> I hack on Mastodon and it uses WSS for streams and they're very helpful.
I'm not familiar with Mastodon or WSS. Can you describe how using WSS make the end user's experience better? What would be different if web sockets weren't used?
Mastodon is a federated/distributed social networking server that communicates with other servers via a protocol called ActivityPub. The interface feels sorta like Twitter, but it doesn't have to be.
There are other FOSS ActiviyPub servers such as Pleroma (written in Elixir), Pixelfed (Instagram type interface) and PeerTube (distributed video). ActivityPub is a protocol (like e-mail/SMTP) for subscribing and replying to posts. ActiviyPub is just used for the backend (how servers communicate with other servers; like SMTP sending e-mail or RSS readers polling RSS).
Mastodon uses websockets to stream posts to the client/web browser. People who make mobile apps and desktop clients also tend to use WSS. It does fall back to regular HTTP polling in case WSS fails. Pleroma and others also re-implement the mastodon API. It means you can have different front-end web clients (Pleroma-fe, soapbox-fe, etc) on top of different backends (Mastodon/Pleroma).
The advantage of WSS is being able to stream new statuses with a socket, rather than polling constantly for new updates.
If you get on a Mastodon/Pleroma/Pixelfed instance (there are hundreds out there or you can setup your own), you can follow me at @djsumdog@hitchhiker.social
I'm not familiar with Mastodon or WSS. Can you describe how using WSS make the end user's experience better? What would be different if web sockets weren't used?