TokBox Goes Mobile

By Jeff Peel, November 20, 2013

We pondered the question in yesterday’s post about how the mobile world might adjust itself to the dawning of the age of WebRTC. It would seem unlikely (but not impossible) that RTC-enabled browsers might define the peer-to-peer real-time comms action between mobiles. But that scenario is unrealistic. With WebRTC there’s the real prospect that OTT apps vendors will want to steal the thunder of the telcos and offer voice and audio communications. Such an experience is likely to be richer than browser-to-browser. Over time there’s a real prospect that the lion’s share of communications might be carried as a result of RTC-enabled calls than ‘traditional’ calls. Over time the mobile OSs will be augmented to help with this process.

A few companies are beginning to jostle for position to provide toolkits for apps vendors to make the process of WebRTC just that bit easier.

Yesterday TokBox announced that it would be adding support for Android into its OpenTok platform for mobile.  This will allow a host of Android app developers to add WebRTC real-time audio and video chat to their apps. Therefore, expect apps that support social interaction via mobile to suddenly have real-time communications features.

It’s early days, of course, and Apple is continuing to be a bit sniffy about the whole WebRTC phenomenon. That’s understandable given Apple’s own development efforts around its own messaging platforms. But with Android apps possibly stealing a march on Apple there is likely to be flux in the market. TokBox – now part of Telefonica Digital – is stirring things up nicely.