The industry realized that relying on a Cisco-funded project to prop up an aging codec (H.264) was not a sustainable long-term strategy. The battles with MPEG LA had taught the open-source community a hard lesson: they needed a codec born free, not freed by corporate charity.
But the internet moves slowly. AV1 requires massive computational power (ASICs) that older phones and laptops lack. H.264 remains the universal fallback. Consequently, OpenH264 is still used billions of times a day in WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) for video calls. Every time you use WhatsApp Web or Discord screen sharing, you are likely using Cisco’s codec. one battle after another openh264
The H.264 video coding standard (also known as AVC) is the lingua franca of the internet. It powers YouTube, Zoom, FaceTime, and virtually every Blu-ray disc. However, H.264 is not "free." It is owned by a pool of nearly three dozen corporations (including Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony) who hold essential patents. The industry realized that relying on a Cisco-funded