Asynchronous Operations: Async Vs. Awaitable

Why is the async keyword needed for functions that return Awaitable? Because it is possible to have non-async functions that return awaitables; the async keyword is merely an implementation detail. For this reason, async is not allowed in interfaces. For example:

interface Car {
  // It doesn't matter to the caller how this is implemented, only that it
  // returns an Awaitable<void>
  public function drive(): Awaitable<void>;
}

This can be implemented with an async function, like this:

class Ford implements Car {
  public async function drive(): Awaitable<void> {
    // ...
  }
}

It can also be implemented by a non-async function, like this:

class VolkswagenDiesel implements Car {
  public function drive(): Awaitable<void> {
    // ...
    return $this->driveNormally();
  }
  private async function driveNormally(): Awaitable<void> {
    // ...
  }
}

The use of async is strongly encouraged for all functions, except for:

• Interface method declarations
• Abstract method declarations

The async keyword should be used in most other cases, including implementations of interface or abstract methods.