Widely available Supported across all major browsers. Safe to use in production.

BroadcastChannel

The BroadcastChannel interface represents a named channel that any browsing context of a given origin can subscribe to. It allows communication between different documents (in different windows, tabs, frames or iframes) of the same origin. Messages are broadcasted via a message event fired at all BroadcastChannel objects listening to the channel, except the object that sent the message.

EventTarget BroadcastChannel

Messaging and Workers

Browser support

Feature Desktop Mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Safari
Chrome Android
Safari iOS
BroadcastChannel
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BroadcastChannel

The BroadcastChannel() constructor creates a new BroadcastChannel and connects it to the underlying channel.
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close

The close() method of the BroadcastChannel interface terminates the connection to the underlying channel, allowing the object to be garbage collected. This is a necessary step to perform as there is no other way for a browser to know that this channel is not needed anymore.
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message_event

The message event of the BroadcastChannel interface fires when a message arrives on that channel.
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messageerror_event

The messageerror event of the BroadcastChannel interface fires when a message that can't be deserialized arrives on the channel.
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name

The name read-only property of the BroadcastChannel interface returns a string, which uniquely identifies the given channel with its name. This name is passed to the BroadcastChannel.BroadCastChannel constructor at creation time and is therefore read-only.
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postMessage

The postMessage() method of the BroadcastChannel interface sends a message, which can be of any kind of Object, to each listener in any browsing context with the same origin. The message is transmitted as a BroadcastChannel/message_event event targeted at each BroadcastChannel bound to the channel.
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1+Supported (version) Not supported ※Has note Sub-feature descriptions sourced from MDN Web Docs (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Use cases

  • Using BroadcastChannel

    The BroadcastChannel interface represents a named channel that any browsing context of a given origin can subscribe to.

Cautions

  • May not be supported in older browsers.

Implementation notes

  • Some APIs require a secure context (HTTPS) or user activation. Check the requirements before use.

Related links