You don’t need an app. It runs in the browser. I didn’t have to install anything with Edge.
There is nothing wrong with something needing Java on a server. Java code is compiled to require a Java VM (virtual machine) to run it. This isn’t any different than C++ requiring its runtime library (MS Visual C++ has a runtime component that needs to be installed, for example.) Java got a bad reputation when it was very young because they also allowed random Java code to run in a browser. That is no longer the case (it hasn’t been for nearly a decade or more) and Java on the server is just a platform, like any other (Perl, Python, Lua, Smalltalk, etc.)
Also, please don’t confuse Javascript with Java. Javascript is an abomination that “borrowed” and extended the Java name hoping to ride on its coattails. Javascript ALSO requires a runtime environment, just that most people already have it, it’s called a web browser. (There are Javascript based programs based on the Electron platform.)
TL;DR A development platform of any sort frequently needs a run time component installed to work right, Java is no different.
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This is a necessity of any voice/video conferencing service. The port numbers are probably standardized ones for specific protocols needed. HTTPS/SIP/RTSP/etc all come with specific requirements and any server app wanting to be interoperable with WebRTC has little choice in using them.
There are still a lot of sites around that require Java based components. Financial and B2B websites are the biggest culprits today.
In all honesty, Java in the browser would STILL be better than Javascript. The big difference, if such a thing is relevant, is that Javascript comes only in source form. But with minification JS code is as unreadable as a Java .class file. The problem was an unwillingness to break apart a browser only portion of Java from the whole enchilada until too many years too late. Allowing your browser to run ANY executable code you don’t know the provenance of is probably not great… but for some reason these days no one seems to care about the risks posed by Javascript.
As a professional programmer in among many other languages both C++ and Java, I can assure you that I am very familiar with both java’s VM and C++'s runtime libraries, and there is a world of difference between the two, but that is besides the point, I object to Java because it is a). badly designed and b). as slow as molasses, also if you code the crap you would know that it is forever deprecating and changing how you do a given thing (or at least google is in the android crap). As for Javascript or ECMAScript (I think is the official name) what has that to do with the issue.
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Thanks for your OPINION. As a professional programmer myself, I fully disagree with you. There is nothing slow about Java, that is a myth that has persisted for too long… badly designed code in ANY language/platform is slow. I worked on a system, fully written in Java, that handled 100,000 simultaneous REAL TIME users with no issues. There is also nothing poorly designed with Java… it is a significantly better thought out language than C++, without all the side effects of stupid decisions that went into turning a lean system programming language (C) into an OOP jenga tower like C++. Java used C syntax to make it familiar to existing C programmers, but was OOP from design day one. Java hasn’t hardly deprecated anything, to be honest. Android is not Java, and Java 14 (the current version) has added new abilities while maintaining backward compatibility with code all the way back to at least version 1.5.
So you don’t like Java, that’s fine. I don’t like C++, and that is also fine. Programmers are allowed to use what works. But I challenge you to write portable code for a modest web server in say 2 days, on C++, that runs on: IBM Mainframes, any Linux distro, Windows, Macintosh, an Android phone and a SOC like a Raspberry Pi. First you’ll probably have to master that heap of junk that is CMake… that alone could take you a couple of days. To do that in Java is so trivial as to be given as an assignment to first year CS students.
So please, no further appeal to authority on this topic for which there is nothing but personal opinions from which to draw.