{"id":4776,"date":"2022-05-09T22:10:24","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T20:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/apple-targeted-for-safari-lacking-webxr-support-despite-companys-ar-vr-ambitions\/"},"modified":"2022-05-09T22:10:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T20:10:24","slug":"apple-targeted-for-safari-lacking-webxr-support-despite-companys-ar-vr-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/apple-targeted-for-safari-lacking-webxr-support-despite-companys-ar-vr-ambitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple targeted for Safari lacking WebXR support despite company\u2019s AR\/VR ambitions"},"content":{"rendered":"
Apple targeted for Safari lacking WebXR support despite company\u2019s AR\/VR ambitions<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Apple has been investing a lot in augmented and virtual reality since the introduction of its own ARKit API. However, when it comes to open standards on the web, Apple is still far behind its competitors. In the opinion of industry insiders, the company \u201chas been a drag on innovation in WebAR,\u201d as Safari still lacks support for the WebXR API.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n

As reported by Protocol<\/a><\/em>, industry experts have been complaining about how difficult it is to deliver AR and VR content to iPhone and iPad users over the web. For instance, marketing agencies have been investing in more immersive AR campaigns to let consumers interact with products in a real environment.<\/p>\n

However, on iOS, these experiences require users to download an app \u2013 which drops the number of potential consumers. That\u2019s because Safari isn\u2019t compatible with the WebXR standard, a universal API that provides support for augmented and virtual reality headsets on websites.<\/p>\n

While Google Chrome on Android began supporting WebXR in 2018, the feature is yet to be added on iOS. Since WebKit is the only web engine allowed on iOS, developers can\u2019t even create a third-party web browser compatible with WebXR.<\/p>\n

At least in the US, not targeting iPhone users for a campaign means not reaching the majority of smartphone users. There are some workarounds for reaching iPhone users on the web, but they are more expensive and less efficient than Apple\u2019s ARKit. As a result, the industry has no incentive to create AR content for the web. <\/p>\n

Will iOS ever support WebXR?<\/h2>\n

The answer is yes, probably. But no one knows when this will happen.<\/p>\n

WebKit head Maciej Stachowiak stated in 2020 that Apple was \u201centhusiastic about WebXR.\u201d Since then, nothing more has been said about the API, which has left multiple developers upset. One developer even compared Safari to Internet Explorer due to how long Apple takes to support new features in its browser.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cEveryone and their mother is waiting eagerly for this,\u201d\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0one developer last year. \u201cVery interested in the progress of this issue as clients \u2018can\u2019t believe\u2019 that WebXR is not yet supported on iOS,\u201d added another. \u201cPlease try to complete this \u2026 before 2050,\u201d wrote one commenter, while another on a different thread\u00a0concluded<\/a>: \u201cSafari is the new Internet Explorer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Luckily for developers, iOS 15.4 and iOS 15.5 beta have experimental support for the WebXR API. However, as noted by Protocol<\/em>, Apple\u2019s roadmap is still extremely \u201cclosely guarded.\u201d With Apple working on its own mixed reality headset, the company may finally enable the API in its mobile operating system sometime this year.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2022\/05\/Apple-ARKit.jpg?resize=1200%2C628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1<\/div>\n
https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2022\/05\/09\/apple-targeted-for-safari-lacking-webxr-support-despite-companys-ar-vr-ambitions\/<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple targeted for Safari lacking WebXR support despite company\u2019s AR\/VR ambitions Apple has been investing a lot in augmented and virtual reality since the introduction of its own ARKit API. However, when it comes to open standards on the web, Apple is still far behind its competitors. In the opinion of industry insiders, the company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}