Intent to Extend Experiment: Language Detector API

[Nathan Memmott]

Contact emails

dom...@chromium.org, fer...@chromium.org, kenji...@chromium.org, ay...@chromium.org, mem...@chromium.org, chris...@chromium.org

Explainer

https://github.com/WICG/translation-api/blob/main/README.md

Specification

https://webmachinelearning.github.io/translation-api/#language-detector-api

Summary

A JavaScript API for detecting the language of text, with confidence levels.

Blink component

Blink>AI>Language Detection

TAG review

https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/948

TAG review status

Issues addressed

Origin Trial Name

Language Detector API

Chromium Trial Name

LanguageDetectionAPI

Origin Trial documentation link

https://github.com/WICG/translation-api/blob/main/README.md

WebFeature UseCounter name

kV8AILanguageDetector_Detect_Method

Risks

Interoperability and Compatibility

This feature, like all built-in AI features, has inherent interoperability risks due to the use of AI models whose behavior is not fully specified. See some general discussion in https://www.w3.org/reports/ai-web-impact/#interop.

By providing a high-level API with clear output formats, as well as a capabilities API for detecting what a given browser supports, we believe we can guide web developers toward using the API in an interoperable way that does not depend on the specific models that a given browser or browser version uses.

Gecko: No signal (https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1015)

WebKit: No signal (https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/339)

Web developers: Positive (https://github.com/WICG/proposals/issues/147)

Other signals:

Ergonomics

This API will likely frequently be used in concert with the translator API (https://chromestatus.com/feature/5172811302961152).

Our current implementation is tied up with the browser's built-in language detection, which runs on the main thread. Alternative architectures are possible and we're exploring the implications of the current one through the origin trial process.

Activation

This feature would definitely benefit from having polyfills, backed by any of: cloud services, lazily-loaded on-device models using WebGPU, or the web developer's own server. We anticipate seeing an ecosystem of such polyfills grow as more developers experiment with this API.

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?

None

Goals for experimentation

Reason this experiment is being extended

There has been an overhaul to the API shape in the spec that we're currently implementing. We'd like to continue the OT to get feedback on the new API shape once it's ready to evaluate.

Ongoing technical constraints

None.

Debuggability

Basic tooling suffices

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

Yes

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

No

We hope to work on web platform tests for this feature, but how much we can guarantee as testable beyond the surface API is unclear. For example, since no specific languages are guaranteed to be supported, it's not clear we can actually test language detection. APIs to mock the results might help here.

Flag name on about://flags

language-detection-api

Finch feature name

LanguageDetectionAPI

Requires code in //chrome?

False

Measurement

kV8LanguageDetector_Detect_Method

Estimated milestones

Origin trial desktop first	130
Origin trial desktop last	135
Origin trial extension 1 end milestone	138
DevTrial on desktop	129
Origin trial Android first	130
Origin trial Android last	135
DevTrial on Android	129
Origin trial WebView first	130
Origin trial WebView last	135

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/6494349985841152?gate=5808544211009536

Links to previous Intent discussions

Intent to Prototype: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/Ie46tc6_8so/m/eY1huFmOAAAJ

Intent to Experiment: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAM0wra-WvH-sxxWndwAWPLF3eEYqeLhXrz-VmZKH4Wxzbpse-Q%40mail.gmail.com

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.

[Mike Taylor]

Could you also please comment on progress for the following areas:

Draft spec (early draft is ok, but must be spec-like and associated with the appropriate standardization venue, or WICG)
TAG review (see exceptions)
signals requests
Outreach for feedback from the spec community
WPT tests

On 3/10/25 2:06 PM, 'Nathan Memmott' via blink-dev wrote:

Reason this experiment is being extended

There has been an overhaul to the API shape in the spec that we're currently implementing. We'd like to continue the OT to get feedback on the new API shape once it's ready to evaluate.

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[Domenic Denicola]

Hi Mike! I think we covered several of these areas in the original post, but thanks for the reminders on the rest.

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 7:42 AM Mike Taylor <mike...@chromium.org> wrote:

Could you also please comment on progress for the following areas:

Draft spec (early draft is ok, but must be spec-like and associated with the appropriate standardization venue, or WICG)

As mentioned in the OP,  we now have a draft spec that's relatively detailed: https://webmachinelearning.github.io/translation-api/#language-detector-api .

TAG review (see exceptions)

As mentioned in the OP, TAG review was complete with issues addressed. 

signals requests

As mentioned in the OP,  we have open signals requests (with no responses yet)

Outreach for feedback from the spec community

This one we did not mention :). Since the original OT, we've moved to the Web ML Community Group and had several meetings with representatives there.

WPT tests

This one we probably should have given more detail on. Although as the OP mentions, testing is difficult here, we've started adding some tests (all marked as "tentative") in https://wpt.fyi/results/ai/language_detection?label=experimental&label=master&aligned .

On 3/10/25 2:06 PM, 'Nathan Memmott' via blink-dev wrote:

Reason this experiment is being extended

There has been an overhaul to the API shape in the spec that we're currently implementing. We'd like to continue the OT to get feedback on the new API shape once it's ready to evaluate.

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[Mike Taylor]

Thanks for patiently re-highlighting what was (mostly) already in the intent. :)

LGTM to extend from 136 to 138 inclusive.