For too long, developers had to manually check browser compatibility for each new web feature. Baseline changes this by providing a standardized support status for web technologies, making it clear when features are ready for reliable adoption.
If you're responsible for a digital product, you need to ensure your website or web app works seamlessly across devices and browsers. But how do you know which new features you can implement without breaking the experience for users on different platforms? That’s where Baseline comes in.
About Baseline web features
In this blog post, we’ll break down what Baseline is, why it matters, and how you can use it to future-proof your website or app — even if you’re not a developer.
What is Baseline?
Baseline is a framework that categorizes web features based on their availability across major browsers. Instead of guessing whether a new HTML, CSS, or JavaScript feature will work for most users, Baseline provides a clear roadmap to adoption.
Web Platform Baseline brings clarity to information about browser support for web platform features.
web.dev
Why was Baseline created?
Before Baseline, determining whether a web feature was "safe" to use was complicated. It involved piecing together information from multiple sources. Developers juggled between Can I Use, browser documentation, and various compatibility tables.
However, these sources didn’t always account for consistent, cross-browser support, leading to confusion and unnecessary polyfills.
The need for a clear, standardized support status came from real developer pain points identified in research such as the Web Developer Needs Assessment (DNA). These studies highlighted how inconsistent browser support created hurdles for developers, slowing down web innovation and increasing maintenance costs.
Baseline was created to address these challenges by providing a definitive status for web features across major browsers.
Who maintains Baseline today?
Baseline was introduced during Google I/O 2023. While Baseline was initiated by Google’s Chrome team, it has evolved into a collaborative project managed by the WebDX Community Group.
This includes representatives from all major browser vendors:
- Google Chrome (desktop & Android)
- Mozilla FireFox (desktop & Android)
- Apple Safari (macOS & iOS)
- Microsoft Edge (desktop)
This cross-vendor collaboration is crucial: when a feature reaches "Newly available" status, you can trust it works across these major browsers - representing the vast majority of internet users worldwide.
While the above makes Baseline a truly collaborative effort, you can contribute too.
Baseline statusses
Baseline uses three clear statuses to communicate browser support levels. Each status tells you exactly how safe a feature is to use across different browsers and user bases.
Below you'll see how Baseline clearly indicates different support levels for various features:
While the above is a static screenshot - Baseline statuses are dynamic, automatically updating as browser support evolves. Developers can embed these live status indicators directly into their documentation using the Baseline component.
Below you'll find an explanation of each status:
Limited Availability
- These features are newly introduced and not yet supported across all major browsers.
- They might work in some browsers (like Chrome) but not in others (like Safari or Firefox).
- Developers should use feature detection and fallbacks if they want to experiment with these features or implement it with progressive enhancement in mind.
Baseline Newly available
- The feature is now supported across all major browsers.
- Developers can adopt it for most users or (in case of progressive enhancement) most users should already benefit from adopting such feature.
- While lazy loading is supported in the latest version(s) of all major browsers, not every visitor might be using the latest version. There's a transition period of 30 months between becoming Baseline Newly available to Widely available.
Baseline Widely available
- The feature has been stable for at least 30 months (about 2.5 years).
- By this stage, it's considered safe for all production use.
- Example: CSS Grid became widely available after reaching this milestone.
A fourth classification was added in December 2024: Discouraged.
This applies when there's consensus that developers should not use a platform feature (anymore), even when it's still support in some or all browsers.
Why should you care?
If you're a product owner, project manager, or marketer, you might think this is just for developers. But understanding Baseline helps everyone make better product decisions:
- Improved User Experience
Make confident decisions about new features knowing they'll work for all your users. No more unexpected broken experiences or frustrated customers across different devices and browsers. - Faster development cycles
Your team can focus on building features instead of debugging browser issues. Clear status indicators mean fewer surprises during testing and after launch. - Strategic feature planning
Plan your roadmap with confidence by knowing exactly when new features become safe to implement. Stay competitive without risking stability or user experience. - Risk reduction
Avoid costly rollbacks and emergency fixes from browser compatibility issues. When a feature is Baseline-ready, you know it's truly ready for production.
Avoiding compatibility issues
Let's look at a real example: Your team wants to reduce the amount of JavaScript by switching to the loading
attribute. It's an exciting and easy to use attribute that replaces your JavaScript lazyloading library.
You won't break the experience for FireFox and Safari users by removing the JavaScript solution. However, without checking Baseline first, it will unexpectedly result in those browsers downloading all images at the same time, regressing overall load times.
The solution
Instead of forcing the feature, your team can:
- Use progressive enhancement (provide a fallback for unsupported browsers).
- Delay its implementation until Baseline marks it "Newly available" or even "Widely available".
Final thoughts and conclusion
Google Baseline represents a fundamental shift in how we approach web feature adoption. It transforms complex browser compatibility data into clear, actionable insights. By integrating Baseline into your product planning, you future-proof your business and keep users happy—without unnecessary risk.
The role of RUMvision
As publicly announced on both Google I/O 2024 and web.dev, RUMvision has been working on a Baseline integration, combining structured Baseline information with your RUM data. More details covering our integration will follow soon.
Meanwhile, we've started to roll out Baseline badges on our public pages like blogs and help center articles to indicate the Baseline status of features mentioned in articles. A few badges can be seen in our Custom timing section as well as below, where you'll find an interactive badge depicting the latest support status of the loading
attribute.
Baseline 2023
Newly available
Lazy-loading works across the latest devices and browser versions.
Lazy-loading might not work in older devices or browsers.
- Supported as of Chrome 77, Edge 79, Firefox 121 and Safari 16.4
- Resulting in full support since December 19, 2023
- Continue reading about lazy loading attributes
Register to RUMvision to see more resources and learn if your website visitors would already benefit from this feature today.
Continue reading
- About the Baseline initiative at github
- official Baseline roadmap at web.dev
- See what's newly available at web.dev
- Baseline evolution on MDN