Mozilla has announced that it is dropping support for Firefox Hello in the next version of Firefox. Firefox 49, which ships September 13, 2016, will no longer come bundled with Firefox Hello and the feature will not be available as an add-on either. Hello was introduced by Mozilla, in some part, as an example of what WebRTC could be used for.
With Hello being yanked from the browser and no option to install the feature as an add-on, Mozilla has supplied a list of alternatives which are very similar in terms of functionality. These include:
- Talky: Provides both video and screen sharing using WebRTC.
- Cisco Spark: Create rooms for video calling, group messaging and sharing.
- Appear.in: Group video calling for up to eight people.
- Jitsi Meet: Group video calling and screen sharing using WebRTC.
Mozilla introduced Hello way back in December 2014 with Firefox 34. Hello allowed Firefox users to make free video calls, voice calls and send text messages from within the browser. Users just needed a microphone, and/or a webcam. A link would then be generated and those running Firefox, Chrome or Opera were able to join in a conversation without needing to install special software.
“Thank you for supporting the Hello beta,” begins Mozilla’s brief statement. “We will continue to develop and improve WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications), the underlying technology for Hello.”
Will you miss this feature once it"s stripped away from Firefox?
Source: Mozilla via OMG Ubuntu