Bug 194593 – Add support for Web Share Target API

• Status: NEW
• Component: New Bugs

[Thomas Steiner]

Following the implementation of the Web Share API (https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171100), the next logical step could be the implementation of the Web Share Target API (https://wicg.github.io/web-share-target/), which in fact is an extension (https://wicg.github.io/web-share-target/#extension-to-the-web-app-manifest) of Web App Manifest (https://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/). 

Companies like Twitter use this already (https://mobile.twitter.com/manifest.json):


```
[...]
"share_target": {
	"action": "compose/tweet",
	"params": {
		"title": "title",
		"text": "text",
		"url": "url"
	}
},
[...]
```

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/48080757>

[Filip Bech-Larsen]

I would love to see this work so webapps can be opened with content like real apps. 

The squoosh.app app uses webshare target-api on Android and it would be so much easier to add an image from an email (or somewhere else), without having to add to the gallery first.

The first step of cause is the text-only version which is better than nothing, but the real deal would be the full formdata version so anything* could be shared.

[Mike Watson]

Adding support for the `Share Target API` will be incredibly useful capability.  

Our app, https://sprout.io, has the need to quickly bookmark and create collections of learning resources from mobile devices.

This is easily done on desktop with extensions, but the `Share Target API` is needed to supported this popular use case on mobile.

Adding support for the `Share Target API` will help democratize access to this share capability for apps of all sizes (even those who lack the budget to develop native apps/share extensions across all platforms).

Yes, please!  Standardization is huge for developers, but more importantly for users to feel comfortable!

[Ernst]

+1 It will be fantastic to have this.

I have an existing Android and iOS app that is an ePub reader. It currently works by "sharing" an epub file with my app and then it is imported in to the app. Would be helpful to make it as a PWA instead. If this feature is implemented with the file support, could import the file in and then store the contents in storage for viewing later.

[overclockedllama]

Is there any update on the development of this feature. It would make iOS PWAs an actually viable option for many more use cases in the future.

[Karel Vanden Bussche]

This would indeed be perfect for all web applications that ingest data. This would increase the UX value of a whole segment of apps. This spec has been some months old. It saddens me that Apple keeps pushing the brakes for PWA support.

[Jerome Quah]

(In reply to Karel Vanden Bussche from comment #8)
> It saddens me that Apple keeps pushing the brakes for PWA support.

Other than the fact that Apple, at launch of the iPhone, pushed for Web apps over native apps, the complete opposite of pushing the brakes I'd imagine; (Archive of their 2007 web app directory: https://web.archive.org/web/20071012025941/apple.com/webapps)

You should not be expecting Apple to be rushing to implement an API that is not on the W3C standards track. No one except Google has shipped support for the Web Share Target API. Mozilla's Firefox team still has this on their to-do list. (https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/5783)

It is a feature proposed by Google, hence you'll find the API for it in Chrome, Opera, and Edge; the major browsers that are all based on Chromium.

Important to note that the WICG draft for this linked by Thomas states explicitly that it is a 
> draft of a potential specification.
and that it has 
> no official standing of any kind and does not represent the support or consensus of any standards organization.

Though I understand why he didn't specify the document's status; it would've been the opposite of trying to sell an idea.

That being said, I do hope this is being considered for development as it does more good than harm for the web as a whole, just make sure to have reasonable expectations of companies and developers.

[Marcel]

(In reply to Jerome Quah from comment #9)
> (In reply to Karel Vanden Bussche from comment #8)
> > It saddens me that Apple keeps pushing the brakes for PWA support.
> 
> Other than the fact that Apple, at launch of the iPhone, pushed for Web apps
> over native apps, the complete opposite of pushing the brakes I'd imagine;
> (Archive of their 2007 web app directory:
> https://web.archive.org/web/20071012025941/apple.com/webapps)
> 
> You should not be expecting Apple to be rushing to implement an API that is
> not on the W3C standards track. No one except Google has shipped support for
> the Web Share Target API. Mozilla's Firefox team still has this on their
> to-do list. (https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/5783)
> 
> It is a feature proposed by Google, hence you'll find the API for it in
> Chrome, Opera, and Edge; the major browsers that are all based on Chromium.
> 
> Important to note that the WICG draft for this linked by Thomas states
> explicitly that it is a 
> > draft of a potential specification.
> and that it has 
> > no official standing of any kind and does not represent the support or consensus of any standards organization.
> 
> Though I understand why he didn't specify the document's status; it would've
> been the opposite of trying to sell an idea.
> 
> That being said, I do hope this is being considered for development as it
> does more good than harm for the web as a whole, just make sure to have
> reasonable expectations of companies and developers.

I totally understand your statement, that one cannot expect apple to implement this suggestion from google. 

However, if they support sharing stuff from an app, there should also be a way to receive sharing from other apps. Of course there's no specification right now and so on, but from the developer experience it's really frustrating only having it in one direction and it feels like they just stopped after going 50% of the way.

Would also be more than happy if there was "some" way to recieve shared information - even if I had to implement different ways for android and iOS :-)

[Feross Aboukhadijeh]

We would love to see support for this API which we use in our app, Wormhole <https://wormhole.app>. Wormhole is a website that lets you share files with end-to-end encryption, so it's very useful to be able to share files from any native share widget to our website.

We're really hoping to seeing support for this on iOS. It would really help websites to be a true alternative to the App Store, which Apple claimed the web was (see: https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/25/bypass-the-app-store-says-apple/)

Quoting Apple from that article:

> Web browsers are used not only as a distribution portal, but also as platforms themselves, hosting “progressive web applications” (PWAs) that eliminate the need to download a developer’s app through the App Store (or other means) at all.

> PWAs are increasingly available for and through mobile-based browsers and devices, including on iOS. PWAs are apps that are built using common web technology like HTML 5, but have the look, feel and functionality of a native app. They can even have an app icon that resides on the device home screen.

In order for PWAs to be a realistic alternative to native apps, as Apple claims, Safari absolutely must support extremely basic features such as this one.

[Marc Seitz]

I would really love to see this coming to iOS soon. I see that nobody is currently assigned to work on this? How can I get involved?

[Shlok Zanwar]

Any updates on when this will be coming to IOS ?

the spec for web share: https://www.w3.org/TR/web-share/#share-targets ; which is co-authored by: Marcos Cáceres (Apple Inc.) <[e-mail]>

the draft for share_target: 

https://w3c.github.io/web-share-target/

🌍🚙📷🐆🐘 🥾

cc * +@jensimmons
cc @ +@@[e-mail]

[Ilya]

Hello guys, 

Please allow me to add a vote for this functionality. 

After Apple adding support for Push Notification it seems that Web Share Target API becomes the biggest stopper for PWA to become the mature platform. 

Sharing information between apps is a basic need and basic use case. 
Being able to see an icon of the PWA application in the list of apps to share should be huge addition to the world of PWA. 

Even if you decide to make it a paid option and make a developer to pay for Apple Developer's account - that would still be an amazing functionality to have. 

Please, please and please! 

iLiveMyLife app
Ilya