Deprecation of prefixed HTMLVideoElement-specific Fullscreen APIs

[tguilbert-google]

WebKittens

No response

Title of the spec

Deprecation of prefixed HTMLVideoElement-specific fullscreen APIs

URL to the spec

https://fullscreen.spec.whatwg.org/#api

URL to the spec's repository

No response

Issue Tracker URL

No response

Explainer URL

No response

TAG Design Review URL

N/A

Mozilla standards-positions issue URL

N/A

WebKit Bugzilla URL

No response

Radar URL

No response

Description

The non-prefixed Fullscreen API has been supported on most browsers for some time now: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fullscreen_API#browser_compatibility

Chromium has been looking to remove of the following prefixed APIs from the <video> tag since 2014:

• readonly attribute boolean webkitSupportsFullscreen;
• readonly attribute boolean webkitDisplayingFullscreen;
• void webkitEnterFullscreen();
• void webkitExitFullscreen();
• void webkitEnterFullScreen(); // Note the different capitalization of the "S" in FullScreen.
• void webkitExitFullScreen(); // Note the different capitalization of the "S" in FullScreen.

Usage of the APIs have been declining over the past years. Chromium might try to remove the APIs entirely in 2024 (Link to Blink-dev discussion).

Is WebKit interested in removing these APIs eventually? It seems like support for the non-prefixed APIs is only available on iPads, and not on iOS, according to the MDN documentation.

Thank you!

[hober]

@jernoble

[lukewarlow]

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-release-notes/safari-17_4-release-notes - it's seems the unprefixed APIs are in the next safari release for iOS. Obviously things may change before shipping but it gives an indication.

[annevk]

Generally we're interested in removing prefixed APIs where possible. And if not possible, attempt to standardize them.

I'm not really sure how that relates to standards-positions though, unless these are currently standardized which I don't think is the case?

[tguilbert-google]

You're right that these do not strictly require a standards-positions. This could have also been a bug on the WebKit bug tracker.

This was opened as part of the blink deprecation process, partly as a heads-up for the removal of these APIs, and partly to inquire about the status of the unprefixed Fullscreen APIs being available for Safari on iOS eventually.

It's nice to know from the comment above that the unprefixed APIs are on the roadmap!

This issue could be closed if there is nothing else to add. Thanks!

[annevk]

Sounds good, hope it works out!