What is video calling?
Embedded video calling lets users have live video sessions directly inside your application, without being redirected to Zoom or FaceTime. The call happens in a browser tab or within a native app, in a room managed by your system, with the session tied to your data (bookings, patient records, job cards).
For many industries this is no longer a novelty — telehealth providers, financial advisers, mortgage brokers, and property managers in Australia increasingly offer video consultations as a core part of their service. Embedding the call inside the platform means the context is right there: the adviser can see the client's portfolio, the doctor can review the patient's record, the property manager can walk through the inspection report.
The underlying technology is WebRTC, a browser-native standard for real-time media. Building on WebRTC directly is complex; the practical approach is to use a managed platform that handles the infrastructure.
When does your app need it?
- You provide professional consultations (health, legal, financial, real estate) and want clients to connect from within your booking or case management system
- You have a marketplace of service providers and want to offer virtual delivery of services directly on your platform
- Your team conducts internal interviews, reviews, or support sessions that you want logged and optionally recorded alongside relevant records
- You need waiting room functionality — clients check in and a practitioner admits them when ready
- You want to offer screensharing so advisers can walk clients through documents or proposals
- Compliance or clinical requirements mean you need session recordings stored in association with a record
How much does it cost?
Adding video calling typically adds 13–27 hours of development — roughly $2,000–$6,000 AUD.
At the simpler end, this covers basic one-to-one calls with a join link generated at booking time, using a provider's prebuilt UI components. At the more complex end, it includes custom call UI, waiting rooms, recording with storage and playback, participant management, and compliance configuration for regulated contexts such as Australian telehealth or financial advice.
How it's typically built
The most common providers for embedded video in Australian applications are Daily.co, Agora, and LiveKit (open source, self-hostable). Each provides a JavaScript SDK that renders a video call interface inside your app. Your server creates a room and issues access tokens; participants join using those tokens from the client. The provider's infrastructure handles all the media routing, TURN server management, and codec negotiation.
Recording is handled either by the provider (cloud recording at a per-minute cost) or by the application (triggering a recording, storing to S3). For telehealth applications, data sovereignty and storage location matter — Australian health information must comply with the My Health Records Act and relevant state health privacy legislation. Providers like Daily.co allow specifying AWS region for data residency. HIPAA-aligned configuration (encryption in transit, access controls, audit logs) maps reasonably well to Australian health privacy requirements, though specific advice from a privacy professional is warranted. Ongoing infrastructure costs are per-minute and per-participant.
Questions to ask your developer
- Which video provider will you use? Daily.co, Agora, and LiveKit have different pricing models, latency characteristics, and compliance certifications.
- Do you need cloud recording, and where must recordings be stored? For health or financial services, data residency in Australia may be a requirement.
- Is this a one-to-one or group call use case? Group calls (more than two participants) add complexity and increase per-minute infrastructure costs.
- Do you need a waiting room with practitioner-controlled admit? This is a common requirement for healthcare and advisory contexts.
- What compliance obligations apply? Telehealth in Australia has specific requirements; discuss these before choosing a provider.
See also: Booking and scheduling · In-app chat · App cost calculator