What's more appropriate to use Twilio Client vs Twilio Video API?

Question

I've been reading Twilio docs lately and been confused between "Twilio Client" and "Twilio Video".

I noticed that tutorials for "Twilio Client" involves registering phone numbers while the beta "Twilio Video" would not need one (after doing the tutorial) for browser-to-browser audio only call.

I would like to wrap via Phone Gap a nodejs app that has audio call only (no numbers being dialled but rather identity). (android phonegap app for now since iOS does not support webrtc yet)

Am I correct that I should be experimenting on "Twilio Video" instead of "Twilio Client". From the docs they both support WebRTC but somehow "Twilio Client" needs numbers or maybe I'm missing something.

Thank you for your input.

Answer 1

Twilio developer evangelist here.

The difference between Twilio Client and Twilio Video when making audio calls is very much around phone numbers. Twilio Client has the ability to make app to phone network calls and to receive calls from real phones. Twilio Video does not have those abilities, it is purely for app to app calling.

Twilio Video will likely have better quality audio though, as Twilio Client gets downsampled so that it will work over phone networks.

It's likely that Twilio Video would be cheaper for your app to app use case as well. Twilio Client is priced by the minute and Twilio Video pricing is more to do with currently connected endpoints as the connection, if it is peer to peer, costs nothing.

Let me know if that helps at all.

Answer 2

Twilio Product Marketer here just to add on to what Phil provided.

We provide two separate real time communications SDKs: our Programmable Video SDKs as well as our Client SDKs. Video, which we launched last year, provides both voice and video capabilities (or either combination there of) and media flows in a peer-to-peer or TURN relayed call topology. As Phil mentioned, this SDK uses a newer codec (VP8& H.264) that can provide HD audio & video and is also more resilient to packet loss and challenging network conditions. Our Video SDKs do not have media server capabilities yet like recording, connecting to the phone network, or scaling beyond about 4 participants. But stay tuned... :)

Our Client SDK which we've had since 2011 supports voice only and all media flows through Twilio's cloud infrastructure, not peer-to-peer. Our Client SDKs (iOS, Android, and JavaScript) support recording, connecting to the phone network, and large conferences. However, this SDK doesn't support video and uses the G.711 codec.