This is the web platform

Feature On Desktop On Mobile
PNG alpha transparency Yes Yes
querySelector/querySelectorAll   Yes
getElementsByClassName   Yes
CSS3 Multiple backgrounds   Yes
CSS3 Background-image options   Yes
CSS Table display   Yes
CSS Generated content   Yes
CSS 2.1 selectors Yes Yes
CSS3 selectors   Yes
CSS3 Text-shadow   Yes
CSS3 Colors   Yes
CSS3 Box-sizing   Yes
CSS3 Media Queries   Yes
CSS3 Multiple column layout   Yes
Canvas (basic support)   Yes
Cross-document messaging   Yes
Data URIs   Yes
XHTML served as application/xhtml+xml   Yes
CSS3 Opacity Yes Yes
JSON parsing Yes Yes
CSS3 Text-overflow   Yes
CSS3 Overflow-wrap Yes Yes
CSS min/max-width/height Yes Yes
CSS inline-block Yes Yes
dataset & data-* attributes Yes Yes
CSS Counters   Yes
getComputedStyle   Yes
contentEditable Yes  
Drag and Drop Yes  

Pretty damning.

At “100%” coverage of features that are in all browsers split by Mobile and Desktop then this is all we have to play with.

Ok, this is actually misleading. If you are willing to miss out on 1% extra reach for your desktop audience then you can get similar feature parity with mobile. But still the feature support that is ubiquitous across the web is actually pretty small especially if you are supporting IE8.

How do I know what the web platform is?

Last year I built iwanttouse.com to make it easier for you to determine the cost on your userbase supporting certain features will have. If I support X, I can only reach Y% of the web’s users

The project is pretty simple. It is a projection of the data on CanIUse.com. For a given “feature” it looks for the earliest version on a platform that it was supported on and sums the “usage”.

I split the feature set by Mobile and Desktop and it gives you some pretty interesting nuggets of data.

Two things that fell out of this:

  • Features for Free. If I choose Web Audio (43% on mobile) I can also safely use other features such as Server-sent DOM Events because all browsers that support the former support the latter. (Note: the inverse relationship is not always true)
  • Ubiquitous Platform features. As above but platform features that we can rely on being present in all browsers with any significant share.

I want to focus on Ubiquitous Platform features.

How do we improve the web platform?

As a web developer today I face a couple of problems: Legacy browsers that aren’t updated and inconsistent implementation across browsers.

The web feels like a pirate ship, everyone is hacking and slashing in different directions and we are lucky enough that the ship goes forwards. Slowly. How do we become a Ben Ainslie America’s Cup winning yacht?… (Ack, I can’t believe I said that). Point is, how can we improve the modern mobile web consistently if there are multiple large players in the eco-system?

  1. Wait it out and let the Browser vendors do their thing. This will change over time as people move off the platforms that have stopped progressing as their devices are renewed.
  2. Ignore the old browsers and the users that use them and go for it.
  3. Push for consistency across the platform.

My preference is for 2 and 3. But actually 1 is what we really really need to solve.

I like to solve level 1 problems — problems with a technical solution — they’re the things I can fix. I can meet developers and work with them on their sites to measurably make the web better one large site at a time, but it is all small scale…

I decided to take a peek at the features that are supported across the latest mobile browsers and the reach that will have: 44%. We can’t honestly say to a business that you should build experiences for 44% of your potential user base (well, it depends who you want to sell or attract - your demographics might be highly skewed - i.e.. Government legislation, Business demands.)

If you look at the head of the mobile web (44%) there is a compelling feature set. You can build some amazing applications with it.

Feature Android Browser 4.4 iOS Safari 7.0 Chrome for Android 32.0 IE Mobile 10.0 Opera Mobile 16.0 Firefox for Android 26.0 Blackberry Browser 10.0
XHTML served as application/xhtml+xml Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XMLHttpRequest 2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
WOFF - Web Open Font Format Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Web Workers Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Web Sockets Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Video element Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ECMAScript 5 Strict Mode Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Typed Arrays Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Transforms Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Text-overflow Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SVG in HTML img element Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Inline SVG in HTML5 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SVG filters Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SVG in CSS backgrounds Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SVG (basic support) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
defer attribute for external scripts Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
async attribute for external scripts Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
requestAnimationFrame Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
rem (root em) units Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
querySelector/querySelectorAll Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PNG alpha transparency Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Page Visibility Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS outline Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Offline web applications Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Web Storage - name/value pairs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Multiple backgrounds Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS min/max-width/height Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
matchMedia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JSON parsing Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Range input type Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
input placeholder attribute Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS inline-block Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
sandbox attribute for iframes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
New semantic elements Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Session history management Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Hashchange event Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
getElementsByClassName Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
getComputedStyle Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Geolocation Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
@font-face Web fonts Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
FileReader API Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Colors Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Transitions Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Text-shadow Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS Table display Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 selectors Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS 2.1 selectors Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS Repeating Gradients Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Opacity Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Media Queries Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS Gradients Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS Generated content Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS Counters Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Box-shadow Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Animation Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Cross-Origin Resource Sharing Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
contenteditable attribute (basic support) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
classList (DOMTokenList ) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Text API for Canvas Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Canvas (basic support) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
calc() as CSS unit value Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Border-radius (rounded corners) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Background-image options Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Audio element Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Cross-document messaging Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 3D Transforms Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
MPEG-4/H.264 video format Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes
Data URIs Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
dataset & data-* attributes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
CSS position:fixed Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Content Security Policy Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
Blob constructing Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Overflow-wrap Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Partial Yes
Progress & Meter Yes Partial Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
Flexible Box Layout Module Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Partial Yes

But like I said. 44%. It’s a big head but not a feasible platform for the vast majority of companies. I produced the following breakdown of features that we should get Chrome and other vendors to fix feature support at a tactical level to make for a more consistent web and make developers lives easier. The problem is we are only fixing it for 44% of the web’s users. Documented below for consistency

Feature Android Browser 4.4 iOS Safari 7.0 Chrome for Android 32.0 IE Mobile 10.0 Opera Mobile 16.0 Firefox for Android 26.0 Blackberry Browser 10.0
TTF/OTF - TrueType and OpenType font support Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes Yes
Touch events Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Navigation Timing API Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mutation Observer Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Intrinsic & Extrinsic Sizing Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Font feature settings Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
File API Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Server-sent DOM events Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 tab-size Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Channel messaging Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
CSS3 Border images Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Blob URLs Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Viewport units: vw, vh, vmin, vmax Yes Partial Yes Partial Yes Yes Partial
SVG SMIL animation Yes Partial Yes No Yes Yes Yes
IndexedDB Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial
CSS3 word-break Partial Partial Partial Yes Partial Yes Partial
SVG fonts Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
Download attribute Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Details & Summary elements Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
CSS Filter Effects Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
CSS3 Multiple column layout Partial Partial Partial Yes Partial Partial Partial
Date/time input types Yes Yes Yes No Partial No Yes
HTML5 form features Partial Yes Partial Partial Partial Partial Partial
Form validation No No Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
CSS3 Box-sizing Partial Partial Partial Partial Partial Yes Partial
WAI-ARIA Accessibility features Partial Partial Partial Yes Partial Yes No
SVG effects for HTML Partial Partial Partial No Partial Yes Yes
matches() DOM method Partial Partial Partial Partial Partial Partial Partial
HTML templates Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No
Strict Transport Security Yes Unknown Yes No Yes Yes No
getUserMedia/Stream API No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Color input type Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes
CSS Feature Queries Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No
Clipboard API Partial Partial Partial No Partial Yes Partial
Canvas blend modes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No
Ruby annotation Partial Partial Partial Partial Partial No Partial
Number input type Partial Partial Partial Partial Partial No Partial
DeviceOrientation events Partial Partial Partial No Partial Partial Partial
WebGL - 3D Canvas graphics No No Partial No Yes Partial Yes
Web Notifications Partial No No No Partial Yes Yes
Full Screen API No No Yes No Yes Partial Partial
WebP image format Yes No Yes No Yes No No
SVG fragment identifiers No No No Yes No Yes Yes
Shadow DOM Yes No Yes No Yes No No
WebRTC Peer-to-peer connections No No Yes No Yes Yes No
MathML No Yes No No No Yes Yes
Filesystem & FileWriter API No No Yes No Yes No Yes
CSS Masks Partial Partial Partial No Partial No Partial
Web Audio API No Yes Yes No No Yes No
WebM video format Partial No Yes No Partial Partial No
Datalist element No No No No No Yes Yes
CSS Hyphenation No Yes No No No Yes No
CSS Regions No Yes No Partial No No No
Promises No No Partial No No Partial No
Scoped CSS No No No No No Yes No
Shared Web Workers No No No No No No Yes
Opus No No No No No Yes No
Ogg/Theora video format No No No No No Yes No
JPEG XR image format No No No Yes No No No
Drag and Drop No No No Yes No No No
CSS resize property No No No No No Yes No
CSS Grid Layout No No No Yes No No No
Pointer events No No No Partial No No No
CSS3 object-fit/object-position No No No No No No No
Toolbar/context menu No No No No No No No
CSS Variables No No No No No No No
Blending of CSS image No No No No No No No

Getting these features implemented would be cool but there is no additional reach at all. More users will not be affected by these new features. We didn’t increase the size of the user base. Yes we might get an amazing WebGL based WebComponents app that people use but will they upgrade their browser or phone to be able to use it? Probably not.

So what do we do?

How do we move the web platform forward in a meaningful way?

It is hard.

Do we want to get back to a world where this is a thing?

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Maybe.???

At a minimum we should:

  • Build for the 90% and get your partners and customers to see at a minimum the experience that you can build with a huge amount of reach.
  • Understand the choices you make and the impact they have. Push your customers and partners to use progressive enchancement. Don’t exclude a huge number of users for a single feature.
  • Push for consistency over new platform features across all browser vendors.

Tell me I am wrong