WebRTC

WebRTC, Web Real-Time Communication, is a browser technology that enables peer-to-peer audio, video, and arbitrary data exchange between browsers without requiring plugins, downloads, or intermediate servers for the media stream itself. Once a connection is established through a signaling process, data flows directly between peers with minimal latency.

The connection setup requires a signaling server to exchange session descriptions and network candidates between peers, and often STUN and TURN servers to handle NAT traversal when direct peer-to-peer connections are blocked by firewalls. Once established, the connection carries media streams and data channels with low latency. WebRTC powers video conferencing applications, screen sharing tools, peer-to-peer file transfer, live streaming with minimal delay, and multiplayer game networking. For web developers building real-time communication features, WebRTC provides the browser-native infrastructure, though libraries like PeerJS and services like Twilio simplify the complex setup process significantly.