Worker: message event

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers, except for Service Workers.

The message event is fired on a Worker object when the worker's parent receives a message from its worker (i.e., when the worker sends a message using DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope.postMessage()).

This event is not cancellable and does not bubble.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

js
addEventListener("message", (event) => { })

onmessage = (event) => { }

Event type

A MessageEvent. Inherits from Event.

Event MessageEvent

Event properties

This interface also inherits properties from its parent, Event.

MessageEvent.data Read only

The data sent by the message emitter.

MessageEvent.origin Read only

A string representing the origin of the message emitter.

MessageEvent.lastEventId Read only

A string representing a unique ID for the event.

MessageEvent.source Read only

A MessageEventSource (which can be a WindowProxy, MessagePort, or ServiceWorker object) representing the message emitter.

MessageEvent.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

This code creates a new worker and listens to messages from it using addEventListener():

js
const worker = new Worker("static/scripts/worker.js");

worker.addEventListener("message", (event) => {
  console.log(`Received message from worker: ${event.data}`);
});

Alternatively, it could listen using the onmessage event handler property:

js
const worker = new Worker("static/scripts/worker.js");

worker.onmessage = (event) => {
  console.log(`Received message from worker: ${event.data}`);
};

The worker posts messages using self.postMessage():

js
// static/scripts/worker.js

self.postMessage("I'm alive!");

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# event-message

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile server
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
Bun
Deno
Node.js
message event
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 4 (Release date: 2010-01-25)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 3.5 (Release date: 2009-06-30)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 10.6 (Release date: 2010-07-01)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 4 (Release date: 2009-06-08)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 11.5 (Release date: 2011-10-12)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 5 (Release date: 2011-10-12)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 5 (Release date: 2011-10-12)
footnote Full support
Bun – Full support
Bun 1 (Release date: 2023-09-08)
footnote Full support
Deno – Full support
Deno 1 (Release date: 2020-05-13)
footnote Full support
Node.js – Partial support
Node.js 11.7 (Release date: 2019-01-18)
footnote Partial support
footnote Supports the event, but only via Node EventEmitter.

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support
Partial support
Partial support

See also