WebRTC Two-Androids Basic Tutorial

Using the DataChannel to communicate between two peers on two Android devices

This tutorial is based on a simpler version of a WebRTC Simple Android Tutorial demo that can be found here

Due to its simplicity it can only create a peer connection between two phones with the app installed. It serves only as the basis of the process of two peers connecting.

In no way do I intend in this tutorial, to teach you the basics of how WebRTC works. That information can be acquire from links like these:

Learning about WebRTC

• Getting Started with WebRTC - Sam Dutton
• [WebRTC in the real world: STUN, TURN and signaling] (http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/webrtc/infrastructure/)

Samples used as basis for this tutorial

• PeerConnection Sample
• Generate and Transfer Data

###Getting Started Before developing Android apps that use native WebRTC you need the compiled code. WebRTC.org offers a barebones guide to obtaining the compiled Java code. But a simpler and faster way to get this library is to use the shortcut offered by io.pristine. This is done by placing the following inside the build.gradle of the app.

compile 'io.pristine:libjingle:_version_@aar'

Where _version_ represents the current version of the library. The current working version is 11139. (04/09/2016)

###How it works

As you start the app the first steps it takes is creating the PeerConnection between the "Local" Peer and "Remote" Peer. All the steps taken are logged using the log.d() function to show the steps.

For communication to occur between two or more peers, we need some type of signaling system. WebRTC API doesn't offer any mechanism for signaling, but makes you implement one yourself.

For the purpose of this tutorial I have created a Simple Signaling Mechanism that can be found here, which I will use to exchange messages between peers.

#To-Do

• Switch out Button for FButton, more aesthetically pleasing and might also solve call/hangup button disable issue.
• Implement start button that creates both the PeerConnectionFactory and PeerConnection instances.
• Fix callButton enable/disable logic.
• Implement onPause/onResume PeerConnection handling (connect/disconnect)
• Fix hangupButton enable/disable logic.
• Implement Toast, or similar mechanism, to advertise connection complete state.