Mobile apps using BBB

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Sanjay Kumar

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Jun 28, 2020, 7:09:15 AM6/28/20
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Hello All,

I am new to BBB. Is is possible to create mobile apps which using the BBB APIs? Has anyone already developed mobile apps which work with BBB?

Regards,
Sanjay Kumar

Waqar Younis

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Jun 28, 2020, 7:59:02 AM6/28/20
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Don't waste time on it. Our developers wasted alot of time. Better to look for other option if you are seeking mobile apps especially for iphone

S

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Jun 28, 2020, 8:08:07 AM6/28/20
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Creating mobile apps will make it bulky and unnecessary.

The better way is to use webview but I was unable to make it work both in Android and iOS

Also BB. iOS has only Safari support and Weview Safari just does not exist especially permission support.







Sent from my iPhone

> On 28-Jun-2020, at 5:29 PM, Waqar Younis <younisw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Don't waste time on it. Our developers wasted alot of time. Better to look for other option if you are seeking mobile apps especially for iphone
>
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Fred Dixon

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Jun 28, 2020, 8:22:55 AM6/28/20
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> I am new to BBB. Is is possible to create mobile apps which using the BBB APIs? Has anyone already developed mobile apps which work with BBB?

We (the core developers) are focused on the HTML5 client, which runs on mobile devices (no app to install).  When using an iPad or iPhone, BigBlueButton runs within the default Safari Mobile browser (iOS 12.2+).   When using an Android device, BigBlueButton runs within the default Chrome browser (Android 6.0+).

On iOS, creating a mobile app would require you to use the SFSafariViewController


which currently lacks support for WebRTC libraries, which makes it hard to embed BigBlueButton into an iOS app.  You would need to bundle in the WebRTC libraries to the iOS app, trap any WebRTC calls made by the BigBlueButton client, and route them to bundled libraries.  While technically it would be possible, it's not something we've tried to do ourselves.

Most people on mobile devices are using us from within another mobile app -- such as the Moodle mobile app -- and when clicking to join a session, the app launches the user into the Safari Mobile browser on iOS.

We know there are advantages to having a standalone app for BigBlueButton on mobile, but for reasons above, it's not something we've invested engineering effort into creating and instead focused on improving the core of BigBlueButton itself.

Regards,... Fred



--
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Cumali Yaşar

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Jun 28, 2020, 8:23:55 AM6/28/20
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Absolutely I agree. We lost a lot of time on the Mobile App.

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Waqar Younis <younisw...@gmail.com>, 28 Haz 2020 Paz, 14:59 tarihinde şunu yazdı:
Don't waste time on it. Our developers wasted alot of time. Better to look for other option if you are seeking mobile apps especially for iphone

Oleksa Stasevych

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Jun 28, 2020, 2:21:25 PM6/28/20
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I am not agree with you, especially having a lot to compare, eg. Google Meet, Cisco WebEx, which have native apps for both platforms. A lot of people are working from mobile phones, much more, than even from desktops.
Working from iOS is not possible.
Working from Android limits you with lack of pushes, lack of possibility to share the screen, may be easily killed when switched to another app or sleeping.
Let me add, that BBB is very often used as an independent solution, especially now, comparing with the previous time. So developing of a separate app is essential, in my opinion.

S

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Jun 28, 2020, 2:53:26 PM6/28/20
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Fred have you tried webView in Android? Does it work?

basisbit

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Jun 28, 2020, 6:08:45 PM6/28/20
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Android System Webview tends to be a quite old version of webkit/chromium on lots of different devices - it gets updated by the device manufacturer and thus usually doesn't benefit from recent Google Chrome updates on the phones, but instead quickly gets old and unpatched. We tried a BBB android app and the result were not really usable because people have much more problems with the old WebView versions than when using Firefox mobile or Google Chrome for Android.

Best regards,
basisbit

Anton Meyburgh

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Jun 28, 2020, 6:10:56 PM6/28/20
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What will be the best way to solve screensharing from a mobile device?

Regards

basisbit

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Jun 28, 2020, 6:27:30 PM6/28/20
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Probably would be best to push Apple and Google to finish the implementation of screen share / streaming in iOS and Android. For Apple, the more people create bug reports for a topic, the higher priority this topic gets. 
Chromium already has the required API, but it requires the operating system to have a screen streaming service up and running. see https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=487935

Keeping the session alive in background probably would require some JavaScript changes. Also, seems like there exist chromium bug reports about this topic: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38368254/keep-alive-webrtc-audio-stream-on-android

Oleksa Stasevych

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Jun 28, 2020, 6:37:06 PM6/28/20
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Let me assume, that the native app may help with that... However, what I see that developers tend to promote the web app instead of. I tried to compile from the source own webview app using the modern Chromium, unfortunately it doesn't help. You may try opening the html5 in Android using desktop mode, it will not work, even with the latest version of the Google web-browser :( 

I Brof

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Jun 29, 2020, 12:00:16 AM6/29/20
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+1
In addition to, there is audio issue in some of ios over 10 students will find 3 of them can not hear anything. While sound is working with them on zoom and google meet. Also, some users annoying from sleep mode while they are in meeting. For my opinion I see app is essential to have!

Oleksa Stasevych

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Jun 29, 2020, 4:05:55 AM6/29/20
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In our meetings, this always happens at least with some person, especially, when the Internet connection goes down, and restores: video, audio may easily disappear and not restore. The only way to fix is to ask users reload, using some alternative way of communication (what is not good). At the same time, if you work with the conferencing systems, which have native clients it's usually not happening (Hangouts, Google Meet, Teams, WebEx, Zoom, Skype, Duo....). 
t may be stable when using multitasking OS, which allows not to kill apps in background, when there's no events happening (voice/audio, net, touch etc).

Matias Silva

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Jun 29, 2020, 4:32:05 AM6/29/20
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Hi,

On my side, the connection automatically restores if the user has a
connection issue. The HTML5 client will automatically reload. This is
basically what those native apps do. Also, you can make the browser
persist, so that it won't be killed by the OS just like you can do for
regular apps. Developing in app would take lots of time, time that would
be steered away from improving BigBlueButton, which in my opinion is not
worth it.

---
Thanks, Matias
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Matias Silva

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Jun 29, 2020, 4:35:50 AM6/29/20
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Will also note that in the latest version of iOS you can finally choose
your own default browser! So gone are the days of Safari headaches (well
at least somewhat).

---
Thanks, Matias
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Stefan L.

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Jun 29, 2020, 6:24:06 AM6/29/20
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@I Brof, this sounds like your setup might have problems with the STUN / TURN configuration.

Am Mo., 29. Juni 2020 um 06:00 Uhr schrieb I Brof <br...@live.com>:
+1
In addition to, there is audio issue in some of ios over 10 students will find 3 of them can not hear anything. While sound is working with them on zoom and google meet. Also, some users annoying from sleep mode while they are in meeting. For my opinion I see app is essential to have!

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I Brof

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Jun 29, 2020, 1:19:45 PM6/29/20
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Hi basisbit

Our setup configured correctly! We have same issue when use BBB demo and already issued open about it here: 
بتاريخ الاثنين، 29 يونيو، 2020 1:24:06 م UTC+3، كتب basisbit:
@I Brof, this sounds like your setup might have problems with the STUN / TURN configuration.

Am Mo., 29. Juni 2020 um 06:00 Uhr schrieb I Brof <br...@live.com>:
+1
In addition to, there is audio issue in some of ios over 10 students will find 3 of them can not hear anything. While sound is working with them on zoom and google meet. Also, some users annoying from sleep mode while they are in meeting. For my opinion I see app is essential to have!

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I Brof

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Jun 29, 2020, 1:20:01 PM6/29/20
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Hi basisbit

Our setup configured correctly! We have same issue when use BBB demo and already issued open about it here: بتاريخ الاثنين، 29 يونيو، 2020 1:24:06 م UTC+3، كتب basisbit:
@I Brof, this sounds like your setup might have problems with the STUN / TURN configuration.

Am Mo., 29. Juni 2020 um 06:00 Uhr schrieb I Brof <br...@live.com>:
+1
In addition to, there is audio issue in some of ios over 10 students will find 3 of them can not hear anything. While sound is working with them on zoom and google meet. Also, some users annoying from sleep mode while they are in meeting. For my opinion I see app is essential to have!

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basisbit

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Jun 29, 2020, 2:53:32 PM6/29/20
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In that case, please create a bug report at Apple's bug tracker. The more people create bug reports about such issues at Apple's bug tracker, the more priority that issue gets fom Apple.
Anyways, this is off-topic now. Regarding the reconnect-problems: test a lot and figure out how to reliably reproduce the problem (for example turn off the phones internet for a second?) and once you know how it can be repeated successfully, please create a bug report about it at the BigBlueButton issue tracker at github.

Best regards,
basisbit

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I Brof

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Jul 1, 2020, 9:16:40 PM7/1/20
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Hi Basisbit,
I contacted Apple before about this issue they confirmed to me the audio issue is not from their side. Please reffer to this:

 May I know why you are assuming the bug is from Apple side. Because, If I have any evidence to that I can follow up with them again...

BR
Brof

Reimar Bauer

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Jul 1, 2020, 11:44:16 PM7/1/20
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Have you tried Firefox in your ios tablet?

Reimar

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Kristoff Scherer

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Jul 2, 2020, 5:58:54 AM7/2/20
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you can choose the frontend - thats all!

you still have to use webkit :-(((
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I Brof

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Jul 3, 2020, 10:09:56 AM7/3/20
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BBB is only running on Safari browser for ios!

Palak Jain

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Dec 15, 2020, 11:32:41 PM12/15/20
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yes! it is working on Safari browser for ios, But According to my project requirement, we have our own UI for voice call like whats app and this SFSafari browser will work in behind and on that custom UI will come. but in safari browser, I am getting camera and mic popup every time. can we allow permission for mic and camera automatically from code?

if anyone has a solution please reply. 
Thank you

I Brof

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Dec 20, 2020, 5:38:14 PM12/20/20
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+1

fatih ceritli

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Dec 31, 2020, 5:52:32 PM12/31/20
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hi all,

i find an app (flutter)

21 Aralık 2020 Pazartesi tarihinde saat 01:38:14 UTC+3 itibarıyla br...@live.com şunları yazdı:

I Brof

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Jan 1, 2021, 3:44:09 AM1/1/21
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Thanks for sharing

basisbit

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Jan 1, 2021, 5:01:30 PM1/1/21
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If everyone who complained about the problem would have instead created an issue report at the Apple bug tracker, then Apple would probably already have implemented screen sharing in Safari for iOS.
And yes, missing WebRTC screen sharing support in Safari and Chrome are bugs in the webbrowsers, not in BigBlueButton which would love to use the standard HTML5+WebRTC features on these devices if they were implemented.

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