[cm3]

In case anyone's wondering, this is Electron using the WebRTC version of Skype. I wonder why they didn't just promote the WebRTC site instead. It would make it easier to have the latest security updates in the browser engine without waiting for Skype (Microsoft) to publish an update.

[ronjouch]

Personal guess: while functional (nit: only on Chrome for now :-/ ), the WebRTC site lacks some desktop features (integration, hotkeys, more control on notifications, etc) that they want to provide, and that are covered by the Electron API. For now there's none of it, but I think we'll see those appear little by little.

[cm3]

Not sure about hotkeys. Current Twitter and Github hijack enough well known bindings that it got annoying. So, what hotkeys would Electron allow that wouldn't work in a generic browser?

[ronjouch]

I meant global system-wide hotkeys that work even when the application is not focused, not JavaScript-event-based page hotkeys. In the stable (Qt-based) Skype for example I bind Ctrl+Alt+PgUp to answer a call, and Ctrl+Alt+PgDown to stop the call.

[hackernews2000]

For the same reason they don't promote it to Windows users (which will have a similar program in the future replacing the current "native" software): better integration, system tray support, no need to keep your browser open or to enable browser notifications in the desktop, directly accessing and managing your camera and microphone without relying on your browser support and settings etc.

[cm3]

Genuinely curious, how does Electron access your camera different than Chrome?

[hackernews2000]

I mean that you can keep browser access to your camera completely disabled instead of having to enable it and whitelist their site. Also, not everyone uses Chromium-based browsers.

[pmlnr]

Better integration? With a cross-platform JS monster? Sure.

[hackernews2000]

The "wrapper" is native and has access to your system libraries. It uses the Gnome keyring, for example, and will have a system tray icon.