Browser APIs

The Fronted Iceberg

Maintain awareness of changes to understand opportunities for innovation.

• Storage
• Animation, Framer Motion
• Drag and Drop, Swapy
• Drawing
• Maps
• Audio
• Video
• Speech
• AR/VR

Browser Benefits

Browsers features that make it easier for developers to create better, cross-platform user experiences.

• Installable like an App
• Secure by Default
• Service Worker
• Works Offline/Reliable
• Fast By Design
• No App Store Censorship
• Visible in Search Engines
• Cheaper to Market
• Immediate Updates
• Cross-Platform
• Smaller Disk Space
• Easy to Share
• Easier to Develop and maintain than Native

Context

• Browser Maps APIs — Geolocation and mapping as browser-native capabilities
• Components — React layer that consumes browser APIs
• Performance — Load speed impact of heavy browser API usage

Links

• Mozilla

Questions

Which browser API creates the widest gap between native apps and the web?

• When does a service worker justify its complexity for offline support?
• What storage API survives a user clearing their cache?
• How do you feature-detect gracefully when a browser API is missing?