Camus

Camus is a video chat app that uses WebRTC for direct peer-to-peer communication. Users can create public or private rooms, optionally protected by a password. In addition to streaming audio and video from a webcam and microphone, Camus also provides screen sharing and text chat.

Features

• Webcam streaming
• Desktop sharing
• Text chat
• Room management (public/private, password/no password, guest limits)

Demo

You can find a live demo at https://camus.chat.

Running

Using Snap

Make sure you have snapd installed. Install Camus:

$ sudo snap install camus

Once installed, Camus runs automatically as a Snap service. See the Snap service management documentation for details on starting and stopping services.

Go to localhost:5000 in your browser. For local testing, you can visit the same room in multiple tabs and each tab will act as a separate client.

Using Python

Camus requires Python 3.7 or higher since it makes use of Quart and async syntax. As usual, it's best to use a virtual environment.

Install Camus:

$ pip install camus-chat

Run Camus:

$ camus

Go to localhost:5000 in your browser. For local testing, you can visit the same room in multiple tabs and each tab will act as a separate client.

Using Docker

You can find a pre-built Docker image on Docker Hub. Use the following command to pull the image and run a container:

$ docker run -d -p 5000:5000 mrgnr/camus

Go to localhost:5000 in your browser. For local testing, you can visit the same room in multiple tabs and each tab will act as a separate client.

Using Heroku

Simply click the button above or see the deployment documentation for detailed instructions.

How it works

See the technical overview to understand how Camus works.

Development

See the development documentation for build & test instructions.

Roadmap

v0.1

• [x] Audio/video streaming
• [x] Desktop sharing
• [x] Text chat
• [x] Cross-browser support (using Babel, Adapter)
  • [x] Chromium/Chrome/Brave
  • [x] Firefox
  • [x] Safari
• [x] Support TURN server

v0.2

• [x] Rewrite the UI using React [PR #3, #4]
• [x] Video feed controls (fullscreen, picture-in-picture, resolution, audio level, visibility) [PR #5]
• [x] Configurable TURN server in the client [PR #6]
• [x] Snap package [PR #7]
• [ ] Make the UI accessible

v0.3+

• [ ] Persistent storage (SQLite, Redis, and/or PostgreSQL)
• [ ] User accounts, persistent user settings
• [ ] Support SFU for client scalability