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FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

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Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#11

Post by ChrisMLane »

nexuist wrote: post #8
ilikepi wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there are any (as opposed to "just" the added customer support burden), I wonder if they're the same issues that prevent Slack from allowing calls in Firefox...

As a corollary, I wonder if Slack will now implement calling functionality once Mozilla adds the necessary APIs for Apple to do its job here, which is probably very likely since I don't think Apple chose to ignore a non-Google browser on purpose.

Slack calls didn't used to work on Firefox even if you bypassed their user-agent block.

In recent months, after bypassing the user-agent check, calls will at least work albeit not very well. (bit laggy, long connection time)

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#13

Post by ash110 »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #12

It literally says "Users with non-Apple devices can join using the latest version of Chrome or Edge": does it mean users of Apple devices could join using Firefox?

Unlikely, that'd be a very weird restriction. I think they meant Apple users would just use the FaceTime app

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#14

Post by nklmilojevic »

pacifika wrote: post #3

What are (if any) the technical blockers for Firefox to be considered on the same level of support?

You cannot achieve true E2E encryption on Firefox as it doesn't support insertable streams, so I guess this is where the limitation is.

EDIT: bug on bugzilla https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1631263

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#15

Post by est »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #5
pacifika wrote: post #3

What are (if any) the technical blockers for Firefox to be considered on the same level of support?

At a guess, codecs seem the most likely explanation. Firefox has a h.264 decoder, but not an encoder I think.

Why can't firefox invoke the system dll or libraries for H.264 encode/decode? Like many video players do.

Why must every browser ship its own codec or even Unicode collection is beyond me.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#16

Post by solarkraft »

bwindels wrote: post #10
pacifika wrote: post #3

What are (if any) the technical blockers for Firefox to be considered on the same level of support?

Firefox can require more bandwidth for WebRTC calls I think, see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1600698 I also have some memory of asking all participants in Jitsi meetings to not use firefox, because the call would start to lag for all participants if bandwidth was an issue for the firefox users in the call. Don't know if that is still the case or not though.

This should be fixed.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#17

Post by shakow »

est wrote: post #15
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a guess, codecs seem the most likely explanation. Firefox has a h.264 decoder, but not an encoder I think.

Why can't firefox invoke the system dll or libraries for H.264 encode/decode? Like many video players do. Why must every browser ship its own codec or even Unicode collection is beyond me.

For H.264, it's a question of patents IIRC. Cisco granted a free of charge decoder, but not necessarily an encoder.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#18

Post by fwn »

nielsbot wrote: post #7
deadmutex wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe... Google Duo works in Firefox (and even Opera) though. Important: Google Duo is available on Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Source: https://support.google.com/duo/answer/6386089

Does Duo send H.264?

As far as I've read about Duo it seems to be AV1:

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-duo-lyra-codec-better-...

...though I'm not sure whether they use it consistently.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#19

Post by teekert »

shakow wrote: post #17
est wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't firefox invoke the system dll or libraries for H.264 encode/decode? Like many video players do. Why must every browser ship its own codec or even Unicode collection is beyond me.

For H.264, it's a question of patents IIRC. Cisco granted a free of charge decoder, but not necessarily an encoder.

Hi ow can I pay to get the encoder into my FF? Like I paid to get some en/decoding in my raspberry pi’s.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#20

Post by DeliriumTrigger »

dathinab wrote: post #9
nexuist wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a corollary, I wonder if Slack will now implement calling functionality once Mozilla adds the necessary APIs for Apple to do its job here, which is probably very likely since I don't think Apple chose to ignore a non-Google browser on purpose.

All necessary parts are there, which is why e.g. jitsi meet or Google meet work without problem. It's more like they don't care than anything else.

Slack uses Amazon Chime as backend Chime is using h264 firefox still can not encode h264 videos in real time.
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