Scale up to a collaborative and multiplayer architecture with serverless WebSockets

There is a growing demand for multiplayer products that support real-time, shared live and collaborative experiences between users. The unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) sector has experienced significant growth during the pandemic due to remote workplaces becoming more common. However, collaboration goes beyond just video conferencing tools like Zoom and Slack. Applications that provide a shared live experience for project collaborations where users are not physically co-located have also seen an increase in popularity. To meet this demand, developers need to consider implementing serverless WebSockets realtime messaging platforms, which can provide highly available, scalable data synchronization between clients and high-level abstractions such as user presence and connection management. This approach enables teams to retain familiar design principles and components while achieving much more ambitious functionality without hiring additional infrastructure specialists. The architecture proposed in this article focuses on removing the challenge of delivering realtime collaboration features, giving backend developers a chance to breathe. By using serverless WebSockets solutions like Ably, developers can build scalable and reliable collaborative experiences without building extensive new infrastructure. This approach ensures that customer experience is responsive and reliable even at planet scale while maintaining flexibility in application architecture decisions.