Voice and video messages

BlaB! AX Pro supports voice & video messages in Firefox, Firefox Mobile, Apple Safari 15+ (desktop and mobile) and any desktop/mobile Chromium based browser - Chrome, Chrome Mobile, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Brave, Vivaldi. Voice & video messages do NOT work in mobile apps as the required API is disabled in WebView. Apple Safari prior to version 15, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge (based on the old Edge Engine) are NOT supported. Voice and video message length/quality can be adjusted from the AdminCP. As some server settings cannot be detected, follow the steps below to increase the length & the quality of the video messages:

  1. Go to Admin CP » Settings » Voice & Video Messages
  2. Max filesize of the video/audio files in bytes - select a value below the displayed php.ini values.
  3. Set video bitrate at 0.5mbps and the length of the video message at 10s and save with OKAY.
  4. Reload the chat with F5 and record a 10s video message (wait for the timer to finish).
  5. Set video bitrate at 1.0mbps; leave the length of the video message at 10s.
  6. Reload the chat with F5 and record a 10s video message (wait for the timer to finish).
  7. Repeat steps 5-6 increasing the bitrate until the quality is acceptable (2.0mbps with resolution 640x480 should be fine).
  8. Increase the length with 2s, save with OKAY, reload the chat with F5 and record a 12s video message (wait for the timer to finish).
  9. Repeat step 8 increasing the length with 2s until a video message fails to upload.

IMPORTANT
Safari presently does not recognize the most important bitrate parameter and there is no functional solution. The default settings are tested to work.

From v21.01 BlaB! AX Pro can create thumbnails when uploading voice and video messages. ffmpeg must be installed on your host and shell_exec must be enabled in php.ini. Thumbnails are created on the fly in WEBP format. To enable thumbnails add/alter the following setting in config.php:

$ffmpeg_thumb=5; // framerate: 1-5; 0 = off; create thumbnails for voice/video messages with ffmpeg

In most cases you cannot install and enable ffmpeg / shell_exec on a shared hosting service!

Voice and video messages are recorded in webm format. In case you have ffmpeg installed or you can install ffmpeg on your server you can easily convert webm to standard mp4 which is widely used and supported by old browsers incl. Apple Safari. config.php

$ffmpeg_cnvrt=0; // convert voice/video messages to default mp4; NOT RECOMMENDED!
Page updated: 2022-10-05
 
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