# Safari 16.4 Adds Long-Delayed Web Platform Features

DevFeed: [Safari 16.4 Adds Long-Delayed Web Platform Features](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/safari-16-4-is-an-admission-26538.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://infrequently.org/2023/02/safari-16-4-is-an-admission/>)

Author: Alex Russell

Published: 2023-02-22T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Alex Russell](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/alex-russell.md>)

Topics: [WebKit](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/webkit.md>), [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/browsers.md>), [Web platform](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-platform.md>), [PWA](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/pwa.md>)

Tags: [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browsers.md>), [competition](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/competition.md>), [components](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/components.md>), [compression](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compression.md>), [css](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/css.md>), [pwa](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pwa.md>), [reporting](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/reporting.md>), [safari](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/safari.md>), [wasm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/wasm.md>), [webdev](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webdev.md>), [webrtc](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webrtc.md>)

## AI overview

This commentary reviews Safari 16.4's web-platform additions, including PWA, Web Components, CSS, Web Codecs, WASM SIMD, compression, reporting, Canvas, and WebRTC changes. It argues that many features arrived years after Chromium implementations and notes some improvements remain limited to macOS and iPadOS.

## Source excerpt

If you're a web developer not living under a rock, you probably saw last week's big Safari 16.4 reveal. There's much to cheer, but we need to talk about why this mega-release is happening now, and what it means for the future. Contents WebKit's Roaring Twenties Good Things Come In Sixes What Changed? Headcount Is Destiny Early Innings But first, the list! WebKit's Roaring Twenties Apple's summary combines dozens of minor fixes with several big-ticket items. Here's an overview of the most notable features, prefixed with the year they shipped in Chromium: 2015: Web Push for iOS (but only for installed PWAs) 2020: PWA Badging API (for unread counts) and id support (making updates smoother) 2015: PWA installation for third-party browsers (but not to parity with "Smart Banners") A bevy of Web Components features, many of which Apple had held up in standards bodies for years1, including: 2019: Constructable Stylesheets (important for performance) 2019: Form participation and default ARIA role 2021: Declarative Shadow DOM for "SSR" Myriad small CSS improvements and animation fixes, but also: 2018: CSS Typed OM for faster styling from JavaScript 2020: CSS Custom Properties can now be animated 2019: <iframe> lazy loading 2017: Clear-Site-Data for Service Worker use at scale 2021: Web Codecs for video (but not audio) 2021: WASM SIMD for better ML and games 2020: Compression Streams 2018: Reporting API (for learning about crashes and metrics reporting) 2020: Screen Orientation & Screen Wake Lock APIs (critical for games) 2018: Offscreen Canvas (but only 2D, which isn't what folks really need) Critical usability and quality fixes for WebRTC A number of improvements look promising, but remain exclusive to macOS and iPadOS: Fullscreen API fixes AVIF and AV1 support The lack of iOS support for Fullscreen API on <canvas> elements continues to harm game makers; likewise, the lack of AVIF and AV1 holds back media and streaming businesses. Regardless, Safari 16.4 is astonishingly dens