WebUSB Origin Trial Results from Chrome 57
Reilly Grant
Summary
The WebUSB origin trial started in Chrome 54. Chrome 59 is the last release it is intended to be available as an Origin Trial. We have now collected various feedback and are sharing it according to the Origin Trials process. This summary includes data up to the release of Chrome 58 to stable channel users on or around April 25th.
Note we’re publishing feedback before the end of the trial in order to provide time to land code, enable or disable the feature etc in the first release after the trial ends.
The original Intent to Experiment targeted launch in Chrome 51 this was delayed and an updated schedule was posted with the Chrome 54 to 56 schedule. An Intent to Continue Experimenting was published before the Chrome 57 branch cut announcing the timeline for a second Origin Trial from Chrome 57 to Chrome 59.
There have been a number of specification updates since the last update. Most importantly, by integrating with the Feature Policy specification, blocking access to WebUSB from cross-origin iframes by default, we are now comfortable remove the concept of “allowed origins” completely from the specification and have done so.
We are also in the process of upstreaming our LayoutTests into the Web Platform Tests repository. Since most of the WebUSB tests use an internal content_shell API to configure fake USB devices we have also published a WebUSB Testing API specification that defines an API for configuring these fake devices. This should allow another implementer to reuse our test cases as long as they also implementing the matching test API.
Contact email
Spec and chromestatus.com entry
Previous reports
Chrome 54, Chrome 55, Chrome 56
Developer interest
As of April 27th, 2017, 36 unique origins have registered for access to the second Origin Trial (launched with Chrome 57). These tokens have been renewed 17 times.
For example, https://pagenodes.com is a visual IDE that uses WebUSB to connect to hardware kits such as the Johnny-Five.
According to our survey results from renewals of Origin Trial tokens developers were investigating WebUSB for the following types of projects:
Developer feedback
Based on data from the same survey, on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being very easy and 5 being very hard developers rated the WebUSB an average of 2 out of 5 for ease of use,
The following requests came for improvements to the feature:
Connecting to devices on Windows is still difficult because the operating system requires the winusb.sys driver to be loaded before an application like Chrome can control the device.
Additional WebHID and WebSerial APIs have been requested. This is because operating systems will not let an application like Chrome send raw USB requests to a USB interface that is claimed by the built-in USB HID or USB CDC (or proprietary serial protocol) driver.
Lessons learned from our goals for experimentation
Nothing new to report. The first update included answers to our experimental questions which have remained unchanged.
Timeline
First stable release enabled: Chrome 54, October 18, 2016
Last stable release with original experiment parameters: Chrome 56, Jan 31st, 2017
Origin Trial tokens from the first experiment expire: Mar 6th, 2017 (about one week before Chrome 57 was released)
First stable release with new experiment parameters: Chrome 57, Mar 14th, 2017
Last Origin Trial tokens for the new experiment expire: July 25th, 2017 (about one week before Chrome 60 is released)
Usage data (UMA)
The according to metrics from UMA usage continues to trend upward reaching 2,956 calls to navigator.usb.getDevices() in the last week.
This document is also available in Google Doc form.
