March 2021 Summaries

We built an audio-only demo called Party Line with multi-platform support from day one, targeting Android audio applications which has been notoriously limited. We initially encountered a problem where the app wouldn't work in the emulator but would on physical devices and lower API levels. After ruling out mic permissions issues, we used the WebRTC troubleshooter to identify a networking issue suggested by a socket layer problem and found an error message in Logcat indicating SELinux was preventing communication with the socket. We granted read privileges using the audit2allow command and successfully fixed the issue, allowing us to build out the full Party Line codebase.

We're noticing a popular trend at Daily: people are joining more online calls, attending webinars, and participating in audio communities. A common feature request from developers is to enable participants to enter and display their names. The `setUserName()` method has been shipped to make this easier to implement. This method updates the participant's user_name property on the Daily participants object, which can be retrieved and rendered in a custom video or audio call UI. In the prebuilt UI, setUserName() automatically changes the built-in name overlay. Developers can use `setUserName()` with an optional object argument to specify that the update applies only to this meeting. The method is also useful for building custom UIs on top of the Daily call object. For example, in a Party Line demo audio app, participants' roles are managed using setUserName(), which automatically adds or removes a "✋" from the participant's name when their hand is raised or lowered. This allows for quick prototyping and testing of role-based systems, but note that this is a workaround for production use cases where more comprehensive solutions should be used.

This tutorial helps build a webinar platform using Daily Prebuilt and a custom chat widget by adding meeting token validation. The goal is to differentiate between hosts (or "admins") and attendees, allowing for more control over user experience in video calls. Meeting tokens can be used to set a participant's username or identify them as validated. To add meeting token validation, the tutorial covers creating meeting tokens using Daily's API, accessing query parameters in React, and validating tokens in the WebinarCall component. The process involves checking if a valid token is provided by participants, validating it with Daily's API, and setting the participant's status accordingly. The tutorial also discusses handling Daily API requests and using Netlify to proxy requests. By following this tutorial, developers can add meeting token validation to their app without building a formal back-end or authentication system.

Today, Apple announced support for navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia in iOS 14.3, a crucial element for audio and video calls, but this feature is currently blocked by a known bug that requires the HTML file to be loaded via HTTPS origins instead of local file:// protocols. To work around this issue, developers can host their files on a secure server or use platforms like Netlify for easy static file deployments.

Party Line is an open-source audio chat and collaboration app built using the Daily API, with sample code available for React, iOS, Android, and React Native. The app allows users to create audio rooms and invite friends to join as speakers or listeners, with features such as moderation controls, role management, and user authentication handling. The app's architecture is designed to be modular and extensible, with a focus on simplicity and ease of use. The sample code includes four demo clients, each with its own README file providing platform-specific setup instructions. The project aims to provide a starting point for developers building their own audio chat and collaboration apps, with the goal of making it easy for them to get started without having to reinvent the wheel.

Daily now supports 25 active participants with 15,000 viewers and 1,000 person large calls, all with cams and mics on. The company has secured $15 million in funding led by Lachy Groom, with participation from Tiger Global, Worklife Fund, and existing investors. Over the past year, Daily has seen 30x growth in revenue and a 20x increase in paying customers for its real-time video and audio APIs. This funding round will help expand support for developers and teams building next-generation real-time features. Daily aims to create the best developer experience in real-time video and audio, with a focus on security and compliance, including HIPAA-compliant features. The company provides an embeddable video call that works across platforms and devices, with detailed call quality metrics and client debugging logs available from every call.

Daily's mission is to support companies that want to add video and audio calls to their products, primarily targeting startups from seed-round to growth-stage. The company offers up to $1,000 in call credits to qualifying startups that have not yet raised a Series A funding round, provided they meet specific requirements such as having a website with email on the same domain or being part of an accelerator program. To qualify, startups must be founded within the last five years and have not used Daily's startup credits before. The offer is available for a period of 12 months from the time the credit card is added to the account.

This is the first post in our series on how to build your own webinar platform using Daily Prebuilt and a custom chat widget. As more services move online, Daily has noticed an influx of startups needing to find more efficient ways to connect with customers. Webinars provide a great solution for engaging with potential new customers, allowing companies to introduce attendees to their product and clarify commonly asked questions while still allowing for personalized conversations. To help a broader range of customers create their own webinar experiences, we've decided to speed up the process by providing a step-by-step tutorial series on how to build a webinar app using Daily's prebuilt UI and React. The first step in the project is defining feature requirements, which will include features like authenticating admins, tailoring a chat experience for webinars, and more. The goal of this project is to create a basic React app with a Daily call embedded in the main view, allowing users to connect with customers efficiently.

This series aims to help developers build their own webinar platform using Daily Prebuilt and a custom chat widget, focusing on efficiency and speed. Recently, Daily updated its prebuilt UI with new properties and instance methods to facilitate faster development for the webinar use case. The first tutorial in this series will guide users through initializing a new create-react-app repository, adding the daily-js dependency, and embedding a Daily call into a WebinarCall React component. By the end of this tutorial, users will have a basic React app with a Daily video call embedded in it, laying the foundation for further development and customization to meet their specific needs.