What is latency?

Latency is the gap between the moment a message is sent and it becomes available to the recipient. Various factors impact latency, such as device capabilities, network conditions, and message encryption.

Low latency or zero latency is an essential feature of in-app communications because users expect near-instant connections when messaging, video calling, voice calling, and live streaming. High latency diminishes the user experience, causing delays in message delivery, calling, or file syncing, especially in the case of media files. This degrades the immediate nature of in-app conversations, frustrates users, and reduces satisfaction. This is especially true in real-time environments that rely on collaboration.

Service providers employ various strategies to minimize latency and ensure a responsive, seamless in-app communications experience. These efforts focus on reducing the time it takes for a message to travel from sender to recipient and include:

• Optimizing protocols: Using efficient communication protocols can help reduce overhead and improve message delivery speed. Well-designed, proven communications APIs are designed for protocol optimization, load balancing, efficient message routing, and fast message delivery.

• Caching: Caching frequently accessed data on the user’s device locally reduces the need for repeated data requests, and reduces latency.

• Using content delivery networks (CDNs): CDNs distribute data and content across multiple servers, racing the distance for message data to travel, which reduces latency.

To ensure low latency and timely communications for users, Sendbird and other leading in-app communications platforms offer robust APIs built with latency-reducing features.