Layer vs OpenTok: What are the differences?

What is Layer? Build messaging, voice and video right into your app in minutes. Layer's asynchronous messaging fabric is capable of transporting payloads of any type. Get your users talking with chat, voice or video messaging. Pull them back in with push. Connect friends, colleagues or perfect strangers seamlessly.

What is OpenTok? Enhance your products with live, face-to-face communication. OpenTok adds the clarity and emotion of face-to-face communication to your brand whether you're developing for the web, iOS, or Android. We make the integration of high-quality live video a breeze so that you can focus on building a great product.

Layer and OpenTok can be primarily classified as "Communications SDK" tools.

Some of the features offered by Layer are:

• Send any message payload (photos, videos, location, json data, etc) up to 2GB
• Build your UI quickly with sample UI components to get started
• User-expected communication features work right out of the box (full message state tracking, typing indicators, read receipts)

On the other hand, OpenTok provides the following key features:

• Layout control- Create layouts that complement your content and empower your application's experience.
• Peer-to-peer calls- Take advantage of peer-to-peer calling for better quality and lower- latency 1:1 scenarios.
• Archiving- Download or save calls for future playback with this extension to the OpenTok platform.