Bug 281848 – Shape Detection API doesn't work on iOS

• Status: NEW
• Component: WebKit Misc.

[Danny Moerkerke]

The Shape Detection API was working until Safari 17.6.x when enabled in feature flags but is no longer working.

To reproduce:

1. navigate to https://whatpwacando.today/barcode in Safari on iOS 18 with Shape Detection API enabled in feature flags
2. tap the "Scan code" button
3. scan a QR-code with the camera
4. code is not detected

1. navigate to https://whatpwacando.today/face-detection in Safari on iOS 18 with Shape Detection API enabled in feature flags
2. tap the "Detect face" button
3. scan face with the camera
4. face is not detected

The Shape Detection API does work on macOS Sequoia.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/138403640>

[Jonathan]

I hope Apple fixes this soon. The barcode detector API is far superior to any Javascript implementation.

Making the shape detection API widely available would greatly enhance the development of robust, efficient applications that rely on scanning capabilities.

This API is very important modern-day technology with the prolificness of QR codes. I would love to see it fixed

[Jaap Weijland]

I also hope this API becomes widely available. Now I'm relying on native apps purely for the scanning capability.

[Erik Paulson]

The examples above of whatpwacando.today did not seem to work in Safari 18.3. As a workaround I'm using the barcode-detector-polyfill ( https://github.com/undecaf/barcode-detector-polyfill ), which compiles an existing barcode detector to WASM and brings that in, but it'd be really great to skip that and use the built-in APIs from safari.

I'm currently doing a workaround for iOS using https://github.com/cozmo/jsQR

[Erik Paulson]

The linked examples for barcode detection did not seem to work on iOS 18.4 on my iphone 15. I can scan the same barcode in the same light conditions on a pixel android with the example site, so I think the barcode is recognizable. 

(I had to reenable the feature flag after upgrading to iOS 18.4, so if you don't even get a camera stream going, check that first)

[Erik Paulson]

The linked example for barcode detection did not seem to work on iOS 18.5 on my iphone 15. I was again successful with the same barcode in the same light with my pixel android, so I don't think it's just this barcode. 

Hopefully we'll see a fix in 18.6, or that someone will be able to try it out with an iOS 19 beta later this summer.

[Erik Paulson]

I tried the linked example for barcode detection with the first iOS 26 developer beta release, using an iPhone 12 Pro. I was not successful in reading any barcodes I tried. Before I upgraded this iPhone to iOS 26, it was still running iOS 17.1 and the linked webpage was able to detect the barcode on the same test items I was using with iOS 26 beta. (The shapes detection API is still behind a feature flag in iOS 26 and was turned off after my upgrade)