Polling, SSE, or WebSockets for Mobile Upload Status?

After the browser transfers a file, the server may still scan, transcode, extract metadata, or generate previews. The interface needs status updates, but the most fashionable real-time transport is not automatically the most reliable choice for an event guest on a mobile browser. Start with the update contract Define states and transitions before choosing transport: accepted -> queued -> processing -> ready accepted -> rejected processing -> processing_error Every status response should include a monotonically increasing version or timestamp. The client can ignore events older than the state it already knows. Polling is a strong baseline HTTP polling works through proxies, resumes naturally after a page wake, and is easy to cache and rate-limit. Use adaptive intervals: one second just after acceptance, then back off to several seconds when processing takes longer. const delay = Math . min ( 8000 , 1000 * 2 ** slowChecks ); Add jitter when many guests finish at the same time. Stop when the state is terminal, the page is gone, or a server-provided retry time says to wait longer. SSE fits one-way progress Server-Sent Events are attractive when the server only pushes status. The browser reconnects with a last-event ID, and the wire format is simple. But mobile networks and some intermediaries silently kill idle connections. Send occasional heartbeats and treat reconnection as normal. The reconnect handler must fetch current state because events may have been missed beyond the server replay window. Do not keep one SSE stream per file. Subscribe by guest session or album and filter authorized upload IDs on the server. WebSockets add more responsibility WebSockets make sense when the client also sends frequent commands over the same channel or when a host moderation console needs many rapid updates. For a guest waiting on two files, they add connection authentication, heartbeat, reconnect, replay, and load-balancer complexity without much user benefit. Never rely on the so