a bunch of servers and a pile of filler code is required to get something decent working. Well, as a communication as a service provider, Quickblox already has you covered.

Our WebRTC SDK fits right in with the Javascript SDK – so there’s no new syntax to learn. There are a few buzzwords such as “getUserMedia”, and you’re going to become pretty good friends with the HTML5 <video> element – but after that, the learning curve is small.

You can check out the full WebRTC SDK documentation here, and we invite you to create something awesome!

For any support queries, please create a ticket in our helpdesk.

Awesome news for iOS team today – QuickBlox releases iOS SDK 2.3 with a lot of Chat API updates, that mainly simplify integration and speed up apps development!

Also new iOS samples with latest Apple technologies are developed

Download iOS SDK 2.3

Main updates:

• General:
  • Removed API 1.x
• Chat:
  • Models QBAbstractMessage, QBChatMessage, QBChatHistoryMessage are merged into one model QBChatMessage
  • Now you must use QBChatDialog for all chat related operations. Previous methods are deprecated.
  • Added API to send and receive system messages: A method [[QBChat instance] sendSystemMessage:] and delegatechatDidReceiveSystemMessage:
  • Updated XMPPFramework
  • Ability to mark all chat messages as read: [QBRequest markMessagesAsRead:null dialogID:dialogID successBlock:errorBlock:]
  • Added readIds and dialogId properties to QBChatMessage model
  • TLS connection set by default now
  • Added methods to QBChatDelegate to track chat reconnection states
  • Added method to get a number on chat dialogs and messages: [QBRequest countOfDialogsWithExtendedRequest:successBlock:errorBlock:], [QBRequest countOfMessagesForDialogID:extendedRequest:successBlock:errorBlock:]
  • Added 2 delegate methods for Contact List API: chatDidReceiveAcceptContactRequestFromUser:,chatDidReceiveRejectContactRequestFromUser:
• Content:
  • Simplified API to download files from Content module. Now QBCBlob model has next methods to get an url to file: publicUrl, publicUrlForID:,privateUrl, privateUrlForID:
• Custom Objects:
  • Added aggregation API
• Users:
  • New API to update user
  • Now SDK hosts current logged in user: [QBSession currentSession].currentUser
• Messages:
  • New methods to register and unregister push notifications that take an additional argument to set device udid.
  • Now you can subscribe to push notifications just with single request: [QBRequest createSubscription:successBlock:errorBlock:]

For any support queries, please create a ticket in our helpdesk.

Good luck with your apps development!

This month is one of the hardest month for QuickBlox JS team!

We are happy to announce 3(!) new releases of Javascript SDK: 1.10.0, 1.11.0, 1.12.0.  While stability fixes are always super exciting to hear about, the stars of the show here are WebRTC and Chat.

Chat code sample

Chat module is our most popular module and we are happy to open today our brand-new Javascript Chat code sample with conversations list, message history, ‘is typing’ statuses and other cool chat features! Now you can easily build your Web application using this code sample as a basis.

Here is a link to JS chat code sample http://quickblox.com/developers/Web_XMPP_Chat_Sample
And also we have a demo application http://quickblox.github.io/quickblox-javascript-sdk/samples/chat/

WebRTC/Video calling updates

We spent a lot of time for cross-platform issues (Web<->iOS, Web<->Android) and this release contains a lot of stability fixes for cross-platform video calling.

As usual, an updated WebRTC code sample is the part of the release http://quickblox.com/developers/Sample-webrtc-web and live demo http://quickblox.github.io/quickblox-javascript-sdk/samples/webrtc/peer-to-peer/
Check the release notes of latest JS SDK updates http://quickblox.com/developers/Javascript#Framework_changelog

Download JS SDK 1.12.0

Cheers!

As you may know the Microsoft announced it is backing the Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) technology and will be supporting the ORTC API in Internet Explorer and Edge.

Today we tested our WebRTC video calling code sample on Microsoft Edge browser and it’s still far from the working solution.
quickblox.github.io/quickblox-javascript-sdk/samples/webrtc/peer-to-peer/

Here you can see the testing results:

Some good news:  Microsoft Edge now supports media capture functionality, so you can have an access to microphone and camera. Here is a blog post from Microsoft about it.

However, RTCPeerConnection is not supported and looks like Microsoft is going to follow its own way here – ORTC. And it’s not compatible with WebRTC 1.0.

So, where we are going? As we can see this is just the beginning of implementation effort in Microsoft/IE so we should sit and wait for first real results.

Keep you posted, cheers!

Today the QuickBlox Android team releases a new version of Android SDK 2.3 with chat message statuses and video calling updates

What’s new:

• WebRTC video calling:
  • Fixed the NullPointerException issue
  • Set the default values of QBRTCConfig.dialingTimeInterval to 5 and QBRTCConfig.answerTimeInterval to 60
  • Updated webrtc lib to r9813
• Chat
  • Added the ‘mobile optimisations’ – a way to save the battery life while be in inactive state.
  • Added the ping manager
  • Added the deliveredIds field to QBChatMessage model
  • Reviewed the delivered/read statuses management, added QBMessageStatusListener and QBMessageStatusesManager classes.
  • Added ‘is typing’ listener for group chat
  • Added the getDialogId to QBPrivateChat and QBGroupChat models

• Content
  • Fixed the file upload issue on some Android devices

Download Android SDK http://quickblox.com/developers/Android#Download_Android_SDK

and also check out updated Android Chat code sample and documentation http://quickblox.com/developers/Android_XMPP_Chat_Sample

Happy Android Building!

“‘getUserMedia‘ in Chrome will require HTTPS soon” – this is what we have got from the Kranky Geek mini conference in San Francisco. That was announced during Google’s WebRTC update – Chrome will no longer support getUserMedia calls from a site that’s served up over http.

The Chrome team will roll this out in Chrome 47 before the end of 2015. That means any of your sites that leverage getUserMedia will be required to be served up via the https protocol to work across all browsers.

Important @googlechrome #webrtc announcement – getUserMedia will not work with HTTP starting in Dec #webrtclive pic.twitter.com/PYJIClHbm4

— Chad Hart (@chadwallacehart) September 11, 2015

So if you want getUserMedia to work on your site, you’ll need to start serving up content via HTTPS.

Don’t forget to roll out this update before 2016.

Check out Google WebRTC team’s update

Today we announced Javascript SDK release 1.15.1

This new version has 2 main features:

• Chat Read/Delivered statuses API http://quickblox.com/developers/Web_XMPP_Chat_Sample#Delivered_status
• System Notifications API http://quickblox.com/developers/Web_XMPP_Chat_Sample#System_notifications

Download Javascript SDK 1.15.1

Cheers!

Hello all!

QuickBlox Android team is ready to present the next update of Android SDK 2.3.2.
We collected recent feedback from StackOverflow and GitHub so this is mostly stability fixes update with just a couple of new features.

What’s new:

• Features:
  • System Notifications API.
  • Ability to set ‘QBChatMessage.senderId’. Useful to send ‘read’ statuses in a case you don’t have the origin ‘QBChatMessage’ object.
• Bug fixes:
  • Fixed the ‘NullPointerException’ in ‘QBJsonErrorParser’
  • Fixed a crash when trying to delete one custom object via ‘QBCustomObjects.deleteObjects’
  • Fixed an issue with embedded arrays in CustomObjects fields.
  • Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to exchange messages between Android SDK and desktop XMPP clients like Adium or Psi
  • Fixed an issue with QBRTCClient ‘rejectCall’ method where a parameter ‘userInfo’ was never used.
  • Fixed an issue with context in ‘QBRTCClient’
  • Content: don’t print a file to log when download it.
  • Content: fixed an issue with big files upload.
  • Content: fixed an issue with ‘QBProgressCallback’ when it was producing the same progress value many times.
  • Updated ‘QBFile.lastReadAccessTime’ field’s type to ‘Date’.
  • Updated ‘QBFile.getPublicUrl’ method output to new format.
• Other:
  • QBFile: removed useless properties ‘referencesCount’ and ‘lifeTime’

Check out new version of Android SDK http://quickblox.com/developers/Android#Download_Android_SDK and updated code samples.

Cheers!

We have been busy beavers these past few months. We receive a lot of interest in our video calling product and now we have some exciting updates that we’re pleased to present to you.

The next generation of iOS WebRTC SDK is finally here! This is a huge update we ever made.
It contains a lot of cool and killer features lister below.

Release notes

1. Fixed performance issues on iPhone 4s, improved stability on multi-calls

2. Improved stability at low internet speed connection

3. Added support for H264 hardware video codec on iOS 8+

4. Added custom renderers and custom capture to send your custom frames

5. From this version you are able to configure:

Video

• Quality, pixel format, frames per second (FPS) and bandwidth
• Choose whether to use VP8 or H264 video codec

Audio

• Quality and bandwidth
• Choose Opus, ISAC or iLBC audio codec

6. Sample-video-chat rearchitecture

7. Removed local video track

8. Added remote video track (see QBRTCRemoteVideoView)

9. Full support of AVCaptureSession

10. Improved performance in rendering local video track

How to get it

To install QuickBlox iOS WebRTC framework using CocoaPods – you should just add following line in your Podfile:

pod 'Quickblox-WebRTC'

Or check out iOS WebRTC code sample from the iOS WebRCT SDK documentation page: Download iOS WebRTC code sample

We hope you love it! Please share your feedback with us – get in touch with our support team and post a quickblox tagged question on StackOverflow.

Great news

Out Javascript developers are ready to present next version of SDK – 1.16.0

What’s new:

• Chat:
  • added onReconnectListener and onDisconnectedListener listeners to manage connection states
  • wrapped up all chat callbacks into try/catch
  • added the read/delivered message statuses to chat sample
  • moved chat sample notifications to System Notifications API
  • added API to get unread messages count: QB.chat.message.unreadCount(params, callback)
  • force message deletion API
  • delete multiple dialogs in a single query API
  • fixed an issue with QB.chat.dialog.delete method. Now in a case of error it returns object instead of string.
• WebRTC Video calling:
  • Got rid of MediaStream.stop() warning
• Users:
  • Twitter Digits integration
• Other:
  • Simplified custom endpoints setup via config
  • Removed ssl config. From now there is no way to use unsecure connection.
  • Renamed ‘Messages’ to ‘Push Notifications’ module.
  • Reviewed Users, Content tests
  • Removed s3Bucket and turn settings from config

Download new version on developers section

We also have opened our tests so now everybody can run it http://quickblox.com/developers/Javascript#Test_API:_Spec_Runner   

Cheers!

Hi friends,

we are happy to inform you that Android WebRTC Group video calling is finally here!
A lot of developers wanted it so now it’s finally released with QuickBlox Android SDK 2.4.

Now it’s possible to have a video chat with many people at one time!

Updated Android Video chat code sample is available in QuickBlox Android developers section.
We also rewrote and cleanup a bit the documentation page so now it should be clearer for you to start with Android integration.

To summarise, now you can use the Group Video calling feature across almost all of QuickBlox SDKs:

• iOS WebRTC Group video calling sample
• Android WebRTC Group video calling code sample
• Web – in Beta now, expect to have it by the end of the year.

Happy coding with QuickBlox!

Thanks everybody for your interest in the QuickBlox Video Chat SDK.

We’re happy to announce our next generation of Javascript SDK with WebRTC group video calling!

Now you can connect multiple users in a video chat in your Web applications.

The video service offered via the QuickBlox SDKs is built on top of the modern Web technology  – WebRTC. It’s mission is to enable rich, high-quality RTC applications to be developed for the browser and mobile platforms.

Updated Web Video chat code sample is available in QuickBlox Web developers section. Check it out!

We also have a live demo – https://quickblox.github.io/quickblox-javascript-sdk/samples/webrtc

The team also rewrote and completely cleanup the video chat documentation page so now it should be clearer for you to start with integration.

Connect Javascript SDK 2.0

To summarise, now you can use the Group Video calling feature across ALL platforms:

• iOS WebRTC Group video calling sample
• Android WebRTC Group video calling code sample
• Web WebRTC Group video calling code sample

Now it’s time for hacking!

QuickBlox team releases a new version of iOS Video Chat WebRTC SDK 2.2 with Bluetooth support.

So now you can easily use Bluetooth in a video chat. Also, the routing policy has been updated. Now a headset has the highest priority, then Bluetooth, then speaker/receiver.

Full changelog:

• WebRTC r 11951
• Fixed Video capture session restoring after background if H264 was used.
• Added Bluetooth support in QBRTCSoundRouter.
• QBRTCSoundRouter has been rearchitectured.
• We improved the speed of switching between Speaker/Receiver/Headset/Bluetooth devices.
• QBRTCSoundRouter automatically switches to a headset or Bluetooth device if available.
• A headset has the highest priority, then Bluetooth, then speaker/receiver.

More info on iOS WebRTC Video Chat code sample page

Hi everybody,

today we would like to present the new update of Q-municate Web 1.3 – the open-source, cross-platform video calling and instant messaging app from Quickblox!

What’s new:

• Audio/video calls (we use WebRTC)
• Local notifications in browser for incoming calls
• Full-screen mode for Audio/Video calls (Fullscreen API)
• Advanced scroll in chat
• New URL format for attachments

Don’t be shy and try it out https://qm.quickblox.com

You can find latest source code here https://github.com/QuickBlox/q-municate-web

Cheers!

QuickBlox iOS and Android teams release minor updates of SDK:

• Android SDK 2.5.2
• iOS SDK 2.7.1, 2.7.2

These releases are mostly about stability and cross-platform compatibility, with just a small set of new features

Check out changelogs:

• Android changelog: https://quickblox.com/developers/Android#Framework_changelog
• iOS changelog: https://quickblox.com/developers/IOS#Framework_changelog

We always recommend use latest updates from QuickBlox

Need help? – get in touch with our support team and post a quickblox tagged question on StackOverflow.
Or you also can use GitHub issues page.

Good luck!

We’re very excited to share that QuicBlox today announces Apache Cordova/PhoneGap support.
With this new solution, developers using PhoneGap to build mobile applications can now save themselves the time of building the messaging and video calling applications.

The PhoneGap platform enables web developers of all backgrounds to break into mobile development.

To use the integrated solution, a PhoneGap developer simply downloads the QuickBlox standard JavaScript library (it’s one single(!) library for Web, node.js and PhoneGap), drops it into their app, and focuses on the frontend, creative aspects of development.

We prepared 2 code samples for you – Chat and Video Calling (based on WebRTC), you can download them here. They all are based on our Web samples, with minimal modifications for PhoneGap environment. And it’s all cross-platform, so these samples work well with our native iOS/Android/Web samples/API.

Currently supported PhoneGap platforms are:

• Browser
• iOS
• Android

Start your integration today and let us know how it works!

Need help? – get in touch with our support team and post a quickblox tagged question on StackOverflow.
Or you also can use GitHub issues page.

Cheers!

Hi everybody,

we are happy to announce new video calling WebRTC code samples for iOS, Android and Javascript!

We have changed the way how users enter video chat, so now there is no predefined list of users, you just need to enter room name and all users within the same room name will be connected. Easy!

You can download and check new samples here:

• iOS http://quickblox.com/developers/Sample-webrtc-ios
• Android http://quickblox.com/developers/Sample-webrtc-android
• Javascript http://quickblox.com/developers/Sample-webrtc-web

Also, new SDKs were released along with new samples:

Android SDK 2.6.1

WebRTC calls functionality:

• Improved WebRTC calls performance and simplified interface.
• added calling all callbacks on UI main thread.
• added features – settings fps, changing frame resolution during call, switching between hardware/software AEC, ability to disable audio processing: AEC, noise suppression etc, ability to enable/disable using OpenSL ES for audio playback.
• added QBRTCSurfaceView to render video frames with ability to use and overlapping multiple views on a screen layout.
• small bug fixes.

Chat functionality:

• Added ability to enable/disable TLS mechanism in chat via QBChatService.ConfigurationBuilder.
• Added ability to set custom SSL context in chat via QBChatService.ConfigurationBuilder.

Content functionality:

• Fixed SignatureDoesNotMatch exception while uploading file
• Adopt file upload method to work with different files storages.

Others:

• Reworked building sdk modules and setup sdk dependencies to your project via gradle.

Download it here: http://quickblox.com/developers/Android#Download_Android_SDK

Javascript SDK 2.2.1

New:

• QB.webrtc.getMediaDevices return all devices (video/audio inputs);
• Added a parameter to listener onCallStatsReport (session, userId, stats, error);
• Set statsReportTimeInterval is false by default;
• Added a new type of login to WebRTC sample.

Updated:

• Changed the source folder name from ‘js’ to ‘src';
• Changed bootstrap version (4.0.0);

Download it here: http://quickblox.com/developers/Javascript#Connect_JavaScript_SDK_to_Web_and_Node.js_applications

Stay with QuickBlox to receive more updates soon!
Cheers!

Hi everybody,
We are happy to inform that we’ve made a release of the QuickBlox Javascript SDK 2.4.0!

The main feature in this release is an ability to record video stream (webcam and audio) in video chat. You can simply record you stream or stream of your opponents and the save it to some file and then store on the server.

We have prepared a guide how to work with Recorder API  – https://quickblox.com/developers/Sample-webrtc-web#Recording_a_stream

Also, Video Chat code sample is updated.

Other features in this release:

• Chat Stream Management. This feature defines an approach for ensuring that message was delivered to server (aka ‘sent’ status).
• New build tool (Gulp instead of Grunt).
• Removed unminified (quickblox.js) version of library. Uses source maps (npm run develop) for debugging.

Read full changelog: https://github.com/QuickBlox/quickblox-javascript-sdk/releases/tag/2.4.0

Cheers!