WebXR Device API is a Web

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that des ...

(API) that describes support for accessing

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

and virtual reality devices, such as the

HTC Vive HTC Vive is a line of Virtual reality, virtual and mixed reality Virtual reality headset, headsets produced by HTC, HTC Corporation. The brand currently encompasses headsets designed for use with Personal computer, personal computers as well a ...

Oculus Rift Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets, virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality indust ...

Meta Quest The Meta Quest, initially the Oculus Quest until August 2022, is a line of virtual reality headsets with augmented reality capabilities developed by Reality Labs, a division of Meta. The first-generation Oculus Quest was developed by Oculus (the ...

Google Cardboard Google Cardboard is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform developed by Google. Named for its fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is inserted, the platform was intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and developm ...

HoloLens Microsoft HoloLens is an augmented reality (AR)/ mixed reality (MR) headset developed and manufactured by Microsoft. HoloLens runs the Windows Mixed Reality platform under the Windows 10 operating system. Some of the positional tracking tech ...

Apple Vision Pro The Apple Vision Pro is a mixed reality, mixed-reality headset developed by Apple Inc., Apple. It was announced on June 5, 2023, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and was released first in the US, then in global territories thr ...

Android XR Android XR is an extended reality (XR) operating system developed by Google and Samsung.It based on Android (operating system), Android. It was announced in December 2024 and will launch in 2025. The operating system is designed to support XR ...

-based devices,

Magic Leap Magic Leap, Inc. is an American technology company that released a head-mounted augmented reality display, called ''Magic Leap One'', which superimposes 3D computer-generated imagery over real world objects. It is attempting to construct a lig ...

or Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR), in a

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

. The WebXR Device API and related APIs are standards defined by

W3C The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working together in ...

groups, the Immersive Web Community Group and Immersive Web Working Group. While the Community Group works on the proposals in the incubation period, the Working Group defines the final web specifications to be implemented by the browsers. WebVR was an experimental Web API that was only capable of representing virtual reality and was superseded by WebXR.

History

WebVR API was first conceived in spring 2014 by

Vladimir Vukićević Vladimir Vukićević (born 29 April 1979), is a Serbian-born American software engineer who has worked on many open source projects. He is known mostly for his work on open-source graphics libraries, including those used in the Mozilla project, ...

from

Mozilla Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...

. The API's contributors include Brandon Jones(Google), Boris Smus and others from the Mozilla team. On March 1, 2016, the Mozilla VR team and the

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

team announced the version 1.0 release of the WebVR

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

proposal. The resulting API refactoring brought many improvements to WebVR. The latest WebXR Device API Working Draft was last published in February 2022. The editors of the specification currently are from

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

and Meta. Other members from

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (SEC; stylized as SΛMSUNG; ) is a South Korean multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation founded on 13 January 1969 and headquartered in Yeongtong District, Suwon, South Korea. It is curr ...

and

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

, as well as various startups and invited experts have input in the future of the specification. All of the discussions of the specifications are public on GitHub. Notable updates include enhanced AR capabilities, improved performance, and broader device support. The ongoing efforts focus on standardizing and advancing the WebXR API, providing developers with the necessary tools and resources to create immersive web experiences. In 2018, the WebXR Device API superseded WebVR, being designed for both augmented reality, virtual reality devices and the possible future realities and devices. WebVR was implemented in Firefox and Chromium-based browsers before being deprecated and removed. On September 24, 2018, the Immersive Web Working Group became official.

Design

The WebXR Device API exposes a few new interfaces (such as XRView, XRPose) that allow

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is created with web technologies and runs via a web browser. Web applications emerged during the late 1990s and allowed for the server to dynamically build a response to the request, ...

s to present content in virtual reality and augmented reality, by using

WebGL WebGL (short for Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript Application programming interface, API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-in (computing), plug-ins. WebGL is fully integra ...

with the necessary camera settings and device interactions (such as controllers or point of view).

Support

WebXR Device API (Candidate Recommendation Draft) is currently supported in the stable versions of Edge and Chrome 79+, Chrome for Android 79+, Opera 66+, Opera Mobile 64+, Samsung Internet 12+, and Oculus Browser. WebXR is supported in

Safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...

for visionOS on the

mixed reality headset.

also supports WebXR.

Similar technologies

Although WebXR is unique as an API, it has similarities to native APIs in the same space such as

OpenXR OpenXR is an open-source, royalty-free standard for interfacing with virtual reality and augmented reality devices. It is developed by a working group managed by the Khronos Group consortium. OpenXR was announced by the Khronos Group on February 2 ...

ARCore ARCore, also known as Google Play Services for AR, is a software development kit developed by Google that allows for augmented reality (AR) applications to be built. ARCore has been integrated into a multitude of devices. Key technologies ARC ...

, and

ARKit ARKit is an application programming interface (API) for iOS, iPadOS and VisionOS which lets third-party developers build augmented reality apps, taking advantage of a device's camera, CPU, GPU, and motion sensors. The ARKit functionality is onl ...

References

External links

Fundamentals of WebXR
on

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