The Brave browser is going after Zoom by adding a video-calling function.
The feature, dubbed Brave Talk, is built into the browser. Simply open a new tab, click on the camera icon in the bottom-right corner, and you’ll be taken to talk.brave.com, where you can start a video meeting. The session can then be shared with others through the URL address with no time limit on the call.
The host can only initiate the video meeting through the Brave browser. But what’s notable is that participants joining the call can use a third-party browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Safari to jump in on the same video session, eliminating the need for everyone to use the same app.
Brave Software built the software to stand out by focusing on privacy. “Many other video-conferencing providers, including Zoom, monitor calls, metadata, and images, and the records of that data can be sold or shared without user consent,” the company claims. This is likely a reference to how Zoom can monitor a video call if it suspects it’s facilitating criminal activity.
Brave Talk, on the other hand, doesn’t require you to create a user account for the free version. “No tracking. No data collection. Nothing linking you (or anyone else) to a call. Period,” the company adds.
What a user says or types into Brave Talk is also never logged. In addition, the company’s privacy policy says it’ll delete your computer’s IP address and URL link for a video meeting once the call ends, although text-based chats will be temporarily cached.
To build the function, Brave used the open-source software from Jitsi, another video-calling provider. However, Brave Talk doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption by default. You’ll have to go into the security settings and turn on the Video Bridge Encryption function.
“However, there are some important limits to Video Bridge Encryption. If you want to include a phone participant in your call, have more than 20 participants, or want to include users with incompatible browsers (Safari, most iOS browsers, and browsers based on Chromium version 83 or below), this encryption setting will not work,” the company says.
The free version of Brave Talk also has another limitation: It only permits one-on-one calls. If you’d like to host a meeting with up to 100 participants, you have to pay for the premium version, which costs $7 per month and requires you to create an account.
“The Brave Android and iOS apps currently feature Brave Talk Premium, and will have the free version as well in the coming weeks,” the company adds.
