Nov 12, 2018 • Updated Dec 1, 2020

This is a living document and will be updated as features move between states.

Capability Description Shape Detection (Face and Text) Shape detection opens up standardized implementations of shape detection services and exposes them through a set of JavaScript interfaces. In additon to the APIs below, the Barcode Detection API is available in stable. For more information, Shape Detection (Barcode). Updated April 14, 2020 Notification Triggers Notification Triggers let you schedule notifications in advance, so that the operating system will deliver the notification at the right time - even if there is no network connectivity, or the device is in battery saver mode.
Updated August 23, 2020 Web NFC Web NFC provides sites the ability to read and write to NFC tags when they are in close proximity to the user's device. For example, museums and art galleries could display additional information about a display when the user touches their device to an NFC card near the exhibit; or an inventory management web app could read or write data to an NFC tag on a container to update information on its contents.
Updated December 1, 2020

Capability Description Content Indexing API Your PWA might cache articles and media files, but how will your users know that your pages work while offline? The Content Indexing API is one answer to this question currently in an origin trial. Once the index is populated with content from your PWA, as well as any other installed PWAs, it will show up in dedicated areas of supported browsers.
Updated December 12, 2019 Idle Detection API The Idle Detection API notifies developers when a user is idle, indicating such things as lack of interaction with the keyboard, mouse, screen, activation of a screensaver, locking of the screen, or moving to a different screen. A developer-defined threshold triggers the notification.
Updated August 11, 2020 Serial API The Serial API provides a way for websites to read from and write to a serial device with scripts. The API bridges the web and the physical world by allowing websites to communicate with serial devices, such as microcontrollers and 3D printers.
Updated September 29, 2020 WebHID API There is a long tail of human interface devices (HIDs), such as alternative keyboards or exotic gamepads, that are too new, too old, or too uncommon to be accessible by systems' device drivers. The WebHID API solves this by providing a way to implement device-specific logic in JavaScript.
Updated September 15, 2020

Capability Description Wake Lock API To avoid draining the battery, most devices will quickly fall asleep when left idle. While this is fine most of the time, there are some applications that need to keep the screen or the device awake in order to complete some work. The Wake Lock API provides a way to prevent the device from dimming or locking the screen or prevent the device from going to sleep when an application needs to keep running.
Updated June 24, 2020 Badging API The Badging API allows web apps to set an application-wide badge, shown in an operating-system-specific place associated with the application, such as the shelf or home screen. Badging makes it easy to subtly notify the user that there is some new activity that might require their attention, or it can be used to indicate a small amount of information, such as an unread count. Updated March 16, 2020 Async Clipboard API (images) The Asynchronous Clipboard API makes it possible to read and write text or image data to the clipboard, without blocking the main thread.
Updated February 26, 2020 Contact Picker API The Contact Picker API is an on-demand picker that allows users to select entries from their contact list and share limited details of the selected entries with a website. It allows users to share only what they want, when they want, and makes it easier for users to reach and connect with their friends and family.
Updated January 10, 2020 Get Installed Related Apps API The Get Installed Related Apps API is a web platform API that allows your web app to check to see if your iOS/Android app is installed on the users device, and vice versa.
Updated December 18, 2019 File System Access API The File System Access API (formerly known as Native File System API and prior to that Writable Files API) enables developers to build powerful web apps that interact with files on the user's local device, like IDEs, photo and video editors, text editors, and more. After a user grants a web app access, this API allows web apps to read or save changes directly to files and folders on the user's device.
Updated September 23, 2020 Periodic Background Sync API Periodic Background Sync enables web applications to periodically synchronize data in the background, bringing web apps closer to the behavior of a platform-specific app.
Updated December 18, 2019 Shape Detection (Barcode) Shape detection opens up standardized implementations of shape detection services and exposes them through a set of JavaScript interfaces. Shape detection has three separate APIs, of which the Barcode API is only one. See Shape Detection (Face and Text) for information on other shape detection APIs that are under development.
Updated April 14, 2020 Web OTP API Finding, memorizing, and typing OTPs sent via SMS is cumbersome. The Web OTP API (formerly the SMS Receiver API) simplifies the OTP workflow for users.
Updated March 26, 2020 Web Share With the Web Share API, web apps are able to use the same system-provided share capabilities as platform-specific apps. The Web Share API makes it possible for web apps to share links, text, and files to other apps installed on the device in the same way as platform-specific apps.
Updated November 8, 2019 Web Share Target The Web Share Target API allows installed web apps to register with the underlying OS as a share target to receive shared content from either the Web Share API or system events, like the OS-level share button.
Updated November 8, 2019 Camera pan, tilt, and zoom Pan, tilt, and zoom features on cameras are accessible on the web, after requesting proper user permissions.
Updated October 5, 2020

Want to try some of these new capabilities? Check out the Web Capabilities Codelab.

Capabilities

Last updated: Dec 1, 2020 Improve article