[asterisk-users] Enhanced Messaging and softphones

[Joshua C. Colp]

On Fri, Jan 18, 2019, at 11:22 AM, Olivier wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've just read in [1] about SIP MESSAGE addition to both chan_pjsip and 
> ConfBridge.
> It seems very interesting addition as it brings the capability to mix 
> voice, video and text in conferencing.
> 
> On an other hand, there are some softphones (Zoiper, Bria, ...) that 
> tout voice, video and chat capability.
> Though Enhanced Messaging solution described in [1] seems more 
> attractive to me in the long run, I wonder if it could easier to 
> quickly set a demo using softphone instead of a web application.
> 
> In this case, was I'm failing to understand is is there anything 
> missing in Confbridge for chat conferencing with softphones.
> May I add I read [2] which mentions sending of "custom JSON message". 
> 
> My questions are:
> 
> 1. Do such softphones use compatible SIP MESSAGE to implement chat feature ?
> If negative, what is the missing block that should be present along Asterisk ?
> 
> 2. Is there a different class of clients (I'm think of Riot clients) as 
> opposed to softphones that support Confbridge voice, video and test 
> features ?

I'm not aware of any softphone that supports the functionality. From a video perspective it has to support multiple video streams and displaying them (Asterisk doesn't do video transcoding or mixing). From a messaging perspective it has to support the JSON payload that Asterisk is using in ConfBridge. This conveys additional information that a straight up chat message wouldn't.

-- 
Joshua C. Colp
Digium - A Sangoma Company | Senior Software Developer
445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - US
Check us out at: www.digium.com & www.asterisk.org