Using Safari and Firefox for 1-click video calls — updated!

Our Daily.co video calls work in your browser. A Daily.co meeting link has some of the best support across browsers, for video calls.

In the past year we've expanded our support for Safari, Firefox and Edge. When we first starting working with non-Chrome browsers in 2018, users saw a "beta" flag. Edge users could join 1:1 calls, and Safari and Firefox users could join calls with 4 or fewer. (This ability to join group calls, at all, in Safari and Firefox set Daily.co apart from most solutions.

We’ve kept improving. Here's the latest, September 2019:

• Just click a meeting link. Chrome is recommended. You also can use Firefox and Safari. Edge can be used for 1:1 calls.
• Free basic browser calls, you can join calls with up to 50 people in Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
• API calls can support up to 200 people in Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
• Firefox and Safari users no longer see a “beta” flag. They click on a link, select if they’re on a computer, phone or TV, and go straight into the link. Jump to the final section to learn more.
• Use Chrome to start a recording and start a screen share. (Other browsers can be recorded, and can see screen shares, but can't start them.)

Check out our browser support table — it's always updated, and shows the features you get with the different browsers.

Keep in mind whether you're using the free basic calls or the API. Developers can do more with the API.

Browser video call tips

Before we get into details about Firefox and Safari, some quick context about using your browser to join a video call. The advantage of browser video calls is there’s no additional technology — specifically, no downloads.

The video call does depend on your browser working. Make sure your browser is ready:

• Make sure you have the latest browser version.
• Problems? Your browser might be overloaded. Refresh the browser page. If that doesn’t work, quit the browser. Don't just close it — fully quit. Reopen it.
• Try Incognito or Private mode if you have browser extensions. Ad blockers, for example, might block your video call. Copy and paste the link into Incognito.
• Remember that large video calls eat up bandwidth. Mute cams to save bandwidth.

Safari and Firefox

Many thanks to all our Firefox and Safari users who’ve helped us expand our Daily.co support. Our calls are built on top of WebRTC, which is a standard for streaming media online. (It’s the technology that lets you click on a link, and open the video call right inside your browser.)

Because browsers are built differently — Google designs Chrome differently from how Apple designs Safari, for example — the browsers support WebRTC differently. Our video calls originally only worked in Chrome, which incorporated WebRTC support first.

At the same time, Safari and Firefox support for browser video calls has continued to improve. Last year we started initial support. And earlier this summer we quietly discontinued the “beta” heads up to users. Our goal is to make video calls easy and seamless, so it’s a welcome step!

As always, let us know if we can help. When we're online in San Francisco, you can start a text chat with us here. Thanks!