How does SQS Polling help enhance the performance of applications?

Polling in Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) is a mechanism that enables consumers of messages to wait for messages to arrive in the queue, thereby enhancing the overall performance and efficiency of applications. This method allows consumers to utilize long polling, which keeps the connection open for a specified duration, waiting for new messages to arrive.

When consumers use long polling instead of short polling, they reduce the number of empty responses and consequently lower the number of unnecessary requests made to the SQS queue. By doing so, the consumer can optimize resource usage, leading to better performance. It also ensures that consumers are immediately notified when a message becomes available, allowing for a more streamlined processing of tasks compared to continuously checking the queue at shorter intervals.

This improvement in efficiency translates to reduced latency in delivering messages to consumers and less overhead from constant polling, making it a crucial aspect for applications that depend on real-time processing of messages.