BroadcastChannel: message event

Baseline 2022

Newly available

Since March 2022, this feature works across the latest devices and browser versions. This feature might not work in older devices or browsers.

The message event is fired on a BroadcastChannel object when a message arrives on that channel.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

addEventListener("message", (event) => { })
onmessage = (event) => { }

Event type

A MessageEvent. Inherits from Event.

Event properties

In addition to the properties listed below, properties from the parent interface, Event, are available.

data Read only: The data sent by the message emitter.
origin Read only: A string representing the origin of the message emitter.
lastEventId Read only: A string representing a unique ID for the event.
source Read only: A message event source, which is either a WindowProxy, a MessagePort, or a ServiceWorker object representing the message emitter.
ports Read only: An array of MessagePort objects representing the ports associated with the channel the message is being sent through (where appropriate, e.g. in channel messaging or when sending a message to a shared worker).

In this example there's a "sender" <iframe> that broadcasts the contents of a <textarea> when the user clicks a button. There are two "receiver" iframes that listen to the broadcast message and write the result into a <div> element.

Sender

<h1>Sender</h1>
<label for="message">Type a message to broadcast:</label><br />
<textarea id="message" name="message" rows="1" cols="40">Hello</textarea>
<button id="broadcast-message" type="button">Broadcast message</button>

body {
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 0.5rem;
  height: 150px;
  font-family: "Fira Sans", sans-serif;
}

h1 {
  font:
    1.6em "Fira Sans",
    sans-serif;
  margin-bottom: 1rem;
}

textarea {
  padding: 0.2rem;
}

label,
br {
  margin: 0.5rem 0;
}

button {
  vertical-align: top;
  height: 1.5rem;
}

const channel = new BroadcastChannel("example-channel");
const messageControl = document.querySelector("#message");
const broadcastMessageButton = document.querySelector("#broadcast-message");

broadcastMessageButton.addEventListener("click", () => {
  channel.postMessage(messageControl.value);
});

Receiver 1

<h1>Receiver 1</h1>
<div id="received"></div>

body {
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 0.5rem;
  height: 100px;
  font-family: "Fira Sans", sans-serif;
}

h1 {
  font:
    1.6em "Fira Sans",
    sans-serif;
  margin-bottom: 1rem;
}

const channel = new BroadcastChannel("example-channel");
channel.addEventListener("message", (event) => {
  received.textContent = event.data;
});

Receiver 2

<h1>Receiver 2</h1>
<div id="received"></div>

body {
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 0.5rem;
  height: 100px;
  font-family: "Fira Sans", sans-serif;
}

h1 {
  font:
    1.6em "Fira Sans",
    sans-serif;
  margin-bottom: 1rem;
}

const channel = new BroadcastChannel("example-channel");
channel.addEventListener("message", (event) => {
  received.textContent = event.data;
});

Result

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard # event-message
HTML Standard # handler-broadcastchannel-onmessage

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile server
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
Deno
Node.js
message event