News from Industry

The features this week include: the addition of profile logging, functionality, and default configurations for mod_amqp and display update support for Panasonic devices in mod_sofia. Join us Wednesdays at 12:00 CT for some more FreeSWITCH fun! This week we are talking about 3D printing! And, head over to freeswitch.com to learn more about FreeSWITCH support.

New features that were added:

• FS-8728 [mod_amqp] Adding logging profile and functionality and added default configurations
• FS-8735 [mod_sofia] Display update support for Panasonic devices

The following bugs were squashed:

• FS-8719 [mod_conference] Fixed a segfault caused by building without video support, but specifying video_mute_png variable for a conference member
• FS-8720 [core] Fixed a segmentation fault when switch_channel_str2cause is called
• FS-8731 [core] Fixed a crash when leg-b invite video in voice call
• FS-8734 [core] Cleaned up video jitter buffer by adding some formatting to the debugging logs so the text jumps around less and fixing sequence number rollover code to handle rollover better.
• FS-8713 [core] Fixed a crash on bad video rtp stream by pushing a patch to make the sizes match. This was the original intention since we want to preserve the packet as-is while in the jitter buffer
• FS-8736 [spandsp] Fixed missing MEMMOVE macro in spandsp autoconf
• FS-8721 [core] Fixed an eavesdrop memory leak caused by moving bug_remove_all after destroy where it’s more than safe to kill bugs indiscriminately
• FS-8673 [core] Fixed a core dump on playback after “Decode Codec is not initialized!” log message

Interesting how vendors define themselves.

Oftentimes, when you ask companies to define themselves, you get a complete shopping list. The end result is that you are left without an answer that you can use. Enter Twitter, with its razor sharp 140 character descriptions of the account.

Here’s what the WebRTC PaaS vendors I covered in my report (that weren’t taken off market) and how they define themselves:

#Cloud #Communications #WebRTC #API Start building on https://developers.apidaze.io Makers of @ottspott_co. Happy New YearApizee is a provider of real-time communications on webFollow us for mobile app development news, hackathons & events. Check out our community link below. For questions about your device tweet our experts @ATTCaresPlatform as a service and free APIs, SDKs to integrate text, audio, video chat, web conferencing and more into your websites and applications.Bit6 revolutionizes how developers integrate communications into their mobile & web applications. Download beta SDK for iOS now!WebRTC pioneer, real-time communication for mobile & web, customer & workforce contextual collaboration, in-app video & live assistance, visual self-serviceUnify delivers world leading collaboration & unified comms solutions. Talk to us about #NewWayToWork #NW2W #futureofwork Tweets by Sally ^SH & Jett ^JMMaking the future of digital communications services happen. #Mobile #Messaging #Telecom #Cloud #IoT #WebRTC #SS7 #Monetizing #MessagingSecurityPowerful, Intuitive #RealTimeCommunications for an all IP-World #WebRTC #OTT #mobile #cloud #KandyMobile #Disruptor50OnSIP is a leading provider of real-time communications services for businessesThe SDK that has everyone talking. Grab yours at http://developer.oovoo.com . Now with in-call messaging and filters too!Communications for Internet of Apps. Open, cloud based video, voice, data communications for enterprise, social, consumer apps across #WebRTC and mobile.Plivo is a Cloud API Platform and a Global Carrier Services Provider for Voice Calls and SMS. Sign up for a free trial today.Add video, voice, and messaging features to your app in minutes with #respokeShow What You See! Deliver a better experience by adding real-time interactions to your web or mobile app. #CX, #FieldService #Telehealth, #CustServ & moreUse the Sinch APIs to enhance your app with Voice, SMS, Verification, Video, and Instant Messaging.Skylink – WebRTC, audio, video, embeddable real-time communication.TokBox,a @tefdigital company, operates the #OpenTok Platform, making it quick and easy to integrate real- time communications into your websites and mobile appsTropo, now part of Cisco, is a cloud communications API that makes it easy to build voice & text messaging apps. Completely free to try, pay-as-you-grow pricingChanging communications forever by empowering software people to build the future of our modern communications apps. For support: @TwilioHelpCloud platform for real-time communication app development

A few interesting observations:

• Some don’t have an API specific Twitter account – rather a corporate wide account. This makes it hard for developers to understand they have an existing offering for developers
• Some explain their position in the organization and not what they do, which is somewhat sad
• Some definitely are pivoting

As these vendors are in the same place, there’s obviously a lot of shared use of words. I’ve taken the Twitter definitions above, removed unique words and placed them in a tag cloud – the bigger the word – the more appearances in makes:

Community is the derivation of communications, which makes a lot of appearances.

Most focus on Mobile.

To be expected.

WebRTC was less popular in the description. Refreshing and interesting.

Messaging isn’t high on the agenda of most platforms.

Some suggestions to the vendors are in order:

1. If you are a service within a larger organization, make sure to have a Twitter account dedicated to developers
2. Focus on the developer who reads the description and needs to understand what you can do for them, and not who you are within the company
3. Bring the same clarity that Twitter description forces you to all your marketing collateral

 

Planning on introducing WebRTC to your existing service? Schedule your free strategy session with me now.

The post WebRTC PaaS Vendors as Twitter One-Liners appeared first on BlogGeek.me.

2016 will be the year of video!

I heard that in 2005 I think. And then 2006. And then in almost every following year.

I used to work in a video conferencing company. So it really mattered.

When video did happen… it happened outside of the domain of enterprise video conferencing systems. And it continues to grow predominantly there.

But the thing is – video still is minuscule. Voice isn’t that interesting or important as it used to be either.

If I had to chart the use of our basic communications options these days, it would probably look like this:

I’d also say that the only reason video is almost as big as voice is due to WebRTC and the passing of time – It is easier today than ever before to implement and add video chat capabilities anywhere. And there are people who tend to do video calls instead of voice ones – because they can, but not because video is that critical, mystical part we’re often led to believe.

Video definitely has its place in the world and is extremely useful. I do most of my own business through video calling with clients all over the world. Most of them have never met me in person and are still happy to work with me. With voice, it would be slightly harder to achieve.

What ticked me to this topic was a piece on Ars Technica about the adoption percentage of IPv6 in 20 years (hint: the smallest 2 digit number). While the two things are different, video hasn’t fared much better and has been around for even longer.

Video will be a slow process, but the end result will never be the pervasiveness of voice or the current ubiquity and growth of messaging in all of its forms.

You still waiting for video to happen?

Planning on introducing WebRTC to your existing service? Schedule your free strategy session with me now.

Test and Monitor your WebRTC Service like a pro - check out how testRTC can improve your service' stability and performance.

The post 20XX will be the Year of Video! Not… and how is this related to IPv6? appeared first on BlogGeek.me.

The FreeSWITCH 1.6.6 release is here! This is a routine maintenance and security release and the resources are located here:

Release files are located here:

• Tarball: http://files.freeswitch.org/releases/freeswitch/freeswitch-1.6.6.tar.gz
• Packaging: https://freeswitch.org/confluence/display/FREESWITCH/Installation (Please Note the updated location for 1.6 packages)

New features that were added:

• FS-8401 [verto_communicator] Added Speaker selection in settings model and video page and fixed model to modal
• FS-8545 [verto_communicator] Improve controls for screen share, fixed a read lock regression, do not allow video floor on a member with a reservation id set, and add missing code to deal with screen share part
• FS-8616 [verto_communicator] A new menu for moderator, added gain buttons, and removed the 3-dot-button, moving its behavior to member-name div
• FS-8264 [verto_communicator][verto] Adapted the layout select to new response, added a separated menu in members list to set its reservation id, and added all the reservation IDs in the return of “list-videoLayouts” command
• FS-8293 [verto][mod_conference] Made sanity level based on 1080p and added a video-quality conference profile parameter for specifying the motion factor when calculating video bitrate, defaulting to 1.
• FS-8595 [mod_conference] Improve auto bitrate in personal canvas mode and do not let auto bitrate exceed native picture size
• FS-8543 [mod_conference] Improve mute handling on conference and WebRTC
• FS-8546 [mod_conference][mod_verto] Make original video demo backward compatible with livearray-json-status
• FS-8529 [mod_conference] Added video-floor to personal canvas mode
• FS-8549 [mod_http_cache] Add support for AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variables in S3 profiles
• FS-8547 [core] Add error log into stats to log when quality impacting events begin and end
• FS-8568 [core] Allow building using system OpenSSL without EC support
• FS-8632 [core] Add origination_audio_mode originate variable with options for sendonly, recvonly or sendrecv
• FS-8559 [mod_shout] Add “mpga” to the list of supported extensions
• FS-8433 [mod_sofia] Allow hangup cause to be set inside redirect data

Improvements in build system, cross platform support, and packaging:

• FS-8592 [Windows] Fixed some simple compiler errors
• FS-8333 [build][Debian] Added mod_hiredis.deb
• FS-8152 [Debian] Make sure to package the image directories too
• FS-8576 [Debian] Fixed a package upgrade issue related to the fonts being installed in multiple packages
• FS-8723 [Debian] Adding a file extension to the package build logs
• FS-8614 [verto_communicator] Add Debian developers install script and update README.md to reference it
• FS-8578 [mod_verto] Fixed build error for missing __bswap_64 on osx
• FS-8293 [verto] Add quality level 0 to conference (default is 1) and fix some logic in auto bandwidth

The following bugs were squashed:

• FS-8537 [mod_lua] Fixed a segfault caused by passing nil to various lua functions
• FS-8527 [mod_conference] Do not send the video of last_video_floor_holder to video_floor_holder if the videos are related
• FS-8569 [mod_conference] Fixed undefined symbol conference_cdr_test_mflag
• FS-8574 [mod_conference] Fixed a read write lock issue
• FS-8053 [mod_conference][mod_sofia] Fix for WebRTC’s SDP containing a=sendonly for video, but the client still receiving the video stream
• FS-8589 [mod_conference] Fixed using conference playback with full-screen=true not working correctly
• FS-8354 [mod_conference] Fixed G722 audio issues with mod_conference caused by previous commit fab43547
• FS-8602 [mod_conference] Fixed conference not auto-generating layouts properly when callers with no camera are present
• FS-8615 [mod_conference] Fixed a crash when quickly changing layouts and setting reservation ids
• FS-8542 [verto_communicator] Fixed the tooltips of video controls
• FS-8603 [verto_communicator] Added device validation to prevent lost microphones after reset
• FS-8640 [verto_communicator] Don’t clear conference member reservation id on members that don’t have a reservation ID
• FS-8590 [verto_communicator] Fixed sending malformed vid-res-id command when changing layouts by treating no res-id the same as clear
• FS-8556 [mod_verto] Screen shares are not recoverable so do not try
• FS-8293 [mod_verto] Fixed some regressions where speed test caused excessive downlink bandwidth
• FS-8633 [mod_verto] Fix for the first verto to join a conference does not get “conference-livearray-join” event
• FS-8599 [verto] Removed a workaround for Mozilla that is no longer needed for video size
• FS-8553 [config] Include verto_contact into the dial-string in the samples
• FS-8566 [core] Fixed calls failing when put on hold in bypass media mode with inbound late negotiation set to false
• FS-8573 [core] Fixed one way audio after resuming from hold in bypass media mode and fixed a core dump on playback after “Decode Codec is not initialized!” log message
• FS-8575 [core] Fixed DTMF not being passed from a to b during rfc 2833 events
• FS-8612 [core] Fixed a rare IVR originated calls crash due to read codec leak
• FS-8625 [core] Fixed a segfault caused by an external incoming call from Google Voice.
• FS-8642 [core] Fixed CF_VIDEO_READY being set on non-video calls
• FS-8713 [core] Fixed a crash caused by read exceeding buffer
• FS-8716 [core] Fixed the recording offset delayed by a few seconds for rtmp stream
• FS-8677 [core] Fixed a crash (possible memory corruption) after codec change
• FS-8585 [mod_commands] Expanded {} and <> to [] for each dial string in group_call to allow for multiple device registrations for the same user
• FS-8582 [mod_httapi] Fixed a crashed caused by null URL being passed
• FS-8588 [mod_httapi] Fixed a crash found while fixing unreliable digit collection
• FS-8619 [mod_rayo] Reply with conflict stanza error if bind is attempted with duplicate JID. Improve error handling when ‘ready’ callback fails.
• FS-8708 [mod_rayo] Fixed the example configuration to map to correct DETECTED_TONE event from spandsp_start_tone_detect
• FS-8621 [mod_av] Fixed H264 HD1080P video quality issues
• FS-8631 [mod_db] Updated the regex to allow DSN to match the rest of FS code
• FS-8643 [mod_sofia] Fixed some memory leaks
• FS-8715 [mod_sofia] Make the oubound_proxy on the profile consistent with how we do the same thing on the gateway
• FS-8679 [mod_sofia] Fixed sofia sending call completed elsewhere if not disabled by the option ignore_completed_elsewhere
• FS-8711 [mod_skinny] Fixed a couple of possible memory leaks in mod_skinny packet reading code
• FS-8722 [mod_skinny] Remove nested redundant mutex that could cause a hang

This week we had a number of bug fixes and a change to the packaging build logs.

Improvements in build system, cross platform support, and packaging:

• FS-8723 [Debian] Adding a file extension to the package build logs

The following bugs were squashed:

• FS-8708 [mod_rayo] Fixed the example configuration to map to correct DETECTED_TONE event from spandsp_start_tone_detect
• FS-8711 [mod_skinny] Fixed a couple of possible memory leaks in mod_skinny packet reading code
• FS-8722 [mod_skinny] Remove nested redundant mutex that could cause a hang
• FS-8713 [core] Fixed a crash caused by read exceeding buffer
• FS-8716 [core] Fixed the recording offset delayed by a few seconds for rtmp stream
• FS-8677 [core] Fixed a crash (possible memory corruption) after codec change
• FS-8673 [core] Fixed a core dump on playback after “Decode Codec is not initialized!” log message
• FS-8715 [mod_sofia] Make the oubound_proxy on the profile consistent with how we do the same thing on the gateway
• FS-8679 [mod_sofia] Fixed sofia sending call completed elsewhere if not disabled by the option ignore_completed_elsewhere

The FreeSWITCH 1.4 branch had a couple of bug fixes back ported. And again, keep in mind that 1.4 is quickly moving toward end of life and won’t be supported any longer except for high level security issues.

The following bugs were squashed:

• FS-8708 [mod_rayo] Fixed the example configuration to map to correct DETECTED_TONE event from spandsp_start_tone_detect

 

Who needs to communicate in enterprises anyway?

Everyone.

Communication is… overrated

But do we really need to treat it as if it is the most critical piece of the enterprise world?

I use multiple systems to make my calls these days. They are WebRTC based or proprietary apps such as Skype, WebEx or GoToMeeting. I grumble when I have to use a proprietary system and install stuff on my laptop, but that’s life.

It was like that for me even when working for enterprises in the past – big and small. Somehow, you always need to have a “phone system” and be reachable. But other than that? I’d say “omnichannel” as a buzzword has stuck to the contact center but is just as important in unified communications.

But in Unified Communications, Omnichannel means something really different – it means that you can now reach out to people on lots of different channels and mediums – picking up the ones most suitable for the taks – which most often than not ends up being different than what the corporate IT has decided you should be using.

And you know what? I couldn’t be bothered with it.

The essence of Unified Communications is the here and now. Real time communications. If a minute passed, it is no longer interesting. It is lost.

Hangouts. Talky. A phone call (international or otherwise). Skype. Anything else.

Just pick one and lets meet.

—

Enterprise Messaging though is a different story.

It isn’t focused in the here and now, but rather in collecting data and making it accessible. It is about synchronizing teams and aligning them – asynchronously.

And “omnichannel” there? It means integrations with anything and everything that is enterprise software.

Which makes it the point of access for an employee to his daily life in the office.

It is a lot more sticky these days than unified communications.

—

Unified Communication is on another rebranding rampage. We used to call it “Convergence” a decade or two ago. And when that felt old, we started calling it Unified Communications. There are analysts that are now coining the term WCC – Workstream Communications and Collaboration. A mouthful that simply says Unified Communications need to look at the Enterprise Messaging space and copy it.

The end result will still be a focus on the here and now. And it will still be overrated.

 

[show promotion title=”strategy-session”]

The post Unified Communications is Overrated appeared first on BlogGeek.me.

 

Dave Horton discusses his open-source, node.js-based SIP load balancer for FreeSWITCH servers (http://davehorton.github.io/drachtio-…) which is currently deployed in several service provider networks.

The challenges in testing WebRTC services How do you view WebRTC? As a VoIP technology or an Internet one? There’s a huge divide between the two, especially when it comes to testing them. WebRTC sits in the intersection between them, making it doubly hard to grok – and test. Tsahi will outline in this session a few of the main challenges, with suggestions on how to fix them. He will also use the opportunity to show how testRTC.com addresses these challenges.

Hey FreeSWITCHers!
Last week FreeSWITCH turned ten!

It has been a long road,
With many, many lines of code.
The community has been there through thick and thin,
And witnessed all the hard work put in.
Long nights, no break,
But, a wonderful piece of software they did make.
Blood, sweat, tears, and no perks,
Would result in a switch that just works!

We had no idea they would be so merciless,
So, we apologize on behalf of Rachael from Cardholder services.
Convey your appreciation with some flair,
Show Tony how much you care,
By clicking on link below,
And, send him something as thanks for Verto.

http://goo.gl/3WCNnI

Challenges ahead.

A shy over a year ago, I wrote about 3 startups: Talko, Wire and Switch

All of them looked promising. All were using WebRTC.

In 2015, Switch had a meeting with $35 million, along with quite a few successful deployments in businesses big and small.

A month ago, Talko got acquired by Microsoft. I’ve interviewed here the Talko team in the past. Selling to Microsoft shows. Shutting the company. With little objections from customers. It all points to a single conclusion – Talko has been a failure when it comes to the business side of it. It probably had a solid technology – otherwise – why would Microsoft acquihire the team and fold it into Skype? I am sure Ray Ozzie and the team of Microsoft veterans in Talko added to this acquisition, but there was no other value in this transaction.

The Talko Team expresses it best on their updated homepage:

However, as engaged as many of you have been, the reality is that the broad-based success of communications apps tends to be binary: A small number of apps earn and achieve great viral growth, while most fall into some stable niche.

Talko didn’t grow fast enough or big enough. Clementine’s acquisition by Dropbox is similar. A communication solution geared towards team/group/enterprise communications gets acquired for its team with the service being left behind, never to be seen again.

And that’s in the less competitive domain of the enterprise. What will be with Wire? The third company I wrote about.

On Android, Wire reportedly has 100K-500K installs. Assuming iOS has twice as much (I am trying to be positive), that still falls way short of any of the messaging services we usually hear about – they are measured by 100’s of millions. Of active monthly users – not installs.

It is hard to see how Wire can change its abysmal future without a serious pivot or a drastic change in current market trends. Some will say this is a matter of a directory service and network effects. I think it is a matter of strategy and luck. Where Wire failed to attract the crowds, a different messaging service – Telegram, with 50M-100M installs on Android and a reported 60M monthly active users.

Wire was formed in 2012 and Telegram in 2013. So we can’t say Telegram had any head start here.

WebRTC makes it too easy to build and launch a communication service, which in turn, makes it hard to build a viable business with it. The role of product managers and people who need to think of the business case is more important than the technologists building the service when it comes to WebRTC. At the same time, finding good developers who grok WebRTC isn’t easy either.

2016 is going to be crucial for Wire.

What do you see for your initiative in 2016? Do you have a business case and route to market and money, or are you tinkering with the technology, assuming that if you build it they will come?

 

Planning on introducing WebRTC to your existing service? Schedule your free strategy session with me now.

The post Can Wire Succeed Where Talko Failed? appeared first on BlogGeek.me.

When it is the wrong metric to track.

Microsoft playing the number games with Edge adoption stats

44.5 billion.

minutes.

That’s how long people have been using Microsoft Edge “just last month”, according to Microsoft:

Over 44.5 billion minutes spent in Microsoft Edge across Windows 10 devices in just the last month.

That other number of 200 million monthly active devices using Windows 10 is much more impressive.

I am interested in Edge due to WebRTC and ORTC. It is one of the missing pieces of our puzzle to get adoption (or at least that’s what we’ve been told).

So how can 44.5 billion minutes can be so unimpressive?

Do the math.

Let’s assume only half of Windows 10 users make use of Microsoft Edge.

This gets us to an average of 445 minutes a month per user, placing it at less than 15 minutes a day (!)

How many of these minutes are spent with an idle browser? I got a laptop and a desktop open 24/7 with Chrome running on them. Even when I am engaged in other applications.

Microsoft decided to announce a largish number to hide the fact that Microsoft Edge isn’t really getting the love and adoption they expected, which is sad. I’ve used it a couple of times on my own Windows 10 laptop. It does what it is supposed to do and does it well, but that’s about it.

The challenge is migrating from Chrome. It stores my credentials to the many sites I visit, it has that nice search bar that often times just finds the URL I need without really searching (it automatically completes from its history), there are the few extensions I’ve got installed. All in all, it does the work. It is bloated and a memory hog, but the time when this mattered (a year or two ago) passed already, so there’s very little incentive for me to switch browsers.

Microsoft is killing Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 in the same day next week, pushing businesses into Internet Explorer 11 or Microsoft Edge. This might gain them a percentage or two more in adoption of Microsoft Edge – not nearly enough. Microsoft will probably announce end of life for Internet Explorer 11 in a year or two – the sooner the better if they want Microsoft Edge to grow.

What else can Microsoft do to improve its position? I don’t know. I don’t believe they can. The opportunity to surpass Google Chrome had come and gone. They will need to wait for the next opening when Google falters with Chrome or make something enticing enough for people to switch. It is sad, as Microsoft Edge is technically sound – it made browsers interesting again.

For WebRTC, Microsoft Edge still makes no difference at all. We’ve seen a few announcements of ORTC support by some vendors, but that’s about it. There’s no urgency in vendors to support it. The discussions are still about Internet Explorer when it comes to WebRTC.

Where does that leave us?

• Companies who waiting for Microsoft to adopt WebRTC will continue to wait
• Those who haven’t waited have made the correct choice – deal with what’s available and don’t wait for the forces that be to save you
• While Apple might get WebRTC properly, Microsoft hasn’t. Introducing ORTC into Internet Explorer is what the market needs, but it won’t happen by Microsoft
• Mobile is unaffected, as consumption there is done by apps, so browser adoption issues are irrelevant for most

 

Planning on introducing WebRTC to your existing service? Schedule your free strategy session with me now.

The post When is 44.5 Billion a Small Number? appeared first on BlogGeek.me.

Submission of presentation proposals for Kamailio World 2016 is open. Deadline for submission is February 18, 2016, notification of accepted proposals will be done latest on March 03, 2016.Be aware that interesting proposals can be accepted before the deadline, we plan to have two intermediate review sessions before February 18, 2016, announcing any accepted presentations immediately. Note also that at the previous edition there were more proposals than available slots and the 2016 edition celebrates 15 years of Kamailio project development, expecting a significant increase of interest for the event. Therefore it is recommended to send your proposal as soon as possible, do not wait till deadline.To submit the proposal, fill in the web form at:

• https://www.kamailioworld.com/k04/call-for-speakers/

The main topic of the conference is Real Time Communications, with the majority of the content being about Kamailio and other open source projects in the area. However, like for the past editions, we welcome very interesting presentations beyond those subjects.If you are interested to look at the agenda from previous edition, visit:

• http://conference.kamailio.com/k03/schedule/

Have a great 2016! Looking forward to meeting many of you at the next Kamailio World!

Continuing the tradition, many members of Kamailio project community will be at Fosdem 2016and we are planning again a social event on Saturday night (Jan 30, 2016). Among participants announced so far: Alexandr Dubovikov, Daniel-Constantin Mierla, Federico Cabiddu, Giacomo Vacca and Lorenzo Mangani.Should you want to join us for some drinks, food and interesting chats, announce yourself on sr-users mailing list (sr-users [at] lists.sip-router.org). As usual, each participants pays for himself or herself.There will be also couple of talks touching Kamailio on various tracks of Fosdem.

Time to fix the stupid notifications of all them apps. Especially messaging ones.

Push notification for messaging apps – not as easy as you thought

When it comes to messaging, they are probably the most chatty applications out there when it comes to push notifications (not including Candy Crush).

I’ve had my share of bad experiences with messaging and notifications to know what works for me and what annoys the hell out of me. This is also where you see the true leaders shine and the rest slumbering along.

IP messaging is considered by most developers a rather simple thing to implement. It isn’t.

Here are a few things you should incorporate into your push notifications implementation when you want to deal with messaging capabilities.

#1 – Synchronize devices

Your service is sending me messages? Great.

You are aware I am the proud owner of a smartphone, tablet, laptop and PC? And that I generally connect through all of them interchangeably.

So when I am receiving a message (or sending one for that matter), it would be nice if said messages would magically appear in all of my devices. And in a timely fashion.

One of the reasons I’ve been using Skype less and less this year is that it just didn’t synchronize properly – not showing messages on all devices, or popping notifications on the app on my laptop a day or two after I’ve already received them on my phone or on the PC. It seemed like Skype just weren’t seriously prepared for this world of multiple devices per person.

Assume that if I sign in from a new device, I don’t want a “fresh” start – I want all of the data and context that is available to me on my other devices to be availalbe in this new device of mine as well.

#2 – Clear notifications. Everywhere

You know that fuzzy feeling inside when you receive an email? My whole house is pinging (or used to ping), each device trying its best to be the first to announce that incoming email.

The main problem is, that handling the notification (=opening it) on one device didn’t necessarily clean it from all other devices.

Google Mail got it right after a year or two on Android. WhatsApp got it right the first time – it was almost a magical feeling when they came out with their web interface and messages got cleared on the web or on the phone automatically – and FAST.

The most annoying thing is an app that doesn’t clear its notifications. I know there are many who don’t care, but I like my notifications windows clean. Going over multiple devices to clean the same message is a show stopper for me these days (and again, up until a few months ago, Skype didn’t get this one right).

#3 – Mobile and web

Notifications should occur both in mobile apps and in web browsers. Modern browsers already support notifications, so make sure to utilize it when needed.

You need to remember that knowledge workers may sit all day in front of a computer – so why not leverage that to show notifications there instead of making them pick up the phone?

#4 – How urgent is it again?

Not. Every. Single. Message. Is. The. Same.

How are you going to report them? Or even notify them?

You may have them notified separately. Or bunch them up under a single icon.

Slack just added a Do Not Disturb feature. Great. I can now silence notifications in Slack. The problem is, they decided that my work day is 8am-10pm. Anything not in this timeframe isn’t notified to me. It would have been fine – but only if when 8am arrived – they’d pop up a notification about things I’ve missed.

Groups in Whatsapp can be silenced, or certain people. You can even do it for a period of time (I don’t really care about kindergarten related chatter when I am abroad). But it is manual. It would have been so much better if somehow, WhatsApp magically would decide what I prefer and what I didn’t when it came to notifications.

#5 – How do I reply?

The vinyl Android SMS application enabled me to mark messages as read – right from the notification. No need to enter the app just so it knows I’ve read it. Some other apps enable replying to notifications without getting into the app.

What are you doing regarding your app? Is the only thing I can do is enter the app, or can I act from the notification itself? (guess what I prefer)

#6 – Where in the view stack will I be landing?

Got the notification on my phone. Pressed it. Where will it lead me?

LinkedIn’s terrible app (even the latest incarnation of it) does a great job at putting you in the wrong view – try accepting an invite to connect and you’ll end up preferring to open it inside your browser.

Skype gets you to the conversation. Pressing the back button on Android leaves the app. But if you then enter the Skype app explicitly, after several incoming notifications of a group conversation there – it will lead you to the same conversation over and over again – at least to the same amount of times you pressed on the notification of new messages in that group. Something is terribly wrong there.

WhatsApp does a decent job here – there’s a single WhatsApp notification for everything. If all notifications are from the same conversation – that’s where you’ll land. If there are multiple conversations you are being notified of – you’ll land at the WhatsApp homepage. Oh – and if you press back? It takes you from the conversation view to the homepage of WhatsApp before letting you leave the app.Gmail does the same.

#7 – Think Offline

Bonus points for handling unconnected use cases. Many miss this one when it comes to notifications.

When you press the notification, the app is launched and it goes to the server to grab the actual reason for notification. But what if I am INSIDE an elevator? Some apps do a miserable job at making sure that the launched app can show me the message without being connected (you already got me that notification – why not get the whole damn message while at it?)

Why is it important?

IP Messaging is probably one of those areas where developers go NIH. They know it all. How can sending a couple of messages be hard? Oh – you also need push notifications on top? No worries! There’s that simple API in iOS that does that.

But that’s usually only the beginning of the saga when it comes to IP Messaging and push notifications. If you decide to develop it in-house – you better be ready to writing down the exact spec in detail to get it right. Otherwise, find someone who does that for a living.

 

Planning on introducing WebRTC to your existing service? Schedule your free strategy session with me now.

The post Messaging and Push Notifications: Best Practices appeared first on BlogGeek.me.

The 2016 has just started and I am really looking forward to it.

The big celebration of 15 years of development for Kamailio project happens this year.  Although has changed the names few time, along the years SIP Express Router (SER) and OpenSER, it is a real performance to stay atop and continue the development at high pace for such long time in the open source environment.



The Kamailio World Conference, scheduled for May 18-20, 2016, in Berlin, will take care to organize a great party for this celebration, expecting many of the relevant developers in the history of the project, which will share the experiences and the impact in their careers because of being involved in the open source project. Be sure you don't miss this edition!


One of the first milestones in 2016 is the release of Kamailio v4.4.0, a new major version, which will bring as usual several new modules, plus improvements and new features in the existing components.

The first event where we expect to get a consistent group of Kamailio developers and friends is Fosdem 2016, in Brussels.

With a continuous increase of activity in the community of Kamailio project, I expect plenty of new ideas and challenges to work with along 2016! Stay tuned and keep an eye on this blog for updates!

The amazing 2015 for Kamailio is done! Thank you everyone for contributing to it!Now it is the time to get prepared to fill the 2016, with interesting discussions on our forums, solving new RTC challenges, adding features in Kamailio and welcoming new contributors!We wish a healthy and prosperous year to all Kamailio friends! We are looking forward to meeting many of you at Kamailio World Conference, where we are going to celebrate 15 years of development for Kamailio project, as well as at other events around the globe!

Consider this my end of year review for WebRTC in 2015.

Tomorrow will mark the last day of 2015. As we head into 2016, it is time to review what we had this year in WebRTC. For me this year proved to be a real rollercoaster, but somehow I get a feeling 2016 won’t be any different.

I dug some of the statistics I regularly collect, with differences and trends in 2015 in mind. From there, the road to an infographics about WebRTC State of the Market was a short one. For those who have membership access to my site, I will be spending the next Virtual Coffee discussing these findings in detail.

Feel free to share and embed this infographic (click to enlarge or download the PDF) if you wish:

Share this Image On Your Site

<p><strong>Please include attribution to BlogGeek.me with this graphic.</strong></p><br />
<p><a href=’https://bloggeek.me/webrtc-state-market-2015/’><img src=’https://bloggeek.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/201512-WebRTC-infographic.png’ alt=’WebRTC State of the Market – Are we there yet?’ width=’540px’ border=’0′ /></a></p><br />
<p>
See you all in 2016!

 

Planning on introducing WebRTC to your existing service? Schedule your free strategy session with me now.

 

The post WebRTC State of the Market: End of 2015 appeared first on BlogGeek.me.

While owning the domain miconda.eu for quite some time, never found the time to set it up. With the winter holidays giving sort of a break, I pointed blog.miconda.eu to my blog (here) at by-miconda.blogspot.com.

The main domain miconda.eu is pointed to about.me/miconda . I plan to make more use of this domain (email?!?), let's see if 2016 brings more spare time ...

Enjoy the winter holidays!