The main difference between Server message and P2P message is the delay and the presence of a server in the middle.
P2P Message | Server Message: |
| In P2P messaging, the messages are sent through the WebRTC Data Channel (through the peer connection). | In Server messaging, messages are sent through the Signalling Server. |
| When you send a message to many peers through P2P messaging, you end up sending one-on-one messages to multiple people. | The message is sent to the server which then broadcasts it to other peers. |
| P2P will be faster, but might end up bloating the sending peer. | Relayed might add some latency, but is lighter on the sending peer. |
| P2P Messaging uses the RTCDataChannel where all data is secured with Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS). | Server messaging is useful when there are a lot of peers ( i.e.) to balance load. In the future, this would allow features such as asynchronous communication (e.g. store the message and send it when the user gets online). |
| SDK | P2P Message | Server Message |
| Skylink SDK for Web | sendP2PMessage | sendMessage |
| Skylink SDK for Android | sendP2PMessage | sendServerMessage |
| Skylink SDK for iOS | sendDCMessage | sendCustomMessage |
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