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Explainer https://open-ui.org/components/scoped-focusgroup.explainer Specification https://github.com/whatwg/html/pull/11723 Summary The focusgroup HTML attribute gives composite widgets native arrow key navigation, a guaranteed tab stop, and last-focused memory, replacing hand-coded roving tabindex scripts. Authors set one attribute and the browser handles focus movement, axis constraints, and wrap behavior. In the following example, no JS is needed to provide arrow-key navigation across the toolbar: ``` <div focusgroup="toolbar wrap" aria-label="Formatting”> <button>Bold</button> <button>Italic</button> <button>Underline</button> </div> ``` Blink component Blink>DOM<https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3EDOM%22> Web Feature ID n/a Motivation By providing this primitive built-in the browser, authors will be able to provide this functionality without relying on custom solutions that often lead to a lack of consistency, accessibility, and interoperability. Initial public proposal MSEdgeExplainers/Focusgroup/explainer.md at main · MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers<https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/blob/main/Focusgroup/explainer.md> (initial proposal is now outdated) TAG review https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1152 TAG review status Pending TAG review is open with positive engagement from reviewers<https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1152#issuecomment-3711298217>; Mozilla's standards position is now positive, and WebKit's device-independence and testability concerns have either been addressed or are being explored. Origin Trial Name focusgroup Goals for experimentation Test out the new design of the "focusgroup" attribute and get feedback from developers. Chromium Trial Name Focusgroup Origin Trial documentation link https://open-ui.org/components/scoped-focusgroup.explainer WebFeature UseCounter name kFocusgroup, see: Chrome Platform Status<https://chromestatus.com/metrics/feature/timeline/popularity/4243> Risks Interoperability and Compatibility Since the behavior can be polyfilled, compatibility risk is reduced. When not supported on a given platform, developers can fall back to the polyfill implementation. Gecko: Positive (https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1348) WebKit: No signal (https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/171) Web developers: Positive Other signals: * The polyfill (https://www.npmjs.com/package/@microsoft/focusgroup-polyfill) has had about 400 weekly downloads since it was first released two weeks ago. * Various blogs and publications have shown positivity towards the feature: * Frontend Focus Issue 732: March 11, 2026<https://frontendfoc.us/issues/732> * https://adactio.com/journal/22445 * https://bsky.app/profile/tabatkins.com/post/3mgggxjsa3c24 * https://youtu.be/fAmQy5v2KeE?t=1073&si=jUM9X6GZ-E1KZPLz WebView application risks Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications? No, it is a new API. Debuggability Dev tools error logging is supported for various invalid combinations of focusgroup values in HTML. Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)? Yes Supported on all platforms but requires a keyboard or other device with directional arrows. Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests<https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>? Yes https://wpt.fyi/results/html/interaction/focus/focusgroup?label=experimental&label=master&aligned Flag name on about://flags n/a Finch feature name Focusgroup Rollout plan Will ship enabled for all users Requires code in //chrome? False Tracking bug https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1286127 Availability expectation Mozilla has a positive standards position (April 2026) but hasn't announced implementation plans. WebKit has testability concerns that are being addressed. Adoption expectation The maintainers of Fluent UI Web Components are integrating this feature to be used in their next major version (V3), which is expected to ship in the coming months. Adoption plan The polyfill (https://www.npmjs.com/package/@microsoft/focusgroup-polyfill) will aid adoption for developers who want to start using the feature before wide availability. https://developer.chrome.com/blog/focusgroup-rfc was published to both request for feedback and to raise awareness of the feature. Non-OSS dependencies Does the feature depend on any code or APIs outside the Chromium open source repository and its open-source dependencies to function? No Estimated milestones Shipping on desktop 150 Origin trial desktop first 146 Origin trial desktop last 149 DevTrial on desktop 146 Shipping on Android 150 Origin trial Android first 146 Origin trial Android last 149 DevTrial on Android 146 Shipping on WebView 150 Anticipated spec changes Additional behavior tokens for additional functionality may be added later, but this is designed to be possible in a fully backwards-compatible way, see: Full list of Open-UI issues with the <https://github.com/openui/open-ui/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3Afocusgroup> focusgroup tag<https://github.com/openui/open-ui/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3Afocusgroup> Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status https://chromestatus.com/feature/5637601087193088?gate=6096246914154496 Links to previous Intent discussions Intent to Prototype: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/BL0PR00MB0820DFE66371FEA5743EA92F9B529%40BL0PR00MB0820.namprd00.prod.outlook.com Intent to Experiment: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/DS0PR00MB23684A74F74CB036E7C24BD58B9EA%40DS0PR00MB2368.namprd00.prod.outlook.com This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status<https://chromestatus.com/>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/DS0PR00MB2368D5081266F56956C672998B282%40DS0PR00MB2368.namprd00.prod.outlook.com.
