Communication has always been a crucial part of developing interactions with a community. With the advent of technology, face-to-face communication has also changed its conduct. The audio and video calls have become a crucial interaction source between two people, a group, a business, and a corporate organization among all sectors with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The questions arise,
- How did these apps shift to video calling so rapidly?
- Do they manually build it or do they arrange it from some development source?
Well currently, real-time communication is in increasing demand. This blog guides whether a company should build its Video and audio calling API or count on a more reliable managed service for the same.
Building audio and video calling API
Developing audio and video calling API by a business is a matter of utmost care as it involves a high amount of R&D. A company developing these APIs has to build vast technical support. Observe the technology changes & advancements to keep their platform updated all the time.
The companies exclusively planning to distribute these APIs as a platform shall invest in building them, as they serve a purpose, and are accustomed to technological advancements. These companies supplement considerable resources and knowledge for the development of these APIs, making work adaptive.
Observations while developing APIs on your own
A well-defined Budget
A company needs to invest a huge amount of money, as it involves high development costs concerning UI/UX design, database management, cloud services, scaling, security, etc. It also includes costs of infrastructure, hosting, maintenance, salaries to personnel, and more, increasing the overall budget.
Manpower Costs
Developing audio and video calling APIs involves a huge development team. It requires a skilled force to work on specialized device platforms like Android, iOS, web, etc. Instead of hiring manpower for these activities, a company can prefer a purchase, and make that team occupied in the primary goals of the company.
Time Investment
Developing an API involves a huge time investment. While developing APIs on its own, involves opportunity costs, and above all the chances of successful development in one go is a question of concern for the company.
Scalability
When a company develops audio and video calling API on its own, it is hard to comply with scalability. The open-source aid generally can scale only up to 50-100 participants in one video call. In the case of allowing a huge participant count in one meeting, managed services make the effort. It can scale 5000+ participants at once.
Change Resilience
A company developing APIs as a feature of their application lacks resilience to change. They need to comply regularly with new technologies and upgrades. This problem arises when companies do not keep up with the changing factors. Buying an API with managed services looks at upgrades and changes regularly.
Buying audio and video calling API
When a company decides to buy audio and video calling APIs, it considerably looks to integrate these APIs as a feature for their application and not as a dedicated platform. Here, buying APIs is a more defined approach than building them. Developers are fully acquainted with the latest technologies and innovations, serving dedicated security, customization, and support. Companies who keep calling APIs as their secondary function must invest in buying them.
Corporations and organizations engaged in businesses like health, education, e-commerce, retail, and other similar industries should always choose to buy APIs from managed services. These services are easy to integrate and also facilitate security, customizations, upgradation, and technical support for the APIs. They are reliable and induce low risk.
Observations while purchasing APIs
Cost-effective
Readymade audio and video calling APIs include features like call encryption, HIPAA compliance, spatial audio, chat support, and other elements. These costs are huge if a company develops every single one of them on its own. Rather when it purchases APIs, the overall effective cost is lower. This brings these APIs to qualify the cost worth for a company.
Saves time and efforts
Buying audio and video calling API from managed services saves a lot of time and development efforts for a company. It merely needs to comply with technical requirements for integration. The companies just need to invest very little to integrate the purchased APIs into their application.
Customization
A purchased API is often designed with customization primacy. A company can easily alter the design and the contents as per its requirements without digging deep into the low-level specifications. Contrarily, a company that designs API on its own usually lacks customization as it incurs huge costs of development.
Secured communication
A managed video calling service by a company comes with end-to-end encryption. This denotes that communication between two persons, or a group is fully secured and no one other than the participants can access it. A company generally neglects security in the initial phase of development due to higher costs.
Scalability
Managed services can scale participants to more than 5,000 in one meeting. Whereas, open sources can scale not more than 100-150 participants. It is also believed that if a company has just begun its journey into the corporates, it must always keep its trust towards these services for scalable support.
Support
On purchasing APIs, there is a provision of support and consultancy to the company. From help in customizing the desired API to upgradation with changes in technology, buying an API is useful. Some services also provide 24x7 technical support.
Prevents platform abuse
A company is protected from platform abuse by purchasing video and audio calling APIs from managed services. The services are developed with security that prevents happening of any sort of trouble, malpractice, or misuse of the APIs in use.
The Final Verdict
Audio and video calling are always considered the most attractive feature of any application. Therefore, a company that deals in real-time communication with its clients and consumers aspires to create it in the most astounding approach. Apart from looks, security, and quality of a meeting are the most concerning factors. All of these are possible approaches for a company but at huge costs. Managed services offer all these features, and they are more secure than the ones a company develops.
VideoSDK is a platform that develops audio and video calling APIs for their clients from various industries to ease their functioning by simple integrations along with upgradation, customization, and security. We support you in your dedicated work. Sign in to the Dashboard and start building your desired Audio and video calling API.
