Real-time Messaging

Real-time Messaging

摘要

Did you know that ground stations transmit signals to satellites 22,236 miles above the equator in geostationary orbits, and that those signals are then beamed down to the entire North American subcontinent? Satellite radios today serve hundreds of channels across 9,540,000 square miles. Unless you’re working at a secret military facility, deep underground, you can enjoy satellite radio everywhere.

Just like the satellites, Slack sends millions of messages every day across millions of channels in real time all around the world. If we look at the traffic on a typical work day, it shows that most users are online between 9am and 5pm local time, with peaks at 11am and 2pm and a small dip in between for lunch hour. Though the working hours are similar across regions, looking at the two peaks in the graph below, it is evident that prime time is not the same: It’s post-noon in some regions and pre-noon in other regions. Each colored line in the below graph represents a region.