Overview

Channels is a simple hosted API for quickly, easily and securely integrating realtime bi-directional functionality via WebSockets to web and mobile apps, or any other Internet connected device.

Channels offers a rich suite of libraries that you can use within your applications, including a JavaScript client library for web and HTML5 apps.

Channels event based abstraction makes it simple to bind UI interactions to events that are triggered from any client or server.

Channels uses WebSockets (with HTTP-based fallbacks in the JavaScript client library) to future proof your applications and make it easy for you to add bi-directional communication to your apps whilst keeping data usage to a minimum.

As well as a WebSockets API, Channels has a HTTP API for publishing your messages. This is ideally suited to web server technologies and Channels has a set of HTTP API libraries in many common languages to help you to do this.

Channels has a simple Publish/Subscribe model that allows you to filter and control how people receive your messages.

Channels supplies functionality such as authentication mechanisms for private channels, and presence functionality for keeping track of who’s online.

Channels gives you tools for debugging your applications, and if you get stuck, you can always get in touch with us for a chat.

Getting started

To get started check out the JavaScript quick start guide, the Client API Overview or the Server API Overview. Alternatively have a look at some of the examples of Channels in use, or check out some of the resources we have collected.

Have you tried using the search to find what you’re after? If you still have a question then get in touch with us and let us help you out.