Getting started
Stream live events to web and mobile apps in three steps.
Create a regional Realtime app, subscribe browser, iOS, or Android clients to a WebSocket channel, and publish live order updates, chat messages, or presence state from your backend without operating socket servers.
Trusted by engineering and product teams
shipping at global scale.
Go from a new workspace to authorized WebSocket channels in minutes.
Follow these three steps to publish live events from your server and enforce session rules on private and presence channels.
- 01
Create a regional Realtime app and API key.
Open the Realtime dashboard, create an app in the US or EU region, and save its public app key and server secret alongside a Bird API key. The free plan includes 100 concurrent connections and 200,000 daily messages across your workspace so you can build and test without upfront commitment.
- 02
Subscribe a client and publish your first event.
Connect a browser tab, Swift app, or Kotlin client using the public app key and subscribe to a named channel. Publish an event to that channel from your backend and watch the payload arrive over the open WebSocket connection in real time. Read the quickstart →
- 03
Authorize private and presence channels.
Protect customer-specific order streams and collaborative rooms by adding an authorization endpoint on your server. When a client subscribes to a private or presence channel, your backend checks the user's session and signs a short-lived token that Bird verifies before admitting the connection. Authorizing channels guide →
Put it into practice.
Continue with the documentation, guides and examples for this topic.
Keep web and mobile screens synced without polling.
Ship live order trackers, in-app notifications, and multi-tab presence over managed WebSockets. Create a workspace and publish your first event in minutes.