Confidence Feed: Skype and WebRTC

Confidence Feed: Our take on the latest industry trends, and what's new at Comrex.

When Microsoft purchased Skype this August for 8.5 billion dollars, we at Comrex assumed that Skype would be gone for good, wrapped into Windows Live Messenger or some other proprietary Microsoft software.

However, it looks as though our cynicism was a bit pre-emptive. Microsoft has announced that it intends to integrate Skype with WebRTC, including a commitment to integrate WebRTC into Internet Explorer. This isn’t just a major deviation in Microsoft's normal our-way-or-the-highway behavior – this is a sign that Microsoft is willing to participate with open-source players in general.

Details of this integration have yet to be announced – we’re not sure in what direction Microsoft will take this after the initial beta phase. With that said, it’s good news for our customers who were missing Skype, and it potentially implies a cooperative shift in Microsoft’s attitude toward partnerships in general.

We are, of course, continuing to support WebRTC use for all of our products. WebRTC is a new feature built into modern web browsers like Chrome and Firefox that allows real-time communication right from the browser, with no software to install. With WebRTC support, Comrex ACCESS, BRIC-Link and STAC-VIP can accept calls from anyone using these browsers on the Internet, and send low delay, high fidelity audio each way using the well-regarded Opus audio algorithm.

Got questions about using WebRTC with ACCESS, BRIC-Link, or STAC VIP? Read our technote on our support page.