How to build a new webRTC app - not by cloning 100 year old tech, but by market research, prototyping and listening to users, even if they have paws or feathers.

1. How to build a webRTC
app
Tim Panton, Westhawk Ltd - @steely_glint

2. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Adding webRTC to an app
 Clone an app
 Add some webrtc
 Profit

3. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Modemjs - 1200 baud modem

4. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Code walk through
 WebAudio
 Respoke API
 WebRTC
 Familiar interface

5. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Massive FAIL - Why?
 Tech cool
 But pointless
 No user benefits
 Only delights the geekiest of nerds (me)
 Better ways to do the same thing
telnet anyone?

6. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Stop!

THIS IS WHAT
WEB/APP FOLKS
SEE WHEN THEY
HEAR YOU TALKING
ABOUT WEBRTC !
POINTLESS
RECREATION OF
OLD DEAD TECH.

7. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Communications has changed.

8. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Communications has changed.

9. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Kranky Geek 1
 Talk on webRTC
 Live code web app
 For HTML5 audience
 at Google SF

10. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
What to do?
 Stayed with a friend
 Has 3 pet birds
 Social animals
 Visible and audible
 Gets bored when left alone

11. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Perfect Joke web app
 Bird UX
 Simple
 Cheap
 No self view, no controls
 YoPet.us
 Did talk/demo
 Seedfunding (joke)
 … but actually

12. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
It might be a product
 Market research
 10million pet Parrots in the USA
 Would anyone buy it?
 Vox Pops.
showed market and price point

13. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Think about delighting the users
 Owner
 Pet
2 Different needs in 1 app
This isn’t unusual, the phone just
makes us think it is.

14. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
The Owner wants
 To use it anywhere in the world
 To use their laptop
 Easy
 Secure
 Good video/audio
 To be in control

15. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
The Pet wants
 Not to log in
 Not to have a password
 Not to have to answer a call
 Not to get prank calls
 Cheap device
 Multi day battery life

16. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
How to turn it into a product?
 Cheap android tablet on cage
 Owner uses browser on laptop
 Built HTML5 prototype in chrome
 Test on other animals
 Some ignore, some don’t.

17. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
An aside about federation
 Federation has killed email
 Federation has killed landlines
 Federation is killing SMS
 What’s app doesn’t federate
Open federation brings spam.
Leverage shared context instead.

18. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Security
 Essential -
(webcam hacks)
 Old (18c military)
password - Nope.
 Need new
thinking
 Ownership/pairin
g
 Duckling
 Proximity creates

19. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Demo QR pairing
See video on https://yopet.us

20. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
But the Pet needs a mobile app
 Notifications
 Sleep/Wake
 Screen power up
 Tablets are more robust

21. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
For MVP use Android webView
 Lollipop web view has webRTC
support
 Chrome updates out of sync
 Breaks sometimes
 Adequate to get pet/owner feedback

22. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Code review
 Permissions
 Manifest
 Inject Javascript
 Remote debug

23. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Security side benefit
 No user data held
 All on device
 Lightweight server
 Don’t have to trust the middleman
 Patent filed
 Signalling agnostic
 Other applications….

24. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Other apps
 Granny Call?
 Security cams?
 Drones?
 TVs?
 Other ‘passive’ endpoints (IoT?)
 Works with 2bn webRTC endpoints

25. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
Summary
 Stop re-building 100 year old tech
 Think about user benefits
 Delight people
 Or make their days easier at least
“Dad, making phone calls is horrible.”
“Yeah, but receiving them is worse.”

26. @steely_glint - westhawk Ltd - www.westhawk.co.uk
T.S Eliot - Journey of the Magi
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen
birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth
was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our
death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old
dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.