[nine_k]

A stupid simple message relay protocol can be used for stuff other than social media.

OTOH websockets are hard outside the browser :(

[Cameri]

Maybe years ago but now Websockets are dead simple to use in virtually every language. Heck you can even pipe to a websocket server using websocat using the shell.

[eternityforest]

Websockets are almost trivial now if you just use a library

[RustyRussell]

Actually, websockets are trivial full stop. I implemented a web socket proxy in C in a day by reading the excellent RFC (sure, there's weird shit in there, but it's not hard).