WebHID API

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

A Human Interface Device (HID) is a type of device that takes input from or provides output to humans. It also refers to the HID protocol, a standard for bi-directional communication between a host and a device that is designed to simplify the installation procedure. The HID protocol was originally developed for USB devices but has since been implemented over many other protocols, including Bluetooth.

Interfaces

HID

Provides methods for connecting to HID devices, listing attached HID devices and event handlers for connected HID devices.

HIDDevice

Represents an HID device. It's possible for a single physical device to be represented by multiple HIDDevice obects.

HIDInputReportEvent

Passed to HIDDevice.oninputreport when an input report is received from any associated HID device.

HIDConnectionEvent

Passed to HID.onconnect and HID.ondisconnect when a device is connected or disconnected.

Examples

You can connect to a device with the requestDevice() method. In this case, we select from all the available devices.

const device = await navigator.hid.requestDevice({filters: []})
// A popup titled `... wants to connect to a HID Device` with `Cancel` and `Connect` buttons will show up with a device list to select from.
// Select one and click on `Connect` button. Then the device will be an array with the selected device in it.

We can retrieve all the connected devices and log the device names to the console.

let devices = await navigator.hid.getDevices();
devices.forEach(device => {
    console.log(`HID: ${device.productName}`);
});

We can register event listeners for disconnection of any HID devices.

navigator.hid.addEventListener('disconnect', (event) => {
    console.log(`HID disconnected: ${event.device.productName}`);
    console.dir(event)
});
// For example, when my connected keyboard gets disconnected, the log in the console will show:
// HID disconnected: USB USB Keyboard
// {
//    bubbles: false
//    cancelBubble: false
//    cancelable: false
//    composed: false
//    currentTarget: HID {onconnect: null, ondisconnect: null}
//    defaultPrevented: false
//    device: HIDDevice {oninputreport: null, opened: false, vendorId: 6700, productId: 11555, productName: "USB USB Keyboard", …}
//    eventPhase: 0
//    isTrusted: true
//    path: []
//    returnValue: true
//    srcElement: HID {onconnect: null, ondisconnect: null}
//    target: HID {onconnect: null, ondisconnect: null}
//    timeStamp: 18176.600000023842
//    type: "disconnect"
// }

// The event above is an instance of the HIDConnectionEvent interface.

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
WebHID API Draft Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
WebHID_API
89
89
No
No
75
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
getDevices
89
89
No
No
75
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
onconnect
89
89
No
No
75
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
ondisconnect
89
89
No
No
75
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
requestDevice
89
89
No
No
75
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

© 2005–2021 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebHID_API