WebKit team outlines browser interoperability priorities for 2026

Following last week's release of the Interop 2025 results, Apple and the other members of the browser interoperability group have now outlined their objectives for the year ahead. Here are the details.

Building on 2025's success

As we covered last week, the Interop group published its year-end report detailing major gains in cross-browser compatibility throughout 2025, including Safari's outsized jump in test pass rates and progress across key areas such as CSS, View Transitions, and the Navigation API. That was the result of the objectives set by the Interop Group, a joint effort between Apple, Bocoup, Google, Igalia, Microsoft, and Mozilla to bring browser engines into closer alignment on the web platform features that matter most to developers.

Today, Apple's WebKit blog published a comprehensive look at the objectives of Interop 2026, following last year's call for community proposals. According to the group, there will be 20 focus areas for 2026, including five rollovers from last year:

• Anchor Positioning
• Advanced attr()
• Container Style Queries
• contrast-color()
• Custom Highlights
• Dialog and popover additions
• Fetch Uploads and Ranges
• getAllRecords() for IndexedDB
• JSPI for Wasm
• Media pseudo-classes
• Navigation API
• Scoped Custom Element Registries
• Scroll-driven Animations
• Scroll Snap
• shape()
• View Transitions
• Web Compat
• WebRTC
• WebTransport
• CSS Zoom

The post goes on to break down what each focus area means in practice for developers, including efforts to improve CSS features like contrast-color() and shape(), as well as platform APIs such as the Navigation API and WebTransport.

In the post, Apple's WebKit team also highlights its broader commitment to improving cross-browser compatibility as a part of the Interop Group: "The WebKit team is committed to making these features work consistently across all browsers. Whether you're building a design system, a single-page application, a video streaming platform, or anything in between, Interop 2026 is working to give you a more reliable foundation to build on."

You can read Apple's full breakdown of Interop 2026 here.

Why this matters for developers

The Interop initiative represents one of the most significant collaborative efforts in modern web development. By focusing on specific, measurable improvements across browser engines, the group aims to reduce the fragmentation that has historically plagued web development.

For developers, this means less time spent on browser-specific workarounds and more time building features. The carryover items from 2025 indicate that while progress was made, there's still work to be done on features like Container Queries and the Navigation API. The addition of new focus areas like WebTransport and JSPI for WebAssembly suggests the group is keeping pace with emerging web technologies.

The broader impact

What makes Interop particularly noteworthy is how it represents a shift from competitive browser development to collaborative improvement. Rather than each vendor racing to implement different features, the group identifies the most critical areas where consistency matters most to developers.

This approach has already shown results. The 2025 report demonstrated measurable improvements across all participating browsers, with Safari showing particularly strong gains. By maintaining this momentum into 2026 with both continued focus on established priorities and attention to new technologies, the Interop Group is helping ensure the web remains a stable, predictable platform for developers.

The 20 focus areas for 2026 represent a balanced mix of CSS improvements, JavaScript APIs, and platform features. From the developer perspective, this means continued progress on layout and styling capabilities alongside improvements to core web platform APIs that power modern web applications.

The full list of focus areas and their specific goals can be found in Apple's detailed breakdown, which provides context for why each area was selected and what improvements developers can expect to see throughout the year.