Mozilla has added instant messaging to its Firefox browser, according to PC World.
The functionality is part of Firefox Hello, a VoIP client built into the latest version of Firefox version 41.0.
The Hello client already supports videoconferencing, though PC World found some issues supporting microphones and cameras. The magazine had far more success with text chat, as there’s not a lot that can go wrong with just sending text.
The user starts a conversation by clicking the “Start a Conversation” button in the Firefox menu and gets a link to send to the recipient by email or social media. The person on the other end only needs to have a WebRTC-enabled browser, which includes Google (News - Alert) Chrome.
Firefox Hello has some additional challenges. Even though the browser is well known for its extensive plug-in support and open source code, there’s no guarantee that the person a user wants to get in touch with will have it installed.
By some measures, Google Chrome is the most popular browser. According to StatCounter, Chrome has more than 52 percent market share worldwide, with Firefox and Internet Explorer tied at a distant second at around 15 percent.
While Firefox users can communicate with Chrome and Opera users, they’ll have to have Firefox to start conversations. While installing Firefox is only a few clicks away, it’s enough of a barrier to keep plenty of people from doing so. In a lot of corporate environments, the ability to install software is locked down, so users couldn’t install Firefox if they wanted to.
Even though Hello is powered by Telefonica (News - Alert), it also has an uphill battle against the network effects of existing solutions like Skype, which has also been developing its own web-based version. Skype (News - Alert) for Web is already available as a beta.
The WebRTC-based Hello does show the Mozilla Foundation’s support of open standards.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson