WebRTC will change the way we communicate with each other, not only for desktop browsers, but for mobile applications as well.

Although, Apple currently does not support WebRTC, there might be ways to use WebRTC on iDevices.

However, the situation on Android phones is much better: Both, Chrome Mobile and Firefox Mobile, already offer experimental support for WebRTC. Although palava is not yet optimized for mobile platforms, it is already working!

Here is how it is done in Chrome and Firefox, using a Galaxy S3. Please note that this far from stable!

Activate WebRTC support in Chrome for Mobile

You can use Chrome to test your device’s WebRTC capabilities. If it is not yet installed, you will need to get it from the Google Play store. Tap the Chrome icon to get started.

Go to about:flags

Now type about:flags in your address bar.

Scroll down to “Enable WebRTC” and enable it

You will see a huge list of experimental settings. Scroll down to WebRTC and tap on “Enable”.

Test it on a website that supports WebRTC

That’s it! After you have restarted Chrome, you can test the WebRTC functionality on palava. Go to palava.tv/test to join a test conference.

Last step is to allow access to your device’s media then you are in the channel. Send the link to others to invite them to the conference.

Try Firefox Aurora for Mobile with WebRTC support

Firefox has no built-in support for WebRTC, yet. You have to install a preview version called Aurora from the Mozilla website. Eventually, WebRTC will be supported in Firefox Beta, which is directly installable from the Google Play store.

Activate the “Unknown sources” setting

You have to activate the “Unknown sources” setting in order to install the Firefox preview version (Aurora). Go to “Settings” application of your phone and make sure that it is allowed to install apps that are not available in the Play store.

Read the warning and confirm it.

Download Aurora from the Mozilla website

Now, navigate to the Mozilla Aurora website in your phone’s web browser.

Tap the download button and wait for it to finish. Depending on the browser you are using to download Aurora, you have to start the installation process differently. In Firefox Mobile you can simply open the notification area (swipe down the top bar), wait for the download to finish and tap the notification to start the installation.

Install Aurora

Start installation as shown on the screenshots.

After installation has finished, start Aurora.

Go to about:config

Type about:config in the address bar.

Toggle media.peerconnection.enabled to true

Enter peerconnection in the search dialog. Then scroll down to media.peerconnection.enabled and toggle it to true.

Test it on a website that supports WebRTC

That’s it! You can now test the WebRTC functionality on palava. Go to palava.tv/test to join a test conference.

Last step is to allow access to your device’s media then you are in the channel. It currently looks odd, but this will hopefully be fixed soon. Send the link to others to invite them to the conference.

Optional: Deactivate the “Unknown sources” setting (step 1) for security reasons

More Platforms

This guide focuses on Android, but we are curios to see more mobile platforms support WebRTC. For questions, hints, and bug reports please drop us a line at contact@palava.tv.

Jan Lelis (palava.tv)