BroadcastChannel: message event

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).

Examples

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

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

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

Receiver 2

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
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	WebView Android	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet
`message_event`	54	79	38	No	41	15.4	54	54	38	41	15.4	6.0

Name	Web APIs
Version
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Last Updated	2022-04-27T09:33:08Z