Web Share API
Bharat Kalluri / 2020-10-13
With the web share API, web applications can utilize the system provided sharing capabilities. You can even read the spec in a couple of minutes.
Usage
- The site must be served over HTTPS (localhost works for development)
- Currently (as of 13 Oct 2020) the browser support is still not good. Most of the popular mobile browsers support it though.
- The
navigator.share
method has to be called when the user does action (like button click). You cannot call the method directly (for example on page load). - It can share URLs, text or files
Let us look at an example
if (navigator.share) {
// Share API available
navigator
.share({
title: 'BharatKalluri.in',
url: 'https://bharatkalluri.in',
})
.then(() => console.log('Shared successfully'))
.catch((err) => console.log(err));
} else {
// Fallback
}
navigator.share
needs at least on of the following parameters: title
, text
, url
or files
. Desktop browsers largely lack support
for the API. So a fall back is necessary.
That's about it, hopefully support for this API will land on all major browsers soon.