Azure Communication Services Virtual Rooms is now Generally Available

 Virtual Rooms, a new set of APIs from Azure Communication Services, that enables developers to build rich communication experiences with a higher degree of control and structure is now generally available. Azure Communication Services Virtual Rooms allows developers to control who can join a call, when they meet, and how they collaborate during group meetings.

 

                    

 

Introducing Virtual Rooms

 

Virtual Rooms is a container that manages activity between Azure Communication Services end-users. It offers application developers platform support to control who can join a call, when they meet, and how they collaborate:

 

1. Control who can join the conversation. Virtual Rooms allow only invited users to join the conversation. This roster management ensures private communication, appropriate for a doctor’s visit, a classroom, or a courtroom etc., as configured by developers.
2. Schedule meeting times. The control over Virtual Rooms availability allows Azure Communication Services to serve a calendar function and configure the desired timeslot of appointments. In addition, the enforcement of specific time windows helps developers deliver graceful application behaviors and inform end-users of scheduled meeting times.
3. Assign roles and permissions. Virtual Rooms allow application developers to assign a role to each participant. Roles are pre-defined by the Virtual Rooms and limit what end-users can do in the audio/video call. For example, you can ensure that only presenters share content in a Virtual Room or any scenario where end-users’ permissions differ, like virtual classrooms, virtual courtrooms, or large corporate meetings.

To ensure developers have full control over scheduling, role assignment and roster controls, Virtual Rooms REST APIs are accessible through server authentication and libraries for .NET, Java, Python and JavaScript. Client-side operations, such as individuals joining the calls orchestrated by Virtual Rooms, will continue to be supported by the Azure Communication Services Calling SDK for web browsers (JavaScript).

 

                                                 

 

 

When to use Virtual Rooms?

 

Using Virtual Rooms, developers can build communication experiences for both ad-hoc conversations and complex virtual events. Virtual Rooms are best suited for applications that need to ensure the following facilities:

 

• Control over which participants are allowed to join calls.
• Coordination of meetings that start and end at a specified time and date.
• Assignment of roles and permissions for specific participants.

 

How to use Virtual Rooms?

 

Follow the steps below to create a virtual room for participants to join a call:

 

                                                                       

 

The quick start documentation will help you get started with Azure Communication Services Virtual Rooms and set up the server-side component. GitHub samples are available for .NET, Java, Python or JavaScript.

 

To join a call, follow the Virtual Rooms call quickstart guide.

 

Virtual Rooms SDK/API capabilities

 

Virtual Rooms server SDK enables the following operations:

	Operation type	Description
Create a virtual room	Server-side	Create a virtual room to facilitate virtual appointments and virtual events. Specify non-default parameters.
Update a virtual room roster: Add/Remove users	Server-side	Add or remove Azure Communications Services identities to a Virtual Rooms roster.
Update a virtual room schedule	Server-side	Update the time slot to configure when participants are allowed to join virtual room calls.
Get virtual room properties	Server-side	Returns full details and configurations of a virtual room, including its participants.
Delete virtual rooms	Server-side	Deletes a virtual room.
Get a list of virtual rooms	Server-side	Get a list of valid virtual rooms
Server events	Event Grid	Events such as Call Started/Ended, can be consumed via Event Grid.
Join a call in a virtual room	Client-side	Virtual Room participants can join calls using the Azure Communication Services Calling SDK for web browsers or mobile devices.

 

Learn more about Azure Communication Services Virtual Rooms

The following resources can be used to learn more about Virtual Rooms concepts and API.

• Conceptual documentation explains Virtual Rooms capabilities in detail.
• Quick start documentation allows you to quickly build and use Virtual Rooms in C#, Java, JavaScript, and Python.
• Virtual Rooms API Swagger provides a complete overview of object model and API.