It's better to use a message queue instead of direct API calls when you need to handle a lot of requests, or when you want to make sure tasks get done even if one part of the system goes down. It's also great for situations where you don't need an immediate response and can process things in the background.

Hey everyone, I'm thinking about how services talk to each other and message queues came to mind. Usually, we just do direct API calls, and that's totally fine for a lot of situations. But I'm trying to figure out when a message queue is really the way to go. Is it mostly about dealing with too much incoming work, making sure things don't get lost, or just keeping services from being too tightly linked? What are the big signs that you should add a message queue instead of just sending another HTTP request?