Ask HN: Video Chat Webapp – How should I start making one?

2 pointsshrod3 comments

Hello all!

I want to create an app where newcomers can book and have video chat with professionals to learn skills/language. I am new to programming and have basic HTML/JS, Python, C++ knowledge.

I don't know what I don't know.How should I start creating the chat backend?

Throwaway account because of copyright ownership clause by employer.

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You can use the open source etherpad it provides realtime collaborative document editing. There is also a version which providers webrtc based video support. Check it out once.

See to tokbox.com

Thank you for the reply!

I am creating it in a third world country for mainly rural folks. I see in OpenTok they have the following bandwidth requirement:

Video: 300 kbps per stream (recommended lowest level)

Audio: 50 kbps per stream (recommended lowest level)

I guess it's in bytes. Here, average speed is around 64kbps/512Kbps. Is there anything else which have further low requirement? For hangout it's pretty low:

https://support.google.com/plus/answer/2979333?hl=en

Something in this range would be best.

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