Implementing Redis Pub/Sub Messaging in Spring Boot

February 17, 2026

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Modern applications often need real-time communication between services. Redis provides a simple and fast messaging system called Publish/Subscribe (Pub/Sub).
With Pub/Sub, one component publishes messages to a channel, and other components subscribe to that channel to receive the messages instantly.
This article shows how to implement Redis Pub/Sub messaging in a Spring Boot application.

1. How Redis Pub/Sub Works

Redis Pub/Sub has three main parts:

1. Publisher – sends messages to a channel
2. Channel – the message topic
3. Subscriber – listens for messages on the channel

Example flow:

Publisher → Redis Channel → Subscriber

Whenever a message is published, all subscribers receive it immediately.

2. Redis Configuration in Spring Boot

Add Redis connection settings.

spring.redis.host=localhost
spring.redis.port=6379

Spring Boot automatically configures Redis connectivity.

3. Creating a Message Publisher

The publisher sends messages to a Redis channel.

@Service
public class RedisPublisher {

    @Autowired
    private RedisTemplate<String, Object> redisTemplate;

    public void publish(String channel, String message) {
        redisTemplate.convertAndSend(channel, message);
    }
}

Example usage:

channel: notifications
message: New order created

4. Creating a Message Subscriber

Subscribers listen to Redis channels and handle incoming messages.

@Component
public class RedisSubscriber {

    public void handleMessage(String message) {
        System.out.println("Received message: " + message);
    }
}

Whenever a message arrives, the subscriber processes it immediately.

5. Configuring the Redis Message Listener

Spring Boot needs a listener container to subscribe to channels.

@Configuration
public class RedisConfig {

    @Bean
    public RedisMessageListenerContainer container(
            RedisConnectionFactory connectionFactory,
            MessageListenerAdapter listenerAdapter) {

        RedisMessageListenerContainer container =
                new RedisMessageListenerContainer();
        container.setConnectionFactory(connectionFactory);
        container.addMessageListener(listenerAdapter,
                new PatternTopic("notifications"));
        return container;
    }

    @Bean
    public MessageListenerAdapter listenerAdapter(RedisSubscriber subscriber) {
        return new MessageListenerAdapter(subscriber, "handleMessage");
    }
}

Now the application subscribes to the notifications channel.

6. Sending Messages via REST API

Create an API endpoint to publish messages.

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/messages")
public class MessageController {

    @Autowired
    private RedisPublisher publisher;

    @PostMapping
    public String sendMessage(@RequestParam String message) {
        publisher.publish("notifications", message);
        return "Message sent";
    }
}

Test example:

POST /messages?message=Hello

Subscribers instantly receive the message.

7. Real Use Cases

Redis Pub/Sub is useful for:

• Real-time notifications
• Event-driven microservices
• Chat applications
• Cache invalidation events
• System monitoring alerts

8. Redis Pub/Sub vs Message Brokers

Redis Pub/Sub is lightweight compared to systems like Kafka or RabbitMQ.
Advantages:

• Very fast messaging
• Simple implementation
• Low latency

However, Redis Pub/Sub does not persist messages, meaning if a subscriber is offline, messages are lost.