What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition

At this special edition of VanJS, you can meet the W3C's Technical Architecture Group (TAG), the World Wide Web's architecture board. TAG member Christian Liebel will walk you through current proposals discussed among standards bodies, browser vendors, and web developers — and you'll have the chance to share your ideas and wishes directly with the TAG. Don't miss the opportunity to stay up to date on the latest web technologies.

Transcript

1. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Christian Liebel @christianliebel Consultant
2. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Christian Liebel Hello, it’s me. W3C TAG Web Application Manifest Editor WebApps & WebML christian.liebel @thinktecture.com
3. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition ×
4. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition TAG Technical Architecture Group
5. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition
6. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition TAG Our mission is: – to document and build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary; – to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG; – to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C.
7. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Digital Credentials API https://developer.chrome.com/blog/digital-credentials-api-origin-trial
8. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Digital Credentials API https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1119
9. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Digital Credentials API https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/prevent-credential-abuse/#harms
10. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Digital Credentials API https://appfigures.com/resources/insights/20250808?f=2
11. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Web Serial API Second Implementer navigator.serial.getPorts() .then((ports) => { // Initialize the list of available ports with `ports` on page load. }); https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/14/firefox_nightly_web_serial/
12. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Web Serial API https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/431
13. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Web Install Firefox supports PWA installation on Windows
14. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Web Install beforeinstallprompt navigator.install() <install>
15. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Web Install navigator.install({ manifest: "https://app.example/manifest.json" });
16. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Web Install https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1245
17. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Web App Manifest Manifest Localization Dark Color Scheme { { "lang": "en", "name": "Email", "name_localized": { "fr": "Mail", "fr-CA": "Courriel" } } "theme_color": "blue", "background_color": "white", "color_scheme_dark": { "theme_color": "red", "background_color": "black" } }
18. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition CSS Grid Lanes aka Masonry .blog { display: grid-lanes; grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(15rem, 1fr)); gap: 2rem; } https://developer.chrome.com/blog/masonry-update
19. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition CSS Grid Lanes https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1003
20. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition CSS Gap Decorations .sudoku { display: grid; grid-template-columns: repeat(9, 1fr); grid-template-rows: repeat(9, 1fr); gap: 6px; column-rule-width: repeat(2, 1px) 4px repeat(2, 1px) 4px repeat(2, 1px); column-rule-style: solid; column-rule-color: var(--secondary); row-rule-width: repeat(2, 1px) 4px repeat(2, 1px) 4px repeat(2, 1px); row-rule-style: solid; row-rule-color: var(--secondary); } https://developer.chrome.com/blog/gap-decorations
21. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition CSS Gap Decorations https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1035
22. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition View Transitions Baseline Newly available October 2025 (single-document) DEMO https://view-transitions.chrome.dev/
23. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Element-Scoped View Transitions DEMO https://view-transitions.chrome.dev/my-patagonia-trip/
24. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Element-Scoped View Transitions https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1188
25. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition WebNN DEMO https://huggingface.co/webnn/spaces
26. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition WebNN https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/570
27. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Built-in AI Prompt API const languageModel = await LanguageModel.create(); console.log(await languageModel.prompt("Capital of Germany?")); DEMO
28. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Built-in AI TAG Review https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1093
29. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Agentic Browsers DEMO
30. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition WebMCP Imperative DEMO https://googlechromelabs.github.io/webmcp-tools/demos/pizza-maker/
31. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition WebMCP DEMO https://webmcp-maze.bandarra.me/
32. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition WebMCP API Imperative Declarative document.modelContext.registerTool({ "name": "start_game", "description": "Start a new game.", "inputSchema": {}, "execute": () => { // Do something }, }); <form id="reservationForm" toolname="book_table_le_petit_bistro" tooldescription=...> <input name="name" toolparamdescription="Customer's full name (min 2 chars)" /> </form>
33. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Priority of Constituencies User needs come before the needs of web page authors, which come before the needs of user agent implementors, which come before the needs of specification writers, which come before theoretical purity. https://www.w3.org/TR/design-principles/#priority-of-constituencies
34. What’s New in Web? 2026 Edition Panel Moderator Marcos Cáceres, Apple Panelists Heather Flanagan, Spherical Cow Consulting Jeffrey Yasskin, Google Brian Kardell, Igalia Yves Lafon, W3C Christian Liebel, Thinktecture
35. Thank you for your kind attention! Christian Liebel @christianliebel christian.liebel@thinktecture.com