Thanks for the quick response, Rick! Do we know of any website who wants to use this API? In general we don't > ship APIs that we don't have known customers for.
Google Meet requires this feature to ensure that the on-device model used by the Web Speech API meets its strict quality requirements. It looks like this is in this PR > <https://github.com/WebAudio/web-speech-api/pull/186>, right? Is there > any reason we shouldn't wait for the PR to land before shipping? Meet wants to use this feature in M150, but hopefully the PR will land before then anyway! Why not? Android & ChromeOS currently do not support on-device Web Speech, so this quality hint won't be available on those platforms. As for the lack of WPT coverage, the testing infrastructure currently lacks a standardized way to mock the hardware-dependent capabilities and subjective behaviors of different on-device machine learning models. Thanks, Evan On Wed, May 6, 2026 at 8:02 AM Rick Byers <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Tue, May 5, 2026 at 6:48 PM Chromestatus < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> *Contact emails* >> [email protected] >> >> *Explainer* >> >> https://github.com/WebAudio/web-speech-api/blob/main/explainers/quality-levels.md >> >> *Specification* >> https://webaudio.github.io/web-speech-api > > > It looks like this is in this PR > <https://github.com/WebAudio/web-speech-api/pull/186>, right? Is there > any reason we shouldn't wait for the PR to land before shipping? > > *Summary* >> Extends the SpeechRecognition interface by adding a quality property to >> SpeechRecognitionOptions. This allows developers to specify the semantic >> capability required for on-device recognition (via processLocally: true). >> The proposed quality enum supports three levels—'command', 'dictation', and >> 'conversation'—mapping to increasing task complexity and hardware >> requirements. This enables developers to determine if the local device can >> handle high-stakes use cases (like meeting transcription) or if they should >> fallback to cloud services, solving the current "black box" issue of >> on-device model capabilities. >> >> *Blink component* >> Blink>Speech >> <https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3ESpeech%22> >> >> *Web Feature ID* >> speech-recognition <https://webstatus.dev/features/speech-recognition> >> >> *Motivation* >> While the introduction of processLocally: true was a significant step for >> privacy and latency, it currently treats all on-device models as >> functionally equivalent. In reality, on-device capabilities are highly >> fragmented: a lightweight model optimized for simple voice commands (e.g., >> "turn on the lights") is often insufficient for high-stakes use cases like >> video conferencing transcription or accessibility captioning, which require >> handling continuous speech, multiple speakers, and background noise. >> Because developers currently have no way to verify the semantic capability >> of the local model, they must blindly trust the device or default to >> Cloud-based recognition to guarantee a minimum user experience. This lack >> of transparency forces developers to bypass on-device capabilities for >> high-end use cases, effectively negating the privacy and bandwidth benefits >> of the API. There is a critical need for a mechanism that allows >> applications to define their required "floor" of utility (e.g., >> conversation-grade accuracy) to confidently utilize local processing. >> >> *Initial public proposal* >> https://github.com/WebAudio/web-speech-api/issues/182 >> >> *TAG review* >> *No information provided* >> >> *TAG review status* >> Issues addressed >> >> *Goals for experimentation* >> None >> >> *Risks* >> >> >> *Interoperability and Compatibility* >> *No information provided* >> >> *Gecko*: Positive ( >> https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1375) Neutral/positive, >> Firefox is launching on-device Web Speech using a single LLM model, so they >> won't make use of this proposed quality hint but they don't have strong >> objections against adding it. >> >> *WebKit*: No signal ( >> https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/634) N/A, Apple >> doesn't have anyone actively working on the Web Speech API on the moment. >> >> *Web developers*: No signals >> > > Do we know of any website who wants to use this API? In general we don't > ship APIs that we don't have known customers for. > > >> >> *Other signals*: >> >> *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 information provided* >> >> >> *Debuggability* >> *No information provided* >> >> *Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, >> Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?* >> No >> >> *Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests >> <https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>?* >> No > > > Why not? > > >> *Flag name on about://flags* >> *No information provided* >> >> *Finch feature name* >> OnDeviceWebSpeechQuality >> >> *Rollout plan* >> Will ship enabled for all users >> >> *Requires code in //chrome?* >> True >> >> *Tracking bug* >> https://g-issues.chromium.org/issues/476168420 >> >> *Estimated milestones* >> Shipping on desktop 150 >> >> *Anticipated spec changes* >> >> Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or >> interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues >> in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may >> introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of >> the API in a non-backward-compatible way). >> *No information provided* >> >> *Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status* >> https://chromestatus.com/feature/5136859632107520?gate=6594055733641216 >> >> *Links to previous Intent discussions* >> Intent to Prototype: >> https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/69694ed0.050a0220.f8796.0337.GAE%40google.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/69fa73a1.050a0220.e03d3.00f0.GAE%40google.com >> <https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/69fa73a1.050a0220.e03d3.00f0.GAE%40google.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group. 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