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Stop paying for native haptic apis use this web library instead
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Paul dev
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Paul dev
@techwitpaul
Practical Software Developer | Comp. Science
Lagos, Nigeria Tham gia Temmuz 2017
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If you are a software engineer who wants to upskill in system design, bookmark these 13 sites:
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Does “WhatsApp” use WebSockets or gRPC?
Short answer: No.
What WhatsApp uses
WhatsApp uses a custom messaging protocol built on top of MQTT over TCP/TLS.
What is MQTT?
MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight publish–subscribe messaging protocol designed for:
•Low bandwidth networks
•High latency or unreliable connections
•Devices that need to stay connected with minimal battery usage
It was originally built for IoT, but its design fits mobile messaging extremely well.
How it works (high level)
•Each device maintains a persistent TCP connection to WhatsApp servers
•Messages are sent as binary payloads (not JSON)
•Uses acknowledgements to guarantee delivery
•Automatically recovers from network drops
•TLS is used for transport security (along with end-to-end encryption)
Why not WebSockets?
•Extra overhead for mobile networks
•Less battery-efficient at WhatsApp scale
•Not designed for intermittent connectivity
Why not gRPC?
•Best suited for backend microservices
•Not optimized for billions of client connections
•Browsers and mobile apps aren’t its primary target
TL;DR
•Browser apps → WebSockets
•Backend microservices → gRPC
•Massive mobile chat apps → Custom TCP + MQTT-style protocols
That’s how WhatsApp stays fast, reliable, and battery-friendly at scale.
girlInTech@ShradhaGhai
I was working on gRPC today… and here’s the simplest way to understand it. What is gRPC? A high-performance communication framework by Google. It lets services talk to each other using binary Protocol Buffers instead of JSON. Why is it better than normal HTTP/HTTPS? Because: •It’s much faster (binary > text) •Uses HTTP/2 → multiplexing, streaming, fewer connections •Strongly typed contracts via .proto files •Smaller payloads → ideal for microservices •Supports bi-directional streaming (something REST can’t do) When should you use gRPC? •Microservices that talk to each other inside your system •Real-time communication (chat, live updates, streaming logs) •High-performance internal APIs between backend services •When speed and low latency actually matter When is HTTPS/REST still better? •Public APIs (browsers, mobile clients, external partners) •When readability matters (JSON is easier to debug) •When you want simple CRUD endpoints •When you don’t want the overhead of creating .proto files Drop your questions if any🙌
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