Is WebRTC Hard?

There's no simple answer to this question.

I had a chat the other day. The person I was talking to was actively developing WebRTC products for over a year. We were talking about getting WebRTC to more developers. He blurted out this sentence that in hindsight is intriguing to me: "WebRTC is hard"

The assumption is that WebRTC makes real time communications (especially the voice and video variants) a lot more accessible and easy for developers. And yet he complained it is hard. I had to mull it over and stew for a few days, so I decided to write my own view here.

To me, WebRTC is the EASIEST way to develop real time communication services and apps.

It might not be as easy as displaying a static website. A responsive website is also not as easy. Neither is a 3D game using WebGL. Or a service requiring backend analytics processing using Big Data.

The basic cost of doing business in communications has been brought down from around 2 million USD to 0 with WebRTC. The barriers of entry are now close to zero.

Yes. There's a learning curve.

Yes. It is different than what web developers were comfortable doing.

Yes. It is hard.

But it is a lot easier than the alternative.

WebRTC sits today in the middle - between VoIP and the Web. I think web developers have a real advantage over VoIP developers when it comes to using WebRTC and building a successful business with it. It stems from their different upbringing. From the way they look at problems and go about solving them. There's a lot to learn about WebRTC to be able to yield it properly, but I think the effort is worth it.

Oh, and if you need some WebRTC training, why not try out my WebRTC courses?