The real-time web allows you to set up dynamic connections to other web browsers and web-enabled devices quickly and easily. This opens the door to a whole new range of peer-to-peer communication, including text-based chat, file sharing, screen sharing, gaming, sensor data feeds, audio calls, video chat, and more. You can now see that the implications of WebRTC are very broad. Direct and secure peer-to-peer communication between browsers will have a big impact on the modern web, reshaping the way we use the physical networks that make up the Internet.

Direct peer-to-peer connections often provide lower latency, making gaming, video streaming, sensor data feeds, and so on, appear faster and more interactive or real-time, hence the use of this term.

Secure peer-to-peer connections allow you to exchange information privately without it being logged or managed by intermediary servers. This reduces the need for some large service providers while creating opportunities for people to create new types of services and applications. It introduces improved privacy for some individuals while it may also create new complexities for regulators and law enforcement organizations.

And the efficient peer-to-peer exchange of binary data streams removes the need to serialize, re-encode, or convert this data at each step in the process. This leads to a much more efficient use of network and application resources, as well as creating a less error prone and more robust data exchange pipeline.

This is just a brief overview of how you can use WebRTC, and by the end of this book, you will have all the information you need to start turning your own new ideas into practical applications.