Intent to Ship: Capability elements: <camera> and <microphone>

[Chromestatus]

Contact emails

tun...@google.com, rav...@google.com

Explainer

https://github.com/w3c/mediacapture-extensions/blob/main/media-capture-elements-explainer.md

Specification

https://w3c.github.io/mediacapture-extensions/#the-camera-html-element

Summary

The <camera> and <microphone> capability elements are declarative, user-activated HTML controls that share the same underlying mechanism as the <usermedia> MVP element, with one key distinction: they are designed to request a single capability. The <camera> element specifically requests video capture, while the <microphone> element specifically requests audio capture. Like the <usermedia> MVP, they embed a browser-controlled, strictly styled UI into the page, ensuring a strong, intentional user signal (a click) before a permission prompt is triggered or a stream is started. The <camera> and <microphone> elements provide a dedicated, semantic HTML control for these single-capability use cases. They maintain the identical security model, strict styling constraints, and built-in permission recovery path as the <usermedia> MVP, but offer a more tailored and ergonomic API for developers who do not need mixed media access.

Blink component

UI>Browser>Permissions>Prompts

Web Feature ID

permissions

Motivation

In M151, we shipped the <usermedia> element (MVP) to solve the problem of out-of-context, JavaScript-triggered permission prompts. By requiring a direct, in-page user click on a browser-controlled element, we ensure a strong signal of user intent before requesting media access. Based on feedback and the WICG specification, we are expanding this MVP model in M152. The <camera> and <microphone> elements use the exact same mechanism, security constraints, and UI behavior as the <usermedia> MVP, but are strictly scoped to single-capability capture. This provides a more ergonomic, semantic API for developers building applications that only require video or audio, streamlining the implementation while preserving our high-confidence intent capture.

Initial public proposal

No information provided

TAG review

https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1218

TAG review status

Issues addressed

Goals for experimentation

None

Risks

Interoperability and Compatibility

No information provided

Gecko: No signal

WebKit: No signal

Web developers: No signals

Other signals:

WebView application risks

Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications?

No information provided

Debuggability

No information provided

Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?

No

Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?

Yes

Flag name on about://flags

CameraAndMicrophoneElements

Finch feature name

No information provided

Non-finch justification

No information provided

Rollout plan

Will ship enabled for all users

Requires code in //chrome?

False

Tracking bug

https://b.corp.google.com/issues/531672795

Launch bug

https://launch.corp.google.com/launch/4486395

Availability expectation

Feature is available only in Chromium browsers. We are not aware of other browsers adoption.

Adoption expectation

Feature is used by specific partner(s) to provide functionality within 12 months of launch in Chrome. Partners who are tested the feature in OT are expected to continue usage.

Adoption plan

We are planning to update on developer.chrome.com and do further partner outreach

Non-OSS dependencies

Does the feature depend on any code or APIs outside the Chromium open source repository and its open-source dependencies to function?

No

Estimated milestones

Shipping on desktop	152
Shipping on Android	152

Anticipated spec changes

Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of the API in a non-backward-compatible way).

This is an extension of <usermedia> MVP launch. The MVP feature is fully functional and used by developers right now. We are working closely with the WebRTC on post-MVP features, the open topics will based on the foundation of the MVP, that we agreed upon with the WebRTC. The open topics are listed under WebRTC working group's github repo's issue. Once this lands we will start the post-MVP discussion.

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/5153829504024576?gate=6067694366490624

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.