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Bit6, a Telerik Verified Plugins Marketplace Partner, provides a tutorial on leveraging their services to add real-time messaging and WebRTC video to your hybrid mobile app.

Letting your users communicate might be an essential requirement for your app—but even if you haven't considered adding real-time communications to your app, give it a second thought! Humans are a social species, and letting your users interact with each other within the app can make a world of difference to your metrics.

Here you will find everything you need to embed communications into your hybrid mobile app using Telerik Platform and Bit6—from messaging with attachments to voice and video calls!

In this article you will learn:

  • What types of messaging and video features are supported
  • How to quickly try the sample app
  • How easy it is to add communications to your own app

Communications Essentials to Be Excited About

The communication features that Bit6 brings are:

  • WebRTC video—one to one and one to many
  • IP messaging—direct and group messages
  • Attachments in any form—photo, video, audio
  • Native push support for Andorid and iOS

Additionally, some of the nice perks that might make your life easier include:

  • Presence detection
  • Voice calling
  • Peer to peer data transfer

Let's get started!

Prerequisites

Try the Sample App

To get a snapshot of what you are getting with Bit6, try the sample app directly on Telerik Platform. Just click the "Try in AppBuilder" button below. You may be asked to sign into your Telerik account, so have your credentials handy.

One other thing you need for the sample app to work is Telerik Cloud Functions, which are neatly described in the Telerik Integration guide.

The Bit6 sample app uses Telerik Backend Services for easy user management and authentication.

Try in AppBuilder

Start Your Own Development

Before you start developing your app, there are a few configuration steps you need to take care of:

Project Configuration

  • Set the App ID for your app: Project Navigator > Properties > General
  • Important! Make sure to use correct iOS app id—the same one used for APNS registration:

appbuilder project properties

Certificates

For iOS you need to configure the certificates for the push notifications to function properly—those are what makes the communications truly real-time.

To configure provisioning profiles and certificates:

  • Click the cog icon and select Options

appbuilder options

  • Select iOS → Provisioning Profiles

appbuilder import provisioning profile

  • Click Import
  • Select Cryptographic Identities and import the appropriate P12 file

Set API Key

If you haven't done so already, get your Bit6 API key here.

Edit js/index.js file to set your Bit6 API Key:

var opts = {'apikey': 'myApiKey'};

Build

Go to Run -> Build and select the platform.

Make sure to choose App package as Bit6 does not work with the Telerik Platform Companion App.

appbuilder build

Sample App Preview

Before you deep dive into the development of new exciting communications capabilities for your own app, take a sneak peak at our sample app. It showcases how to let your users interact WhatsApp-style (including attachments and photo sharing), make video calls, and have fun with group chatting.

IP Messaging

With our direct or group messaging, your users will be thrilled to explore the whole new level of communication, sending text, photos, video messages, and getting the status updates in real time—whenever their recipient reads the message or starts typing, the feedback is instant.

ip messaging with bit6

On both Android and iOS, users can easily send media messages—adding existing photo and video files, snapping new pictures. This functionality is shown well in the demo app:

ios chat demo with bit6

Video and Voice Calling

Another sought-after communications capability is the voice and video calling. WebRTC-powered, high quality video is essential for apps in telemedicine, education, and social industries. The Bit6 demo app is ideal to quickly and easily test the video and voice calling.

video call demo with bit6

Next Steps

Authentication Methods

Now that we have a working application, you can experiment with other user authentication mechanisms. For simplicity we used basic username and password login.

Any authentication method supported by Telerik Platform can be used in your application. Telerik's Social Login intro provides all the information you need in this respect.

Other Resources


Julia Goloshubina
About the Author

Julia Goloshubina

Julia is an entrepreneurial technologist with a broad range of development, business management, marketing and international experience. Since the inception of the app stores in 2008, Julia has been involved in mobile app development, having successfully launched multiple apps across a variety of platforms. She has lately been working in CPaaS space, with responsibility for development, deployment and demand generation.

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