Brave now offers video conferencing integrated into the browser
Chrome browser maker Brave has unveiled Brave Talk, a video service based on an implementation of the open-source video meeting platform Jitsi.
Brave is one of more than a dozen Chromium-based browsers vying for space on desktops and mobile devices as an alternative window to the web beyond Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.
It’s now, maybe a little late, to jump on the video conferencing bandwagon to join Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Cisco Webex with Brave Talk.
Brave promotes itself as a privacy-focused browser. It arrived in 2016 with the promise of tracking protection, an ad blocker, and HTTPS Everywhere. Although it is a popular alternative to Chrome, its cryptographic methods of monetizing the software with ads annoyed some users.
However, the company sends the same privacy message to the video meeting space. It argues that many other video conferencing providers monitor calls, metadata and images, and that recordings of this data can be sold or shared without the user’s consent.
âBrave Talk users can enable multiple layers of encryption on calls, so that a spy cannot listen to user calls, and our servers do not record metadata, so calls, images and activities are never saved or shared without user consent. ”
Brave Talk relies on 8×8, a video conferencing service provider that uses the Jitsi video conferencing platform and the WebRTC (Web Real Time Communications) standard for video codecs in browsers.
With apps like Zoom and Teams already well established among consumers and businesses, it will be difficult for something like Brave Talk to break through, but it’s another tool for those using Brave for privacy reasons at a time when video meetings are crucial in everyday life.
Brave in February claimed to have 25 million active users and now said to have 36 million users.
Free Brave Talk for one-on-one video calls. It also offers group video, live streaming on YouTube, and unlimited call times for users of the free version.
There is also a paid version: group calls with three or more people have to pay $ 7 per month. The paid service includes call recordings, mute and entry access codes, as well as calls with larger groups. In the coming weeks, Brave plans to launch a free version of Brave Talk in the Android and iOS apps.