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Video Calls in Android and iOS WebViews

A Meet call runs in the web view of a native or Capacitor app, if the app lets the web view use the camera and microphone.

A web view is a browser inside your app. Meet is a normal web page, so it runs there when the web view allows the same things a browser asks for. Two ways to do it:

Open the room link directly in the web view, with the token in the address: https://meet.respiresoft.com/r/<name>?token=.... No embed origin is needed because nothing is framed.
Put your own page in the web view and embed Meet in an iframe from there. Add your page's origin to Embed origins in the dashboard. For a page loaded from a file or an app scheme, host the page on https instead, because a frame needs a real origin.

Android WebView#

Ask for the permissions in AndroidManifest.xml and at run time:

xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS" />

kotlin

webView.settings.javaScriptEnabled = true
webView.settings.domStorageEnabled = true
webView.settings.mediaPlaybackRequiresUserGesture = false
webView.webChromeClient = object : WebChromeClient() {
    override fun onPermissionRequest(request: PermissionRequest) {
        // Only grant it to your own meeting host.
        if (request.origin.host == "meet.respiresoft.com") request.grant(request.resources)
        else request.deny()
    }
}

If your page frames Meet, the request comes from your page's origin. Grant it for the origin you trust.

iOS WKWebView#

Add the usage texts to Info.plist (NSCameraUsageDescription, NSMicrophoneUsageDescription) and allow inline media:

swift

let config = WKWebViewConfiguration()
config.allowsInlineMediaPlayback = true
config.mediaTypesRequiringUserActionForPlayback = []
let webView = WKWebView(frame: .zero, configuration: config)

Camera and microphone in a WKWebView need iOS 14.3 or newer. On iOS 15 and newer you can answer the permission prompt in webView(_:requestMediaCapturePermissionFor:initiatedByFrame:type:decisionHandler:) with .grant for your own host, so people are not asked on every call.

Capacitor and Cordova#

Add the camera and microphone permissions to the native project as above, then load the room or your embedding page. In Capacitor the page is on https://localhost or your own server address, so add that origin to Embed origins if you frame Meet.

Limits to plan for#

Screen sharing starting from a web view is not supported by the system. Hide the button with ?hide=screen.
Background and calls. A web view that goes to the background may stop sending video. Keep the screen awake during a call.
Old web views. An old Android System WebView or an iOS older than 14.3 may not run calls. Offer to open the room in the system browser instead.
Address options that help in apps: ?theme=dark|light, ?lang=en, ?hide=chat,people,screen,pip,leave,header.

If the call must look exactly like your app, use the headless client (preview) in your web view.