3 Reasons WebRTC Will Thrive in 2022

These responses from our CEO, Jerod Venema, were originally included in ToolBox.com's article, “3 Reasons WebRTC Will Thrive in 2022.”

Your customers are everywhere and they want access to your team’s capabilities everywhere as well. Employees are working remotely but need to collaborate without disruption. Your company bought everyone licenses to a video conferencing app, but people still don’t feel they’re working well together. How can organizations engage anywhere customers and remote employees who expect a “right here, right now” experience delivered wherever they are with zero disruptions or delays?

All of these things require streaming video. From education to retail to healthcare, countless industries recognize how live video can improve communication, deepen customer engagement, and deliver a great user experience everywhere—if the live video works great across platforms, locations, and devices. Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) makes all this possible, which is why the real-time communication market is expected to grow to more than $21 billion by 2025, up from about $1.7 billion in 2018.

1) Remote Work Is Here to Stay

With the number of available permanent remote jobs estimated to reach 25% of all professional jobs this year and hybrid work even more popular, labor experts say a total return to the office is unlikely. Now that remote collaboration is firmly woven into our work, every company wants better connection, networking, and communication through video conferencing.

The trouble is, there isn’t a clear winner on which video conferencing app is the best. More than 1 in 4 video conferencing users say their video chat tool doesn’t meet their needs. After years of using Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and other meeting apps, we’ve all gotten used to the status quo of video conferencing—but that doesn’t mean we like it. The first company to truly crack the code on great remote collaboration will become a household name. Instead, we keep getting minuscule improvements like virtual backgrounds and selective muting.

The flexible potential of WebRTC will enable a better way, and many innovative companies are already pushing what’s possible with remote interaction. For example, No Small Magic’s Showboat can create a shared 3D space for virtual town halls. Coworkers can walk around the virtual environment, find a friend’s avatar, and talk to only them before the town hall begins. It’s not a perfect substitute for in-person connection, but it’s an essential step in the right direction –  making our virtual interactions more natural.  

2) User Experience Is the Key to Success

WebRTC allows developers to integrate live video chat inside all kinds of apps and web browsers. We’re all tired of having four different chat apps for various calendar appointments, whether for work or play. No one wants to have to download an entirely new application simply to speak with someone. This means a doctor answering a patient’s question in MyChart wouldn’t need to send a link to a Zoom meeting. Instead, they could open a video chat inside the existing application. We work with a public safety client to add live video to 911 calls by having their dispatchers send a video link via text, which will improve emergency information gathering and empathetic connection to people in a crisis.

By integrating live video chat inside your existing app, you can streamline and enrich your user experience. Thus, your customers are engaged in your curated experience without having to context switch into a dedicated video application. This networking innovation simplifies things by enabling this instant connection without requiring downloads or customization steps.

3) Video Is the Future

Beyond video conferencing applications, real-time communication has a pivotal role in building the metaverse. The open-source and cross-platform versatility makes it ideal for the kind of bottom-up creativity that will define the metaverse. In addition, inherent security and the ability to adapt to changing network conditions have made it a popular choice among AR and VR developers. In short, a bright future awaits as the metaverse grows in popularity.

WebRTC developers are just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible with interactive video. This goes beyond interactive whiteboards and in-meeting collaboration tools. In 2022 there are organizations using this networking tool to verify identities for remote banking and create detailed VR workspaces. Other organizations measure volume spikes and facial data to analyze how people are emotionally responding to a video conference.

We all long for better human connection, and we know we can do better than the video streaming status quo. WebRTC makes that better connection possible with versatile integration and a more engaging experience. By fitting video into the work we want to do, enterprises can engage their target audiences without disruption. The result is the video-powered, connected future we want—not just another clunky meeting application.