WebSockets are a powerful technology that enables real-time, two-way communication between a browser (client) and a server. Unlike traditional HTTP, which follows a request–response pattern, WebSockets keep a persistent connection open so that either side can send data at any time. This article will guide you from the basics of WebSockets to advanced techniques, with practical JavaScript examples and best practices. By the end, you’ll know how to confidently implement WebSockets in your frontend applications for features like live chat, real-time updates, and more.

What Are WebSockets?

WebSockets are a communication protocol providing full-duplex (two-way) communication over a single, long-lived connection. Once a WebSocket connection is established, the client and server can continuously exchange messages without the overhead of opening new connections for each message. In other words, data can flow freely in both directions much like a phone call, rather than the one-way “client asks, server answers” model of HTTP. This persistent, event-driven connection means you no longer have to poll the server for updates – the server can send updates to the client instantly as they happen.

How WebSockets differ from HTTP: In a traditional HTTP scenario, if a webpage needs new data (for example, updates to a feed), it must repeatedly ask the server (via periodic requests or long-polling). This introduces latency and overhead. WebSockets, by contrast, use a single handshake (an HTTP request with an Upgrade: websocket header) to establish a connection, then operate outside the HTTP protocol for as long as needed. After the handshake, the connection remains open, allowing either side to send data whenever new information is available. This low-latency, always-on link makes WebSockets ideal for real-time applications where milliseconds matter.

Why Use WebSockets in Frontend Applications?

WebSockets shine in any scenario that requires instant or real-time communication. Here are some common use cases:

Chat and Messaging Apps: Instant messaging platforms (from simple chat rooms to complex messengers) use WebSockets to deliver messages the moment a user hits “send,” and to broadcast incoming messages to all participants in real-time. This creates a seamless, live conversation experience.
Live Data Feeds: Financial dashboards and trading platforms stream stock prices, cryptocurrency rates, or sports scores using WebSockets for up-to-the-millisecond updates. Unlike periodic polling (which might miss changes or waste resources checking for updates), WebSockets push new data to the UI as soon as it’s available.
Online Gaming: Multiplayer games (even simple browser-based ones) require constant sync between players. WebSockets let the game client and server exchange player movements, actions, and game state instantly, keeping all players in sync.
Collaborative Applications: Tools like live document editors or whiteboards use WebSockets so that edits made by one user propagate to all other users in real time. This event-driven model ensures everyone sees the latest changes without manually refreshing.
Notifications and Presence Updates: Social media or collaboration apps can use WebSockets to instantly notify the frontend of new notifications, online/offline status changes, or other events, providing a responsive user experience.

Efficiency and latency: WebSockets are generally more efficient for real-time apps than hacks over HTTP (like long-polling). With long-polling, the client repeatedly makes HTTP requests that the server holds open until data is available, then the cycle repeats. This adds latency (multiple HTTP handshakes) and overhead (HTTP headers each time). WebSockets avoid that by maintaining one open connection over which minimal framing is used to send messages. The result is lower latency delivery of data and reduced network chatter. WebSockets operate on a lightweight message frame protocol, which keeps interactions snappy and efficient for high-frequency updates.

Bidirectional communication: Another advantage is that communication isn’t only server→client. The client can send messages to the server at any time as well – useful for interactive applications. This is a key difference from Server-Sent Events (SSE), which allow server push but do not natively let the client send arbitrary messages back. SSEs auto-reconnect on drop and are simple for one-way streams, but WebSockets support full bidirectional exchange (with the trade-off that you, the developer, handle reconnection logic yourself).

In short, if your frontend needs instant updates or two-way interaction, WebSockets are often the tool of choice. They’ve become a cornerstone of modern real-time web apps and are well-supported across browsers today.

Setting Up a WebSocket Connection (Basic Usage)

Using WebSockets in the browser is straightforward. The WebSocket API is built into modern browsers, exposing a WebSocket JavaScript object. To open a connection, simply create a new WebSocket instance:

// Create a new WebSocket connection to the given URL
const socket = new WebSocket("wss://example.com/socket");

A few things to note in the URL:

Protocol: Use ws:// for unencrypted connections and wss:// for TLS-encrypted connections (similar to HTTP vs HTTPS). In practice, you should use wss:// for any production or public-facing app to secure the data in transit. In fact, most browsers now disallow opening a ws:// (insecure WebSocket) from an HTTPS page. So, if your site is served over HTTPS, use wss:// for the WebSocket URL to avoid a blocked mixed content scenario.
Host/Port: The URL can include a hostname, port, and path just like an HTTP URL. Often, WebSocket servers listen on the same domain but a different port, or on a specific path (e.g. wss://example.com/chat).
Subprotocols (optional): The WebSocket constructor accepts an optional second argument for subprotocol(s). This is a string or array of strings indicating protocol names that client and server agree upon to format the messages (for example, a chat protocol or a game protocol). If you don’t need a custom subprotocol, you can ignore this parameter – it’s mostly useful if the server expects a certain protocol name.

When you call new WebSocket(...), the browser begins the connection handshake in the background. The WebSocket object will go through a few ready states: CONNECTING (0), then OPEN (1) once the handshake is complete. If the connection fails or once it closes, it moves to CLOSED (3) (there’s also a transitional CLOSING (2) state during teardown). You can check socket.readyState at any time to see this status.

Now, let’s handle the WebSocket events to actually use the connection:

const socket = new WebSocket("wss://example.com/socket");

// Event: connection opened
socket.onopen = () => {
  console.log("✅ WebSocket connection established.");
  // You can now send messages
  socket.send("Hello server!");  // Example: send a greeting once open
};

// Event: message received from server
socket.onmessage = (event) => {
  const receivedData = event.data;
  console.log("📨 Message from server:", receivedData);
  // You could add logic here to update the UI based on the message
};

// Event: error occurred
socket.onerror = (error) => {
  console.error("WebSocket error:", error);
};

// Event: connection closed
socket.onclose = (event) => {
  console.warn(`WebSocket closed (code ${event.code}).`);
};

Let’s break down what’s happening:

Opening the connection (onopen event): This fires when the handshake is successful and the connection is ready. We log a confirmation, and as an example, immediately send a message to the server. (We can only call send() after the socket is open; if you attempt to send too early, the message may be queued or the call might fail. It’s best to send within or after the onopen handler.)
Receiving messages (onmessage event): Whenever the server sends a message, the onmessage handler runs. The event object’s event.data property contains the message payload, typically as a string (by default, WebSocket text frames come in as strings; binary frames can be ArrayBuffer or Blob objects). In this example we just log it, but in a real app you’d parse it or use it to update the interface. For instance, if the server sends JSON, you can do const data = JSON.parse(event.data) to get the object.
Error handling (onerror event): If something goes wrong (e.g. a network error), the onerror event fires. The browser will also eventually close the socket in many error cases. In the code above, we simply log the error. Depending on the app, you might show a user notification here. Note that the onerror event doesn’t give you super detailed info for security reasons; often it’s just a signal that the connection is not working as expected.
Connection closed (onclose event): This event triggers when the WebSocket is closed. The event.code is a numeric code indicating the reason (for example, 1000 means a normal closure, 1006 might indicate an abnormal closure with no close frame, etc.), and event.wasClean indicates if the closure was clean. Here we log a warning. You might use this to update UI (e.g., disable real-time features or show “Disconnected” status). We’ll discuss auto-reconnection strategies in a later section.

These four events (open, message, error, close) cover the basic lifecycle of a WebSocket connection. You can also attach these listeners using socket.addEventListener("message", handler) if you prefer instead of the onmessage property – either works.

Finally, if you want to close the connection from the client side (for example, when navigating away or logging out), you can call socket.close(). Optionally, you may provide a code and reason: socket.close(1000, "Goodbye"). After calling close, the onclose event will fire. It’s good practice to close sockets you no longer need to free up resources.

Browser support: The good news is WebSockets have broad support in all modern browsers. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera all support the standard WebSocket API. Even Internet Explorer 10 and 11 have WebSocket support (IE10 was the first IE to include it). You generally don’t need polyfills for WebSockets today. If you have to support an environment that truly lacks WebSockets or where WebSockets are blocked, you might consider fallbacks (like long-polling or SSE) or use a library (like Socket.IO) which provides those fallbacks automatically. But for most cases in 2025 and beyond, you can use WebSockets directly.

One caveat: Some corporate networks or older proxies might block WebSocket connections or cut them off due to unfamiliar protocols. If your target users are on such networks, it’s something to be aware of. Using standard ports (80 for ws, 443 for wss) and having a fallback can mitigate this.

Now that we have the basics, let’s see WebSockets in action with practical examples.

Example: Building a Simple Chat App UI

One classic example of WebSockets is a chat application. Let’s imagine a minimal chat web app: users can send messages and see messages from others in real-time. WebSockets are a perfect fit for this use case – the server can broadcast messages to all connected clients instantly, and each client can send new chat messages to the server.

On the frontend side, using the WebSocket API, we can implement this with just a bit of code:

Connect to the chat server via WebSocket (perhaps when the page loads).
Send a message when the user submits a chat input.
Receive messages from the server and update the chat display immediately.

Here’s a simplified example of how that might look:

const ws = new WebSocket("wss://chat.example.com");  // Connect to chat server

// When connection opens, maybe notify or load history
ws.onopen = () => {
  console.log("Connected to chat server.");
};

// Handle incoming messages
ws.onmessage = (event) => {
  const message = event.data;
  // Assume we have a <ul id="messages"> to list chat messages
  const messagesList = document.getElementById("messages");
  const newItem = document.createElement("li");
  newItem.textContent = message;
  messagesList.appendChild(newItem);
};

// Send message when user submits the form
const form = document.getElementById("chat-form");
const input = document.getElementById("chat-input");
form.addEventListener("submit", (e) => {
  e.preventDefault();
  if (input.value) {
    ws.send(input.value);       // send the chat text to the server
    input.value = "";           // clear the input
  }
});

In this snippet, every time a message comes in (ws.onmessage), we create a new list item in the chat log. When the user submits the form, we take whatever is in the text input and send it over the WebSocket (ws.send(input.value)). The server would then distribute that message to all connected clients (including possibly echoing back to the sender), and thus everyone’s onmessage handler will fire with the new chat text, appending it to their list.

Key things to note:

We send the message as plain text. In a real app, you might send a structured message (like a JSON string including the username, timestamp, etc.). But the concept is the same – .send() can send strings or binary data to the server.
We append messages as they arrive. This is an example of how WebSockets enable an event-driven UI: you don’t know when the next message will come, but when it does, your code responds to the event and updates the DOM.
Error and close handling (not shown above for brevity) would be similar to the earlier example – you’d likely want to inform the user if they got disconnected or attempt to reconnect (we’ll cover reconnection soon).

This simple pattern forms the basis of any chat or real-time feed: listen for messages and update the UI accordingly, and send user-generated messages back to the server. With WebSockets, the chat feels instantaneous, as if all users are virtually in the same room.

Example: Real-Time Data Dashboard

Another common scenario for WebSockets on the frontend is a live data dashboard. Imagine you’re building a dashboard that shows real-time metrics – it could be stock prices, sensor readings, online user counts, or any dynamic data source. Without WebSockets, you might resort to polling the server every few seconds for updates, but that either introduces delay or wastes resources when data hasn’t changed. With WebSockets, the server can push new data to your app the moment it’s available, and your UI updates immediately.

Let’s consider a simple example: a dashboard showing the price of a cryptocurrency that updates in real time. The server sends a message whenever the price changes. On the client, we can do:

const ws = new WebSocket("wss://prices.example.com");
const priceLabel = document.getElementById("price");

// When a message with new data arrives:
ws.onmessage = (event) => {
  try {
    const update = JSON.parse(event.data);
    if (update.type === "priceUpdate") {
      priceLabel.textContent = `Price: $${update.price}`;
    }
  } catch (e) {
    console.error("Failed to parse update", e);
  }
};

In this snippet, we expect the server to send JSON messages (for example, {"type":"priceUpdate", "price": 123.45}). We parse the JSON and, if it’s a price update, we update a DOM element’s text to show the latest price. The user sees the price change instantaneously as the data arrives. We could extend this to update charts, add list entries, etc., depending on the data. The key is that our code reacts to each message event by updating the UI accordingly.

For a more complex dashboard, you might handle multiple message types (e.g., different metrics or alerts) by checking a type field in the message. WebSockets are also useful for real-time notifications – e.g., a server could send a message like {"type":"alert","message":"Threshold exceeded"} which you then use to pop up a notification in the interface.

Tip: When dealing with high-frequency messages (e.g., many updates per second), be mindful of performance. Frequent DOM updates or complex computations on every message can bog down the browser. In such cases, consider throttling UI updates or batching data. However, the WebSocket itself can handle quite a high message rate – the bottleneck is usually rendering. Using requestAnimationFrame or debouncing updates can help if needed, but that goes beyond our scope here.

Keeping the Connection Alive (Heartbeats)

Once a WebSocket connection is established, you want to keep it alive as long as it’s needed. However, there are a few scenarios where an idle connection might be dropped:

Some network intermediaries (proxies, load balancers) may drop connections that are inactive for a certain period (e.g., no data for 60 seconds) to conserve resources.
If a client or server crashes or loses network without closing the connection properly, one side might not immediately know the connection is gone.
Browser background tab throttling: Some browsers may throttle or limit activity (including network) in tabs that are in the background, which could potentially affect keep-alive intervals.

To address these, a common strategy is to send heartbeat messages. The WebSocket protocol itself includes Ping/Pong control frames at the protocol level – either endpoint can send a ping frame and the other will automatically reply with a pong. In fact, you can use these as a heartbeat to ensure the connection is still live. However, the browser’s WebSocket API does not give direct control to send ping frames manually (that’s handled internally or on the server side). From the frontend perspective, a typical solution is to implement an application-level heartbeat: i.e., send a small message on a regular interval.

For example, the client can send a ping message every 30 seconds:

// Send a heartbeat every 30 seconds to keep the connection alive
const heartbeatInterval = 30000;
const heartbeatTimer = setInterval(() => {
  if (socket.readyState === WebSocket.OPEN) {
    socket.send(JSON.stringify({ type: "ping" }));
  }
}, heartbeatInterval);

Here we’re sending a tiny JSON message {"type":"ping"} periodically (only if the socket is currently open). You’d coordinate with your server – for instance, the server could listen for this ping message and respond with a pong message, or simply ignore it but use the receipt of it to know the client is still active. If the server does respond with a pong (or its own heartbeat), your client could also listen for that to measure latency or confirm the connection’s health.

Many WebSocket servers/libraries have built-in ping/pong mechanisms. For example, a server might be configured to send a ping frame every 20 seconds of inactivity, and the browser will automatically reply with a pong (all behind the scenes). If you know your server does this, you might not need an explicit client heartbeat. But it doesn’t hurt to have one on the client side as an extra measure, especially to detect a dead connection. For instance, if you send pings and don’t get the expected responses (or any messages) for a while, you might decide the connection is stale and attempt to reconnect proactively.

The heartbeat ensures that idle connections stay alive and that both sides are aware the other is there. It’s a best practice for robust WebSocket apps to implement such keep-alive messages. The overhead is minimal (a few bytes every interval), but it can prevent the unpleasant surprise of a seemingly connected socket actually being dead after a period of silence.

Reconnecting After Disconnections

No matter how solid your connection, real-world networks are unreliable. A user might go through a tunnel and lose connectivity, the server might restart, or a transient error might occur. When a WebSocket disconnects unexpectedly, you typically want your application to recover gracefully. That means detecting the drop and reconnecting (establishing a new WebSocket connection) so that the real-time features continue to work without the user having to manually refresh the page.

WebSockets do not automatically reconnect – once onclose fires, that WebSocket object is done. If you want a new connection, you have to create a new WebSocket and set up the handlers again. This gives you, the developer, control over reconnection strategy (which is a good thing, because in some cases you might not want to reconnect immediately or at all).

A simple approach is: whenever the connection closes, try to open a new one after a short delay. However, doing this naïvely (e.g. reconnecting immediately in a tight loop) can overwhelm your server if it’s down – imagine thousands of clients hammering to reconnect constantly. A better approach is to use an exponential backoff strategy: wait a little, if it fails, wait a bit longer, and so on, up to a maximum interval. This reduces load on the server and avoids network thrashing. You can also add some randomness (jitter) to avoid all clients reconnecting in sync.

Let’s implement a basic reconnection mechanism in JavaScript:

let reconnectAttempts = 0;
const maxDelay = 30000;  // 30 seconds max between retries

function connectWebSocket() {
  const ws = new WebSocket("wss://example.com/socket");

  ws.onopen = () => {
    console.log("🔗 Connected to server");
    reconnectAttempts = 0;  // reset attempts on successful connection
  };

  ws.onmessage = (event) => {
    // ... handle incoming messages ...
  };

  ws.onerror = (err) => {
    console.error("WebSocket error:", err);
    ws.close();  // ensure the connection is closed and will trigger onclose
  };

  ws.onclose = (event) => {
    if (event.code !== 1000) {  // 1000 = normal closure by choice
      // Connection dropped unexpectedly
      const delay = Math.min(1000 * 2 ** reconnectAttempts, maxDelay);
      reconnectAttempts++;
      console.warn(`Connection lost. Reconnecting in ${delay}ms...`);
      setTimeout(connectWebSocket, delay);
    }
  };
}

// Start the initial connection
connectWebSocket();

In this code:

We define a function connectWebSocket() that creates the WebSocket and sets up all the event handlers.
On a clean open (onopen), we reset our reconnectAttempts counter because the connection is healthy again.
If an error occurs (onerror), we log it and explicitly close the socket. This will in turn trigger onclose.
In onclose, we check the close code. If it’s not a normal closure (1000 is the normal code meaning “purposeful close”), we assume something went wrong (network issue, server down, etc.). We then calculate a delay – here using 1000 * 2**reconnectAttempts which starts at 1 second and doubles each time. We cap it at maxDelay (30 seconds in this example) so it doesn’t grow unbounded. We schedule a retry using setTimeout to call connectWebSocket() again after that delay. We also increment the attempt counter.
If the connection was closed normally (maybe via user action or server intention with code 1000), we don’t attempt to reconnect in this logic.

This strategy ensures that if the server is down for an extended period, the clients will progressively wait longer between attempts, preventing a flood of reconnection attempts. Using an exponential backoff is considered best practice for reconnecting websockets (and network calls in general). It’s friendly to the server and eventually, the retry intervals become long enough that even a large number of clients won’t overwhelm anything.

You might notice we didn’t include a limit to the number of reconnection attempts. In many cases, it’s fine to retry indefinitely but with a long backoff – the app will just keep trying in the background to restore real-time functionality. Because the interval grows, it won’t hammer the server. However, you could decide to give up after some number of attempts or after some time window and perhaps notify the user to refresh or check their connection. This depends on the context of your app and user experience considerations.

It’s also a good idea to let the user know when the app is trying to reconnect (e.g., show “Reconnecting…” status) and when it succeeds or fails after many tries. This feedback can improve UX.

Bonus tips:

Add jitter to backoff: e.g., use a random factor around the delay (like delay = base * 2^n * (random 0.8–1.2)) so that multiple clients don’t all reconnect in the same second.
If your application workflow allows, provide a “Reconnect now” button. For example, if a user knows their network was down and just came back, they might want to force a retry immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled attempt.
Upon reconnecting, you might need to reinitialize some state. For instance, if the server doesn’t remember the subscriptions from the previous connection, your client may need to re-send any initial messages (like joining a room or requesting certain data) after a reconnect. Plan for this in your application protocol. In complex cases, you might also need to fetch any missed data that came through while you were disconnected (similar to catching up on missed messages) – sometimes a simple page refresh or a REST fetch on reconnect can sync things up.

By implementing a robust reconnection strategy, you ensure that temporary network issues or server restarts don’t derail your application’s real-time features. The user might experience a brief interruption, but your code will recover and continue updating as soon as possible.

Common Pitfalls and Best Practices

Before we wrap up, let’s highlight some common pitfalls and best practices when using WebSockets on the frontend:

Use Secure WebSockets (WSS): Always prefer wss:// over ws:// in production. Secure WebSockets encrypt the data over TLS, just like HTTPS. Not only is this important for protecting sensitive data, but browsers often forbid insecure WebSocket connections from secure pages. Using WSS avoids mixed content issues and eavesdropping risks. (If you’re just testing locally on http://localhost, a ws:// connection may work in some browsers, but it’s good to develop the habit of using WSS.)
Handle Network Issues Gracefully: As discussed, implement reconnection logic for better resilience. Don’t assume the connection will stay alive forever. Also consider what your app should do during a lost connection – e.g., disable send buttons, queue up user actions, or show an offline indicator. A smooth fallback experience keeps your app usable even when real-time updates pause.
Beware of Firewall/Proxy Restrictions: Some enterprise firewalls or proxies may block WebSockets or disconnect them aggressively. If your app’s users might be in such environments, plan a fallback. For example, you could switch to a polling mechanism or use a library that falls back to HTTP-based transports if WebSockets fail. Libraries like Socket.IO abstract this – they try WebSocket and if it fails (due to firewall, old browser, etc.), they can fall back to techniques like long-polling. The majority of cases won’t need this, but it’s good to be aware.
Don’t Leak Connections: If your single-page application opens a WebSocket, make sure to close it when appropriate. For example, if the user navigates to a part of the app where real-time updates aren’t needed, you might close the socket to free resources (especially if that data feed is heavy). Or if the page is being unloaded (user is closing tab), you can attempt to .close() the socket in the unload event. Browsers will typically close sockets automatically when a page unloads or refreshes, but explicitly closing can ensure the server knows the client disconnected promptly.
Structure Your Messages: It’s often useful to send JSON messages (or some structured format) rather than plain text, especially as your app grows. This allows you to include message types and data payloads. For instance, a chat app might send { type: "chat", user: "Alice", message: "Hello" }. Your client can then switch logic based on type. This becomes even more important if you use one WebSocket connection for multiple kinds of data/events.
Limit Number of Connections: Each browser tab or client that opens a WebSocket consumes resources on the server. Servers can usually handle many connections, but it’s not infinite. As a frontend developer, be mindful to reuse a single WebSocket connection for multiple needs if possible, rather than opening many separate connections to the same server. Also, some browsers impose limits on the number of WebSockets you can have open (per domain) – typically the limits are quite high, but in practice one per server is usually enough for most apps.
Testing and Debugging: Use your browser’s developer tools – most have a WebSocket inspector. For example, in Chrome DevTools, look under the Network tab and filter by “WS” to see WebSocket connections. You can view frames being sent and received in real time, which is invaluable for debugging. You can also test your WebSocket endpoints using tools like wscat (a command-line WebSocket client) or browser-based tools.
Browser Compatibility: As mentioned, virtually all users on modern browsers can use WebSockets. If you have an edge case (ancient browsers or specific platform), verify it, but generally you won’t hit compatibility issues in 2025. Mobile browsers also support WebSockets well. Remember that IE9 and lower do not support WebSockets – if you ever had to support such outdated clients, you’d need a fallback. But those are exceedingly rare now.
Security Considerations: Beyond using WSS, also consider authentication and authorization. Do not assume a WebSocket connection is private just because it’s open – you should still enforce auth. Many applications require an auth token or cookie when establishing the WebSocket (e.g., include a token in the query string or perform an initial authentication message). Also, be mindful of what data you send – only send data to clients that are allowed to see it (the server typically handles this by authenticating the connection or checking on each message). Additionally, validate inputs coming from the WebSocket as you would with any user input on the server side.

By following these practices, you’ll avoid common problems and ensure your WebSocket-based features are robust and secure. As one developer noted from experience: WebSockets have been a game-changer for real-time apps, reducing latency and improving performance compared to traditional polling – just remember to handle disconnects, implement heartbeats, use encryption, and consider using a helper library if your scenario calls for it.

Conclusion

WebSockets empower frontend developers to build truly dynamic, real-time web applications. In this article, we covered the journey from understanding what WebSockets are and why they’re useful, to establishing connections, sending/receiving messages, and handling advanced scenarios like keep-alives and reconnections. You’ve seen how a simple chat app or live data feed can be implemented with just a few event handlers and the WebSocket API, and how to tackle challenges like dropped connections or idle timeouts.

With WebSockets, you can deliver rich user experiences: chats that update instantly, dashboards that always display live data, games that respond in real time, and much more. All modern browsers support WebSockets, and by using the strategies discussed (secure connections, heartbeats, exponential backoff retries, etc.), you can make your real-time features reliable and user-friendly.

Now it’s your turn to put this into practice. Try adding a WebSocket to a project – perhaps create a small chat room or a live notification widget – to solidify these concepts. With the foundation from this guide, you should feel confident in using WebSockets in your frontend JavaScript applications. Happy hacking, and welcome to the real-time web!

Sources:

MDN Web Docs – The WebSocket API (WebSockets)
MDN Web Docs – Writing WebSocket client applications
AltexSoft Blog – What is WebSocket? API and Protocol Explained
AltexSoft Blog – WebSockets vs SSE vs HTTP
Dev.to – Robust WebSocket Reconnection Strategies
Stack Exchange – WebSocket reconnection best practices
Community Q&A – Browser support and tips for WebSockets
MDN Web Docs – Ping and Pong frames (heartbeat)

WebSockets for Frontend Developers: From Basics to Advanced

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