A new channel for telling browser vendors what you need

Checking Can I Use and seeing red across every column for the feature you need is a familiar frustration. The WebDX Community Group has launched a way to turn that frustration into a direct signal: you can now upvote web features you want to see become interoperable across major browsers.

The upvote mechanism is integrated directly on web.dev, caniuse.com, and webstatus.dev, with other platforms like MDN investigating similar integrations. When you look up browser support for a feature, an "Upvote" button takes you to the corresponding tracking issue in the web-platform-dx/developer-signals repository on GitHub. Casting a vote means adding a đź‘Ť reaction to the issue description.

Votes, but with context

A thumbs up demonstrates demand, but browser engineers need to understand why a feature matters. Are you depending on a heavy polyfill? Working around missing support in a way that breaks accessibility? Or simply avoiding the feature entirely? Leaving a comment with your specific use case gives engineers the real-world context they need to prioritize work.

How this complements Interop

If you've taken part in the Interop selection process or the State of HTML/CSS/JS surveys, this may feel familiar. Those annual programs remain unchanged. This new signal channel complements them with a different approach:

  • Always on: Interop proposals and surveys run in specific windows. This channel is open year-round, so you can vote in the moment you hit a roadblock instead of months later.
  • No resets: Unlike Interop proposals that often start fresh annually, your votes roll over. A signal persists if a feature isn't picked up right away, and its weight continues to build.
  • Zero friction: Nearly every non-Baseline feature already has a tracking issue, so there's no formal proposal or spec writing—just a click.

A signal, not a ballot box

The most-voted feature won't automatically be built next—browser development requires balancing security, privacy, architectural complexity, device constraints, and existing standards positions. But developer demand does factor into prioritization decisions, and vendors can point to a concrete count of developers actively asking for a feature when charting roadmaps. Chrome recently cited such developer signals in its decision to welcome JPEG XL contributions in Chromium.

To participate, look for upvote buttons across web.dev, webstatus.dev, and caniuse.com, or browse open issues directly in the developer-signals repository. Vote with a đź‘Ť and comment on the features that matter to your work, keeping the Code of Conduct in mind and staying on topic.