Global technology giants including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, Igalia and Bocoup have come together to launch the Interop 2022 benchmark. The move looks to solve the top browsers compatibility issues identified by web developers.
According to the tech cos, the initiative will improve the compatibility of apps, features and services across browsers. As per a blog post by Google's developer team, Interop 2022 will improve the experience of developing for the web in 15 key areas.
This is not the first time browsers have come together to address compatibility issues. Back in 2019 Mozilla, Google, and others also joined hands in the form of the MDN Developer Needs Assessment surveys and the deep-dive Browser Compatibility Report.
These reports gave information to address top challenges for developers with the web platform and led to the Compat 2021 effort. The 15 key areas that Interop 2022 will be working on includes cascade layers, colour spaces and CSS colour functions, new viewport units, scrolling, subgrid, and the < dialog > element.
At its root, Interop 2022 is an evolving metric generated from a set of automated tests that aims to evaluate support for certain web standards that are important for web developers. As explained by Apple in its WebKit blog, “The Interop 2022 dashboard will constantly update throughout the year, showing progress as browser engineers fix bugs, implement new features, and improve the tests.”
As per Microsoft, more vendor participation in the initiative and broader scope for interoperability areas to tackle, the Interop 2022 will help web platforms to evolve this year.
