Privacy-focused messaging app Signal is adding new features for video calls, including links, reactions and a calls tab, in a bid to pose as an alternative to Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.
Privacy-focused messaging app Signal is adding new features for video calls, including links, reactions and a calls tab, in a bid to pose as an alternative to Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.
Call links are a lot more work than “a few buttons”
That’s not really the best example to prove a lot of work. Call links are actually pretty easy from a conceptual standpoint:
Make a small website to accept
https://join.my.website/?callid=...&password=...Have the website redirect to:
myapp:join/:callid/?password=...Have your app register as a
myappprotocol handler.When a
myapp:join/:callid/URL is visited, open the same window that would be used normally for joining a call by ID.I’ve been an android developer for a decade at this point, I’m aware of how app deep links work.
The comparison is not “what LOE is call linking from scratch” but rather “how does call linking meshing into existing production codebases across all platforms compare in LOE to 3 buttons?” And the answer is self evidently more.
You’re minimizing the amount of effort and we’re comparing it to buttons. Adding “a few buttons” is very different than setting up 3 platforms to all use a new protocol (calls from links will require new handling - previously all calls were just based on authenticated users being allowed into webrtc calls based on their tokens. Now you have to have a new handler which joins a call with the token in the URL - that can’t be handled identically). Then we get into the Android app, much of which is still in Java, which uses multi-activity-srchitrcgure meaning you’ve gotta pass data through each layer manually, rewriting each of these activities to accept the new deep link and route to the right end.
And then you’ve got to be sure it all coordinates across iOS, Android and your backend.
It’s not hard but it’s not “a few buttons”. It’s probably 2 weeks of work for skilled and competent engineers, 1 per platform.
Do you actually have any experience in Mobile dev? You sound like a fresh outta college junior eng - cocky and confident that everyone else is wrong, making it harder than it needs to be etc.
Just like that cocky junior eng you’re too unaware of what you don’t know to realize you’re wrong. Wade through the grass a few times and you’ll realize the flowery meadow is full of snakes.
You’re barking up the wrong tree here, buddy. I’m not the person who said “it’s a few buttons.”
I was merely pointing out that from a conceptual standpoint, deep links don’t need months of research and design work. The difficulty—as you pointed out—comes in knowing how to work with the various different platforms and integrating the feature into existing codebases.