Hey, am I correct in understanding that this essentially removes system colors as auto accent-colors on non-installed web applications? I have a naive question: can you comment on the significance of being installed vs not being installed as a mitigation for fingerprinting? My guess is that an installed web app already has elevated access to things like this. Is that correct?
This is the default value so I assume that there is quite a bit of usage of this right now intentionally or otherwise, so this is likely to have a significant effect for users. At the same time it seems like a reasonable mitigation. https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/10372 seems to be under active discussion. Do you foresee any resolutions coming soon? Thanks, Vlad On Sat, Feb 14, 2026 at 1:24 AM Daniel Herr <[email protected]> wrote: > They should also be exposed to extensions. > > On Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 5:12 PM 'Alexander Kyereboah' via blink-dev < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> *Contact emails* >> [email protected] >> >> *Explainer* >> *N/A* >> >> *Specification* >> https://drafts.csswg.org/css-ui-4/#widget-accent >> >> *Summary* >> Currently, if the *accent-color* property for form controls is set to >> *auto*, they adopt the system accent color set by the user in their >> operating system. This happens in all contexts whether on the web or in an >> installed web application. Current feature state: >> https://chromestatus.com/feature/6548224737017856 >> *AccentColor* and *AccentColorText* CSS keywords, which also adopt the >> system accent color, pose a significant fingerprinting vector if exposed >> widely on the web. As such, they're currently planned to only be available >> in installed web app contexts. We want system accent color exposure to >> match across all vectors, so we should scope *accent-color: auto* to >> only be available in installed web app contexts as well. This introduces >> more consistent developer and user expectations for system colors and >> aligns with fingerprinting restrictions for *AccentColor[Text]*. >> >> *Blink component* >> Blink>CSS >> <https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3ECSS%22> >> >> *Web Feature ID* >> accent-color <https://webstatus.dev/features/accent-color> >> >> *Motivation* >> Currently, system accent color features have differing scopes of >> availability. While *AccentColor[Text]* is planned to only be available >> in installed web apps, *accent-color: auto* uses system accent color >> everywhere. This leads to confusing signaling on when developers can expect >> system accent colors to be available, as well as unintended accessibility >> and UX side effects as form controls adopt colors on web sites that >> developers didn't expect. Scoping system accent color availability to >> installed web apps all up will provide more consistency in this feature >> intended to allow more native app like styling, while adhering to the >> fingerprinting restrictions that *AccentColor[Text]* is planned to be >> subject to (must not be exposed outside of installed web apps). >> >> *Initial public proposal* >> *No information provided* >> >> *Search tags* >> accent-color <https://chromestatus.com/features#tags:accent-color>, >> accent <https://chromestatus.com/features#tags:accent>, color >> <https://chromestatus.com/features#tags:color>, system accent color >> <https://chromestatus.com/features#tags:system%20accent%20color> >> >> *TAG review* >> This is a modification/fix for an existing approved feature. >> >> *TAG review status* >> Not applicable >> >> *Risks* >> >> >> *Interoperability and Compatibility* >> There is potential interoperability risk as WebKit exposes the system >> accent color completely un-scoped, while Firefox does not. Conversation >> around fingerprinting mitigation for *AccentColor*, which mentions how >> it should not have differing availability from accent-color: auto: >> https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/10372 >> >> *Gecko*: Positive ( >> https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1354) Emilio noted >> in the attached link that he sees no issues with this. >> >> *WebKit*: No signal ( >> https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/613) In discussion. >> >> *Web developers*: No signals >> >> *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, but implementing Finch feature flag just in case. >> >> >> *Debuggability* >> No additional functionality needed to debug this feature. >> >> *Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, >> Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?* >> No >> This is scoping an existing feature, which is currently being supported >> on Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS. Future support for Android is planned. >> >> *Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests >> <https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>?* >> No >> There are no specific tests for this scoping fix. The underlying feature >> relies on the platform's accent color and necessitates a WebDriver >> extension to simulate the accent-color property accurately, making it >> difficult to test. However current WPT coverage for the underlying feature >> was not broken by this change. >> WPT tests listed for underlying feature: >> - https://wpt.fyi/results/css/css-ui/accent-color-parsing.html >> - >> https://wpt.fyi/results/css/css-typed-om/the-stylepropertymap/properties/accent-color.html >> >> - >> https://wpt.fyi/results/css/css-ui/animation/accent-color-interpolation.html >> >> *Flag name on about://flags* >> *N/A* >> >> *Finch feature name* >> >> *WebAppScopeSystemAccentColor* >> *Rollout plan* >> Will ship enabled for all users >> >> *Requires code in //chrome?* >> False >> >> *Tracking bug* >> https://issues.chromium.org/issues/481353056 >> >> *Estimated milestones* >> >> Shipping on desktop >> 147 >> >> *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). >> The fingerprinting mitigation for AccentColor and AccentColorText do not >> have widely agreed upon resolution: >> https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/10372 Depending on the >> results of that conversation, it's possible we might be able to un-scope >> this feature in the future. >> >> *Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status* >> https://chromestatus.com/feature/5106043975761920?gate=4678080817922048 >> >> 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/01a0f425-0740-4b13-b0f9-a552b2b247a5n%40chromium.org >> <https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/01a0f425-0740-4b13-b0f9-a552b2b247a5n%40chromium.org?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > 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/CAJSLZa2pLoNN8tkr9s_OGhHvTZmNL6_njFH-sQZa0hkyuibY-Q%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAJSLZa2pLoNN8tkr9s_OGhHvTZmNL6_njFH-sQZa0hkyuibY-Q%40mail.gmail.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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