Introduction

tip

If you are new to Socket.IO, we recommend checking out our tutorial.

What Socket.IO is

Socket.IO is a library that enables low-latency, bidirectional and event-based communication between a client and a server.

The Socket.IO connection can be established with different low-level transports:

• HTTP long-polling
• WebSocket
• WebTransport

Socket.IO will automatically pick the best available option, depending on:

• the capabilities of the browser (see here and here)
• the network (some networks block WebSocket and/or WebTransport connections)

You can find more detail about that in the "How it works" section.

Server implementations

Language	Website
JavaScript (Node.js)	- Installation steps - API - Source code
JavaScript (Deno)	https://github.com/socketio/socket.io-deno
Java	https://github.com/mrniko/netty-socketio
Java	https://github.com/trinopoty/socket.io-server-java
Python	https://github.com/miguelgrinberg/python-socketio
Golang	https://github.com/googollee/go-socket.io
Rust	https://github.com/Totodore/socketioxide

Client implementations

Language	Website
JavaScript (browser, Node.js or React Native)	- Installation steps - API - Source code
JavaScript (for WeChat Mini-Programs)	https://github.com/weapp-socketio/weapp.socket.io
Java	https://github.com/socketio/socket.io-client-java
C++	https://github.com/socketio/socket.io-client-cpp
Swift	https://github.com/socketio/socket.io-client-swift
Dart	https://github.com/rikulo/socket.io-client-dart
Python	https://github.com/miguelgrinberg/python-socketio
.Net	https://github.com/doghappy/socket.io-client-csharp
Rust	https://github.com/1c3t3a/rust-socketio
Kotlin	https://github.com/icerockdev/moko-socket-io
PHP	https://github.com/ElephantIO/elephant.io

What Socket.IO is not

caution

Socket.IO is NOT a WebSocket implementation.

Although Socket.IO indeed uses WebSocket for transport when possible, it adds additional metadata to each packet. That is why a WebSocket client will not be able to successfully connect to a Socket.IO server, and a Socket.IO client will not be able to connect to a plain WebSocket server either.

// WARNING: the client will NOT be able to connect!
const socket = io("ws://echo.websocket.org");

If you are looking for a plain WebSocket server, please take a look at ws or µWebSockets.js.

There are also discussions for including a WebSocket server in the Node.js core.

On the client-side, you might be interested in the robust-websocket package.

caution

Socket.IO is not meant to be used in a background service for mobile applications.

The Socket.IO library keeps an open TCP connection to the server, which may result in a high battery drain for your users. Please use a dedicated messaging platform like FCM for this use case.

Features

Here are the features provided by Socket.IO over plain WebSockets:

HTTP long-polling fallback

The connection will fall back to HTTP long-polling in case the WebSocket connection cannot be established.

This feature was the #1 reason people used Socket.IO when the project was created more than ten years ago (!), as the browser support for WebSockets was still in its infancy.

Even if most browsers now support WebSockets (more than 97%), it is still a great feature as we still receive reports from users that cannot establish a WebSocket connection because they are behind some misconfigured proxy.

Automatic reconnection

Under some particular conditions, the WebSocket connection between the server and the client can be interrupted with both sides being unaware of the broken state of the link.

That's why Socket.IO includes a heartbeat mechanism, which periodically checks the status of the connection.

And when the client eventually gets disconnected, it automatically reconnects with an exponential back-off delay, in order not to overwhelm the server.

Packet buffering

The packets are automatically buffered when the client is disconnected, and will be sent upon reconnection.

More information here.

Acknowledgements

Socket.IO provides a convenient way to send an event and receive a response:

Sender

socket.emit("hello", "world", (response) => {
  console.log(response); // "got it"
});

Receiver

socket.on("hello", (arg, callback) => {
  console.log(arg); // "world"
  callback("got it");
});

You can also add a timeout:

socket.timeout(5000).emit("hello", "world", (err, response) => {
  if (err) {
    // the other side did not acknowledge the event in the given delay
  } else {
    console.log(response); // "got it"
  }
});

Broadcasting

On the server-side, you can send an event to all connected clients or to a subset of clients:

// to all connected clients
io.emit("hello");

// to all connected clients in the "news" room
io.to("news").emit("hello");

This also works when scaling to multiple nodes.

Multiplexing

Namespaces allow you to split the logic of your application over a single shared connection. This can be useful for example if you want to create an "admin" channel that only authorized users can join.

io.on("connection", (socket) => {
  // classic users
});

io.of("/admin").on("connection", (socket) => {
  // admin users
});

More on that here.

Common questions

Is Socket.IO still needed today?

That's a fair question, since WebSockets are supported almost everywhere now.

That being said, we believe that, if you use plain WebSockets for your application, you will eventually need to implement most of the features that are already included (and battle-tested) in Socket.IO, like reconnection, acknowledgements or broadcasting.

What is the overhead of the Socket.IO protocol?

socket.emit("hello", "world") will be sent as a single WebSocket frame containing 42["hello","world"] with:

• 4 being Engine.IO "message" packet type
• 2 being Socket.IO "message" packet type
• ["hello","world"] being the JSON.stringify()-ed version of the arguments array

So, a few additional bytes for each message, which can be further reduced by the usage of a custom parser.

info

The size of the browser bundle itself is 10.4 kB (minified and gzipped).

You can find the details of the Socket.IO protocol here.

Something does not work properly, please help?

Please check our Troubleshooting guide.

Next steps

• Get started example
• Server installation
• Client installation