Apple’s WebKit team is inviting developers to submit their ideas for Interop 2027, the next edition of the cross-browser initiative aimed at improving web interoperability. Here are the details.
Over the past few years, Apple has collaborated with Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Bocoup, and Igalia on Interop, an annual effort to make modern web technologies work more consistently across different browsers.
The project began in 2022, building on the earlier Compat initiative, with participating browser makers and organizations identifying 15 key areas where interoperability issues were creating problems for web developers. While Compat was originally conceived as a one-off effort, it proved successful, and Interop has returned every year since.
Each year, the group selects a new set of focus areas, based in part on proposals from the web development community. Browser makers then work to improve their implementations in those areas, with progress measured through a shared set of Web Platform Tests.
Earlier this year, the WebKit team shared the results of Interop 2025, which saw the percentage of selected tests passing across all browsers jump from just 29% at the beginning of the year to 97% by the end.
They also outlined the 20 focus areas selected for Interop 2026, spanning CSS features and technologies such as the Navigation API, View Transitions, WebRTC, and WebTransport, partly based on proposals submitted by the web development community during last year’s open call.
Which brings us to this year’s open call, which officially opened on September 3 and will accept proposals through September 23.
Apple says that proposals must be based on mature web standards and be testable, since nascent technologies aren’t ready to become Interop Focus Areas, and the project relies on automated Web Platform Tests to measure progress across browsers. The company also notes that technologies that lack sufficient tests or testing infrastructure should instead be proposed as Interop Investigations.
Here’s what Apple says makes a “great” Interop 2027 proposal:
Read the Interop Proposers Guide to learn more.
The company also notes that developers should be mindful that not everyone reading this year’s proposals will have full knowledge of last year’s proposals, and that they must “take the time needed to fully make” their case.
That includes explaining why the proposed focus area is important, how the current state of affairs affects web developers and users, how widely the technology is used, and why addressing the issue should be a priority over other potential focus areas.
Developers can submit their own proposals by filing an issue on GitHub, or support an existing proposal by adding comments that help strengthen its case. Apple says it is better to contribute to an existing issue than to submit multiple proposals covering the same or very similar ideas.
To learn more about Apple’s guidelines and recommendations for submitting an Interop 2027 proposal, follow this link.
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Marcus Mendes is a Brazilian tech podcaster and journalist who has been closely following Apple since the mid-2000s.
He began covering Apple news in Brazilian media in 2012 and later broadened his focus to the wider tech industry, hosting a daily podcast for seven years.
