WebSocket NOT supported in iPhone OS 4

Jim Bergman — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:58:36 +0000

UPDATE July 2010: since the beta 2 release of iOS4, Apple has disabled websocket support. A few readers pointed this out, so I made a trip to an Apple Store it run a few tests.

Confirmed: iOS4 as it is released reports it does NOT have websocket support.

ORIGINAL POST:

Since the Safari web browser on the iPhone is based on WebKit, it makes sense that at some point support for WebSocket would make it to the iPhone.

Safari on iPhone OS 4 does support WebSocket.

Once OS 4 is available for the iPad, support should be there as well.

Thanks to reader Arun for pointing this out.

Test your web browser for Web Socket support

Jim Bergman — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:34:50 +0000

Google announced an improved way for a web application to communicate with a server. The new method is called Web Sockets. You can read more info here on Web Sockets.

Here is a quick test to see if your web browser supports Web Sockets. At the time this post was published Google Chrome developer channel release 4.0.249.0 is the only browser to support Web Sockets.

Here is the JavaScript code (or right click and save file as WebSocketTest.js):

function WebSocketTest()
{
  if ("WebSocket" in window)
  {
    // Google example code
    //  var ws = new WebSocket("ws://example.com/service");
    //  ws.onopen = function()
    //  {
    //    // Web Socket is connected. You can send data by send() method
    //    ws.send("message to send"); ....
    //  };
    //  ws.onmessage = function (evt) { var received_msg = evt.data; ... };
    //  ws.onclose = function() { // websocket is closed. };
    alert("WebSocket supported here!\r\n\r\nBrowser: " + navigator.appName + " " + navigator.appVersion + "\r\n\r\ntest by jimbergman.net (based on Google sample code)");
  }
  else
  {
    // the browser doesn't support WebSocket
    alert("WebSocket NOT supported here!\r\n\r\nBrowser: " + navigator.appName + " " + navigator.appVersion + "\r\n\r\ntest by jimbergman.net (based on Google sample code)");
  }
}

Sample HTML code (save file as WebSocketTest.html in same folder as .js file above):



JimBergman.net - JavaScript: WebSocketTest



Run WebSocket test

UPDATE:

Result of this test on an Windows 7 PC in Google Chrome v4.0.249.0

Result of this test on an Windows 7 PC in Mozilla Firefox v3.5.5

Result of this test on an Windows 7 PC in Microsoft Internet Explorer v8.0.7100.0

Result of this test on an Apple iPhone in OS 3.1.2

JimBergman.net » websocket

WebSocket NOT supported in iPhone OS 4

Test your web browser for Web Socket support