As an effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of our daily life activities have turned virtual. School classes, business meetings, checking in with a doctor, and many other activities are now done with the use of video conferencing tools. As long as we have to stay online for everybody’s sake, the demand for video conferences will continue to rise.
This is a fact that businesses take into account. That is why many companies and enterprises are focusing on the virtual communication aspect of their operations. For their own corporate communication to keep up with the times, they work with video conferencing software and APIs. But, wait a minute. What exactly are these video conferencing APIs?
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What is an API?
An API, short for Application Programming Interface, allows two or more intermediaries to interact. It is a communication interface that lets different types of software talk to each other and exchange data. Any product’s API provides the technological framework that allows multiple tools to collaborate and create an app, in our case, a video conferencing app.
What Are Its Uses?
APIs can be used in a variety of ways, depending on your app. If you run a learning management system, you can use it to provide a live virtual classroom feature. If you’re focusing on healthcare, perhaps you’d like to provide a way for doctors to meet with patients privately and discreetly, even if it’s over the internet. Ultimately, the use of an API relies on what your app has to offer.
Benefits of a Video Conferencing API
The demand for video calling APIs is fueled by a number of promising aspects. With the benefits listed below, you won’t need to develop solutions to different problems from scratch, which will save you a lot of time and energy.
Easier App Development
Because APIs allow for speedy installation of infrastructure and functionalities, they simplify the whole process of developing a cross-platform video conferencing program.
With this kind of convenience, the process of building your app will be finished much quicker. Completing your app early means that you’ll have more time to spend on other important things, such as marketing.
Cost-Effectiveness
The cost of app development can be pretty high. So instead of having multiple developers that spend time constructing one specific chat component, utilizing APIs that can help you build your video conferencing app efficiently with a variety of intriguing features.
This includes screen sharing, recording, automated meeting transcription, and real-time messaging. Things get done faster using APIs, even with minimal resources.
Personalization
While it’s true that platforms like Zoom or Google Meet can be enough to suffice many people’s video conferencing needs, video conferencing APIs can offer much more.
Imagine having your own logo, brand, themes, and unique functions on a call with a potential customer. A professional and personalized platform will give them the impression that your products or services can be trusted.
How to Choose the Right API
There’s a myriad of API for video conferencing out on the web. However, not all of them have the same design and quality. That’s why, before you choose an API, you need to know what to look for. Here’s a guide to help you with that.
1) Prioritize Security
A secure service is a reliable one. At the very least, you should seek end-to-end encryption to prevent uninvited parties from intruding on private conferences.
Insisting on extra security measures may be a smart idea, depending on the type of business you run and the users your product will serve. But it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
2) Check the Quality
Quality is defined as no frozen screens, break–ups, or other connectivity errors. Real-time communication needs the simultaneous flow of rich video and audio data between several users, which requires some substantial engineering.
You have one shot at launching your app, so you better make it count by using tech that’s tried and tested in real-life situations. Without quality, user engagement will be at risk.
3) Examine Ease-of-Use
Before you do anything else, be sure it will fit perfectly into your network infrastructure. Also, be certain that old and new data sets can be easily transferred. Your API should preferably provide step-by-step instructions, demos, and codes that you can simply copy and paste.
One of the primary objectives of a video conferencing API is to avoid unwelcome disruptions. So, if even getting it to start is a drag, there’s no point in making use of it.
4) Consider Making Modifications
Insufficiency has a negative impact on the user experience. That’s why our guts sometimes tell us to add as many features as we can. And most of the time, we get tricked into doing it. However, too much of anything is bad. So, this should be avoided as well.
Making modifications and flexibility is a need. Your API should let you add or delete elements of your app as you wish. Even though it doesn’t appear to be essential right now, you never know what’s in store.
5) Opt for Better User Experience
Consider what would set your solution apart from the competition by making your user’s experience particularly special. Always opt for solutions that increase engagement, accessibility, and productivity.
If you are building a solution for customer support or sales, sign-up or installation is not the ideal choice. If it’s an app for educational use, check if you can attach room controls. And for business conferences, a digitalnewstrending whiteboard is a must-have.
6) Think About the Future
For a business, the main goal is to grow over time. And if you really want that to happen, think about scalability. Switching platforms when your business starts to proper is not a wise move.
Instead, find a system that can handle a rising user population and higher capacity than what’s already on your spec sheet. If at all possible, find a video conferencing API that allows for endless scaling. This is so you never have to worry about the problem of scalability ever again.
