Browser based phones

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PrettyBrutalXperience-Guy

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Jan 7, 2021
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Hello world,
After succesfully getting LinPhone for iOS to build then compiling MicroSip to provision with a hacky provision server I set my sights on MacOS and thought what a mess, multiple codebases (with various original authors in a hodgepodge of languages), why not write a single interface/codebase?
So... now I'm exploring WebRTC projects to hopefully just use as-is without any changes. So far I've played with SaraPhone, ctxSIP, and Browser-Phone. I like the minimalism of ctxSIP, the clean integration of SaraPhone, and the advertised text/chat (haven't been able to send/receive messages yet) features of Browser-Phone, though its too light on the documentation to be a real contender.

I'm writing to crowdsource suggestions or maybe find others who'd like to participate, here's what I'm imagining:

Simple browser based webRTC phone which supports voice and text.
Mobile 'app' which exists to receive push notifications and open the web interface in a dedicated browser (no address bar or navigation).

There will likely be some changes to the Fusion/Freeswitch side to accomadate for sending the push, but should be minimally invasive and possibly just a dialplan.
 
How do you envision a mobile app running in the browser? That doesn't sound right. Mobile apps are usually written in native SDKs, which is why it's so hard to make one and maintain it.
 
I wouldn’t take AI answers at face value. To start with, you still need a native app to handle notifications. Beyond that, I’d be concerned about potential privacy issues if a mobile browser were granted microphone access. I’ve also never seen a mobile app redirect users to a website for core functionality. Once you’ve already built a native app for push notifications, it’s only a small step to integrate WebRTC and deliver everything in one app.
 
Never take anything at face value, especially not crap from a plagerism machine. "Hard to maintain" is relative, I think the problem with the world in general, not just in tech, is that we have the wrong people assigned to the job, and that's why they find things hard.
iOS does a pretty good job about permissions, granting the mobile app microphone access doesn't give said access to the browser in general. The website being redirected to is not in an external browser, but within the app itself. Many apps on your phone right now may be nothing more this very concept. Anyways seems to be coming along, don't love the SaraPhone interface but going to focus on fucntionality of the wrapper before nitpicking aesthetics.

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If the browser opens within the app, that's a whole different story. Thank you for the clarification. At first, it sounded like it would open an external browser.
"Hard to maintain" primarily refers to the fact that there are multiple Android versions and multiple iOS versions, as well as various hardware platforms with different screen sizes. I've considered creating an app many times, but it seems like a full-time job. I talk to Ringotel folks all the time and see how busy they are.
This is not to say no one can challenge this. I would love to see you come up with a good alternative to all existing apps. They all lack some features. I can offer my expertise and help contribute to this project.
 
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Thanks for the offer to contribute, and you do make a valid point about the constant OS updates potentially requiring new builds, hopefully maintenance of the mobile apps (Android, ios) would be minimal given core functionality exists in the webapp which the mobile app is just a wrapper to.
 
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