What are Django channels?

The primary purpose of redis in django-channel_layers is to store the necessary information required for different instances of consumers to communicate with one another . For example, in the tutorial section of channels documentation, it is clear that Redis is used as a storage layer for channel names and group names.

Channels Layers In Django Channel Layers allow us to create interaction between different instances of an application , mostly used to create real-time applications, we can say it’s an alternative to sockets.

channels_redis is the only official Django-maintained channel layer supported for production use. The layer uses Redis as its backing store , and supports both a single-server and sharded configurations, as well as group support. To use this layer you’ll need to install the channels_redis package.

Channels preserve the synchronous behavior of Django and add a layer of asynchronous protocols allowing users to write the views that are entirely synchronous, asynchronous, or a mixture of both . Channels basically allow the application to support “long-running connections”.13 Nis 2021

With WebSockets (via Django Channels) managing the communication between the client and the server, whenever a user is authenticated, an event will be broadcasted to every other connected user . Each user’s screen will change automatically, without them having to reload their browsers.

To begin with, channels is nothing but an asynchronous task queue. It’s very similar to celery, the major difference being in performance & reliability. Channels is faster than celery but celery is more reliable.