Safari 16.4
This release is packed with 135 new web features and over 280 polish updates.
[…]
Deeply integrated with iOS and iPadOS, Web Push notifications from web apps work exactly like notifications from other apps.
[…]
WebKit on iOS and iPadOS 16.4 adds support for the Badging API. It allows web app developers to display an app badge count just like any other app on iOS or iPadOS.
[…]
Safari 16.4 adds support Declarative Shadow DOM, allowing developers to define shadow DOM without the use of JavaScript. And it adds support for
ElementInternals, providing the basis for improved accessibility for web components, while enabling custom elements to participate in forms alongside built-in form elements.[…]
Safari 16.4 adds support for quite a few new CSS properties, values, pseudo-classes and syntaxes.
[…]
Safari 16.4 now supports lazy loading iframes with
loading="lazy".
It’s hard to express just how massive a release Safari 16.4 is for web developers.
Last night, I was reading replies web developers posted on Twitter back in 2021, when I asked what developers need most from WebKit — and the vast majority of things you asked for have now shipped.
Now how about fixing the history and printing?
I was able to test notifications for web apps added to the Home Screen using Alerty.dev, a web service I recently discovered whose sole purpose is to let users program their own notifications to deliver via an API to all their devices. Alerty is similar to Pushcut and Pushover, but instead of requiring a native app to be installed on the user’s device, it can just deliver real-time push notifications via a web browser (on desktop) or a web app on the Home Screen in iOS and iPadOS 16.4. This was a perfect opportunity to sign up for the service and try it out with some of my shortcuts.
Previously:
- iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4
- macOS 13.3
- Printing Lazy Web Images
- Web Push for Web Apps on iOS and iPadOS
- Safari Forgets Your History
- Safari Frustrations
Update (2023-03-29): See also: Hacker News.
Safari 16.4 has some breaking changes (fixes?) to CSS, which means the Polyglot Safari Extension by @uechz that I use every day no longer displays its popup.
But I created a quick-fix workaround with a User Stylesheets!
Update (2023-04-03): Ashley (via Hacker News):
Safari 16.4 rolled out last week, and for us it's been a nightmare. We make the browser-based game creation app Construct. Early versions of Safari 16.4 broke opening projects, previewing projects, and all existing content published with Construct, all in different ways. I wanted to share our experience so customers, developers, regulators, and Apple themselves can see what we go through with what is supposed to be a routine Safari release.
We encountered a relatively major regression during the iOS 16.4 beta which unfortunately went live with the release version of 16.4. Requesting an ‘environment-facing’ camera using getUserMedia now provides the ultra-wide camera (rather than the usual standard angle lens).
Anyone else seeing garbled images in Safari since the update?
Particularly at washingtonpost.com.