WebSockets

What are WebSockets?

WebSockets are a communication protocol that holds open a persistent, two-way connection between a client and a server over a single TCP connection. HTTP works on a request-and-response model, where the client has to start every exchange and the connection closes after each one. A WebSocket connection stays open, so either side can send data to the other at any moment with very little overhead.

That makes them a natural fit for anything that needs to update in real time. A live chat, a collaborative document where two people type at once, a trading dashboard ticking with fresh prices, a multiplayer game, push notifications. In each case the server needs to tell the client something changed without waiting to be asked. The connection itself starts life as an ordinary HTTP request, then gets upgraded to a WebSocket if both sides support the protocol, and from there it stays open until someone explicitly closes it.

Every modern browser supports them natively, and client and server libraries exist across just about every language and framework. When a product feels instant rather than refreshed, a WebSocket is often the reason.

WebSockets at Dallonses

We reach for WebSockets when a product genuinely needs to feel live, and we leave them out when it doesn't. Real-time is a commitment, not a feature toggle. It means thinking about reconnection, dropped messages, scaling the connection layer, and what happens when ten thousand people are connected at once.

When a client needs live collaboration or instant updates as part of their web development, we build it so it stays reliable under real load, not just in the demo. We handle the unglamorous parts, the reconnect logic and the fallbacks, so the feature holds up on a patchy mobile connection the same way it does on the office wifi.

Need your product to update the instant something changes? Let's build it.

Talk to us about real-time