Intent to Prototype: Application context media feature

[Alexander Kyereboah]

Contact emails

akyer...@microsoft.com

Explainer

https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/blob/main/ApplicationContextMediaFeature/explainer.md

Specification

https://github.com/w3c/manifest/pull/1218

Summary

The `application-context` CSS media feature provides a reliable, stable, boolean signal indicating what app context the current document window is running in. It evaluates to `true` when the document is in an application context (a top-level browsing context with a manifest applied, presented in its own app window) and `false` in all other contexts (running in a browser tab). This feature separates the concept of "running as an installed app" from the app's current display mode, solving a long-standing gap in the web platform where developers lacked a clean, stable signal for installation state.

Blink component

Blink>AppManifest

Web Feature ID

Missing feature

Motivation

Web developers currently lack a reliable way to determine whether their app is running in an installed app window versus a browser tab. Existing signals like the `display-mode` media query reflect presentation mode rather than application context and break under common scenarios (entering fullscreen), leading to incorrect UI behavior such as install prompts reappearing or app-specific UI disappearing. The web platform today has no stable, declarative primitive to distinguish these orthogonal concepts, forcing developers to rely on fragile workarounds. The proposed `application-context` media feature addresses this gap by providing a consistent signal of the current application context, enabling developers to correctly adapt UI and behavior across both installed and browser experiences.

Initial public proposal

WICG: https://github.com/WICG/proposals/issues/288

CSSWG: https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/13932

Search tags

installed, application, context, media query

Tracking bug

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/382114911

Estimated milestones

No milestones specified

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/4882674767495168?gate=5176694429319168

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.