21 Jul 2012

Web Intents are Bloody Fantastic

One of my favourite things about Android are Intents. Having the ability to make a general request (e.g. ‘share this link’) and allowing any capable app to fulfill that request is incredibly powerful.

What if we could do the same on the web? If Google gets their way, we might just see that happening.

The concept is very similar to the way Intents work on Android: Web apps can register their capabilities with the browser and others can later request these capabilities in a standardized fashion.

The best way to get your head around the concept is to watch the following Google I/O talk on the subject. If you look closely, you may be able to see me in the audience!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=O1YjdKh-rPg

Right now you have to use Chrome to play with Web Intents, but Google has submitted a draft proposal to the W3C to get them included in the HTML 5 spec down the line. I really hope that the concept takes off among major content handlers like Flickr, Twitter, Reddit, and others. It would make the web a much friendlier place.

Thanks for reading! If you like my writing, you may be interested in my book: Healthy Webhook Consumption with Rails

David at 09:52