WebSocket

You might say

How does a chat room receive new messages in real time?

A connection that stays open, letting both sides send messages at any timeWhen building live chat or real-time collaborative editing, the client and server need to stay connected. Standard HTTP requests open and close for each question and answer; WebSocket stays open after connecting so either side can send messages at any time. Because persistent connections can drop on network glitches, they typically include heartbeat checks and auto-reconnect logic.

Know first

HTTP

WebSocket

Ordinary requests versus WebSocket connections

Your page

？？ 1 Ask again each time; messages arriving within the interval wait for the next round

Server

Messages arriving within the polling interval are delayed; shorter intervals cost more requests.

Where message delay comes from in each

Ordinary requests have fixed delay: Messages arriving within the polling interval wait for the next round; shorter intervals cost more requests.

WebSocket pushes on arrival: The connection stays open, so the server sends new messages immediately; delay depends only on the network.

Both sides can send: It is not just server push: the client can send anytime over the same connection.

Quick checkChoose the best answer

A chat room is implemented by asking the server every second whether there are new messages. What problem does this cause?

Checking every second is real-time enough, no problemMake the page bigger so more messages show at onceMost per-second requests are empty polls, wasting requests and adding delay; real-time should use a persistent connection

You can say this to an AI Agent

The chat room currently polls for new messages every second. Switch to WebSocket: keep the connection open after it is established and push messages as they arrive. Auto-reconnect on disconnection; afterward confirm it is a persistent connection in the Network panel and test that messages resume after a network recovery.

Learn next

1Streaming Response→2HTTP→3Timeout→

Recommended tool

Web fine-tuning tool · Selector Pro

Select page elements for precise AI edits

Click a button, text, or card, note the change, then copy its exact location to AI.

Open Selector Pro website