Introducing ffonio.in
Nov 19th, 2013 by Aswath
ffonio.in is a web application that people can use to have IM, voice and video chats with their friends and family. Users can run this app on their own devices such as their WiFi router, Raspberry Pi or a cloud instance like Digital Ocean Droplet. As long as friends and family have an OpenID and use a browser that supports WebRTC, they do not have to host this application themselves.
The following are highlighted features of ffonio.in:
- Use of OpenID for authentication. (Registered users can assign an unverified, if unsecure, “OpenID” to unregistered users in an ad-hoc fashion.)
- “Availability status”, in lieu of Presence. Users can present different status to different persons.
- Only users who have been previously authorized can initiate an IM, voice or video chat. The authorization can be changed at any time.
- Seamlessly move to a voice or video chat from an IM chat session.
- Ability for either user to mute sound or turn off camera.
- Ability to buzz the other user to catch their attention.
- Once the IM chat session has ended, the transcript is made available to both the users. (We plan to also make recordings of voice and video chats available in the near future.)
- The app has a built-in simple relay server (two-sided NAT) to assist in NAT Traversal, replacing the functions of a TURN server.
- Generate a custom reach-URL (which users can share in their email or business card) or an embed code (which users can add to their websites.)
Although our primary objective was to help individuals run their own IM, voice and video chats, this system can also be used on much larger scale, such as within an enterprise. Companies can use this product for both internal communication between employees and external communication with outside partners and customers. We plan on pursuing this direction in the near future by integrating this application with CRM systems like Salesforce and Sugar CRM.