Good analysis. It sounds like the change will be web compatible, which
is good news.
/Daniel
On 2026-05-08 10:33, 'Pranav Modi' via blink-dev wrote:
Compat analysis: Analyzed ~2,200 files across JavaScript and
TypeScript on GitHub for both deleteWordBackward and
deleteWordForward usage, with full source context.
Change scope: In Chromium only, when a non-collapsed selection exists
and the user presses Ctrl+Backspace/Delete, inputType changes from
deleteWordBackward/Forward to deleteContentBackward/Forward. Caret
behavior is unchanged.
Results: Of ~2,200 files, 10 unique repos (after deduplicating forks)
checkdeleteWord* without also handling deleteContent*. Of those:
* 3 are typing test apps where the trigger scenario (select text →
Ctrl+Backspace) doesn't arise in normal use
* 5 have native browser fallback — selected text still gets deleted,
just through the native path
* 2 are niche tools (academic NLP tool, personal terminal emulator)
with a minor behavior difference
Major frameworks (CKEditor, Lexical, Slate, Odoo, monkeytype,
GNOME/evolution) all handle this correctly already. No major websites
or widely-used libraries are affected.
Interestingly, I noticed that the shipped feature already has the
runtime flag enabled (stable since *M145*), and there have been no
bugs or regressions filed against it, which further confirms that the
change hasn't caused any meaningful breakage.
The runtime flag (InputEventsDeleteNonCollapsedSelection) remains
available as a kill-switch if needed.
On Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at 10:57:27 PM UTC+5:30 PhistucK wrote:
Probably a little more representative -
https://github.com/search?q=%2F%5B%27%22%60%5DdeleteWordBackward%5B%27%22%60%5D%2F+%28language%3AJavaScript+OR+language%3ATypeScript%29&type=code
<https://github.com/search?q=%2F%5B%27%22%60%5DdeleteWordBackward%5B%27%22%60%5D%2F+%28language%3AJavaScript+OR+language%3ATypeScript%29&type=code>
☆*PhistucK*
On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 3:29 PM Daniel Bratell <[email protected]>
wrote:
Searching the HTML Archive and github can help you get an idea
about how they are used and the effects of renaming or
removing them.
Just looking at
https://github.com/search?q=deleteWordBackward+language%3AJavaScript&type=code&l=JavaScript
<https://github.com/search?q=deleteWordBackward+language%3AJavaScript&type=code&l=JavaScript>
there is quite a bit of code. I didn't check to see if any of
them would break, but hopefully such an analysis is not too hard.
/Daniel
On 2026-02-11 10:44, 'Pranav Modi' via blink-dev wrote:
Doing a compat analysis for this change does not look
straightforward to me as the change that is being proposed,
happens in a specific use-case where there is a*modifier+key
combination (Ctrl+Backspace, Ctrl+Delete, etc.) *while having
a non-collapsed selection.
That said, for a site to actually break from this, it would
need to:
1. Listen for beforeinput/inputevents,
2. Specifically branch on inputType ===
"deleteWordBackward"(or similar granularity types). This
condition will be impacted only in case of presence of
non-collapsed selection and deletion via modifier keys.
3. Not have a handler for
deleteContentBackward/deleteContentForward— which they'd
already need for plain Backspace/Delete (Any site
handling input events for deletion already handles
deleteContentBackward/deleteContentForward (since those
are what plain Backspace/Delete produce), so receiving
these types for Ctrl+Backspace with a selection will
naturally fall into existing code paths.).
As this appears to be rare scenario, *our motivation is to
make the event spec compliant along with publishing a PSA
which should be a sufficient enough mitigation*. Also note
that this change is behind a runtime flag
(InputEventsDeleteNonCollapsedSelection), so we can quickly
disable it if any issues surface post-launch.
On Thursday, February 5, 2026 at 10:41:08 PM UTC+5:30 Mike
Taylor wrote:
On 2/4/26 9:58 p.m., Chromestatus wrote:
*Contact emails*
[email protected]
*Specification*
https://w3c.github.io/input-events/#interface-InputEvent-Attributes
*Summary*
Reports accurate inputType values for deletion keyboard
shortcuts on selected text. When deletion commands like
Ctrl+Backspace or Ctrl+Delete are used with selected
text in contenteditable elements, the beforeinput and
input events now report deleteContentBackward or
deleteContentForward instead of deleteWordBackward or
deleteWordForward. This enables web developers to
correctly understand what editing operation occurred and
implement reliable undo/redo or custom editing behaviors.
Changing the attribute value here seems like it could
break sites - have you done any compat analysis?
*Blink component*
Blink>Editing>InputEvent
<https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3EEditing%3EInputEvent%22>
*Web Feature ID*
input-event <https://webstatus.dev/features/input-event>
*Risks*
*Interoperability and Compatibility*
/No information provided/
/Gecko/: No
signal
(https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/InputEvent/inputType)
/WebKit/:
Shipped/Shipping
(https://webkit.org/blog/7358/enhanced-editing-with-input-events)
/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 information provided/
*Debuggability*
/No information provided/
*Will this feature be supported on all six Blink
platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and
Android WebView)?*
Yes
*Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests
<https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>?*
Yes
*Tracking bug*
https://issues.chromium.org/issues/41423062
*Estimated milestones*
Shipping on desktop 145
Shipping on Android 145
Shipping on iOS 145
*Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status*
https://chromestatus.com/feature/5173317243895808
This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform
Status <https://chromestatus.com>.
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