---
id: 'realtime'
title: 'Realtime'
description: 'Send and receive messages to connected clients.'
subtitle: 'Send and receive messages to connected clients.'
hideToc: true
---

Supabase provides a globally distributed [Realtime](https://github.com/supabase/realtime) service with the following features:

- [Broadcast](/docs/guides/realtime/broadcast): Send low-latency messages between clients. Perfect for real-time messaging, database changes, cursor tracking, game events, and custom notifications.
- [Presence](/docs/guides/realtime/presence): Track and synchronize user state across clients. Ideal for showing who's online, or active participants.
- [Postgres Changes](/docs/guides/realtime/postgres-changes): Listen to database changes in real-time.

## What can you build?

- **Chat applications** - Real-time messaging with typing indicators and online presence
- **Collaborative tools** - Document editing, whiteboards, and shared workspaces
- **Live dashboards** - Real-time data visualization and monitoring
- **Multiplayer games** - Synchronized game state and player interactions
- **Social features** - Live notifications, reactions, and user activity feeds

Check the [Getting Started](/docs/guides/realtime/getting_started) guide to get started.

## Examples

<div className="grid md:grid-cols-12 gap-4 not-prose">
  {[
    {
      name: 'Multiplayer.dev',
      description: 'Showcase application displaying cursor movements and chat messages using Broadcast.',
      href: 'https://multiplayer.dev',
    },
    {
      name: 'Chat',
      description: 'Supabase UI chat component using Broadcast to send message between users.',
      href: 'https://supabase.com/ui/docs/nextjs/realtime-chat'
    },
    {
      name: 'Avatar Stack',
      description: 'Supabase UI avatar stack component using Presence to track connected users.',
      href: 'https://supabase.com/ui/docs/nextjs/realtime-avatar-stack'
    },
    {
      name: 'Realtime Cursor',
      description: "Supabase UI realtime cursor component using Broadcast to share users' cursors to build collaborative applications.",
      href: 'https://supabase.com/ui/docs/nextjs/realtime-cursor'
    }
].map((x) => (
  <div className="col-span-6" key={x.href}>
    <Link href={x.href} target="_blank" passHref>
      <GlassPanel title={x.name}>{x.description}</GlassPanel>
    </Link>
  </div>
))}

</div>

## Resources

Find the source code and documentation in the Supabase GitHub repository.

<div className="grid md:grid-cols-12 gap-4 not-prose">
  {[
    {
      name: 'Supabase Realtime',
      description: 'View the source code.',
      href: 'https://github.com/supabase/realtime',
    },
    {
      name: 'Realtime: Multiplayer Edition',
      description: 'Read more about Supabase Realtime.',
      href: 'https://supabase.com/blog/supabase-realtime-multiplayer-general-availability',
    },
  ].map((x) => (
    <div className="col-span-6" key={x.href}>
      <Link href={x.href} passHref>
        <GlassPanel title={x.name}>{x.description}</GlassPanel>
      </Link>
    </div>
  ))}
</div>