Apple, Bocoup, Google, Igalia, Microsoft, and Mozilla have teamed up once again for a new project, Interop 2023, with the aim of improving the interoperability of the web. In 2022, the Interop project focused on 15 key areas of importance for web developers and saw remarkable progress, with the number of tests that passed in all three browsers increasing from 49% to 83%.
Web interoperability is important because it ensures that websites and web applications will work consistently and correctly across different browsers, operating systems, and devices. This allows for a seamless user experience and eliminates the potential for compatibility issues, which can result in frustration and lost users. Interoperability also encourages innovation and competition, as developers are not limited to a particular platform, and it helps to ensure that the web remains an open, accessible platform for everyone. By promoting interoperability, developers can focus on creating new and innovative web applications, and users can access the full range of web content and functionality, regardless of their device or platform.
In an article co-written by Jon Davis, Tim Nguyen, and Jen Simmons in the Webkit blog, the team cited significant contributions to achieve a 98.2% pass rate in 2022. This year’s Interop project has reset the scores, retiring half of the tests used in 2022 and introducing many new ones, based on the needs expressed by web developers.
The Interop team received 87 proposals for inclusion in the project and accepted 35 of them, which have been combined into 18 new Focus Areas and 2 Investigations. The project also includes 5 Focus Areas from 2022 and 3 from 2021, bringing the total number of Active Focus Areas to 26.
The focus areas for Interop 2023 will be:
- Border Image
- Color Space & Functions
- Container Queries
- Containment
- CSS Pseudo-classes
- Custom Properties
- Flexbox
- Font Feature Detection & Palettes
- Forms
- Grids
- :has()
- Inert
- Masking
- Math functions
- Media Queries 4
- Modules
- Motion Path
- Offscreen Canvas
- Pointer & Mouse Events
- Scrolling
- Subgrid
- Transforms
- URL
- Web Codecs (video)
- Web Compat 2023
- Web Components
Interoperability is a crucial aspect of the web’s success and is excited to work with its partners on the opportunities Interop 2023 presents. The project aims to help websites and web apps work better for everyone and continue to show the team’s commitment to web standards.