Firefox Tomorrow

web api overview

User Preferences API

View on MDN ↗

Limited availability

The User Preferences API allows page authors to programmatically override user preference-related media query settings.

Concepts and Usage

Supporting user agents define values for the CSS media queries prefers-color-scheme, prefers-contrast, prefers-reduced-motion, prefers-reduced-transparency, and prefers-reduced-data. The PreferenceManager object provides programmatic access to these preferences, allowing page authors to listen for preference changes and override them.

Examples

Dark Mode Toggle

The following code implements a minimal dark mode toggle.

HTML

The HTML features a form containing three radio buttons. These radio buttons set the color-scheme field to either system, light, or dark.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en-US">
  <head>
    <meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark" />
  </head>
  <body>
    <form>
      <label>
        <input type="radio" name="color-scheme" value="light" />
        Light
      </label>
      <label>
        <input type="radio" name="color-scheme" value="dark" />
        Dark
      </label>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

JavaScript

The JavaScript registers change event listeners for all elements named color-scheme. If the value is system, the handler clears the color scheme override. Otherwise, it requests a color scheme override with the value of the input element.

if (navigator.preferences) {
  const inputs = {
    light: document.querySelector('[name="color-scheme"][value="light"]'),
    dark: document.querySelector('[name="color-scheme"][value="dark"]'),
  };

  inputs[navigator.preferences.colorScheme.value].checked = true;

  inputs.light.addEventListener("change", () => {
    navigator.preferences.colorScheme.requestOverride("light");
  });
  inputs.dark.addEventListener("change", () => {
    navigator.preferences.colorScheme.requestOverride("dark");
  });

  navigator.preferences.colorScheme.addEventListener("change", () => {
    inputs[navigator.preferences.colorScheme.value].checked = true;
  });
} else {
  document.body.append(
    "Your browser doesn’t support the navigator.preferences API",
  );
}

Result

body {
  font-family: system-ui, sans-serif;
}

label {
  display: block;
  margin: 0.5em 0;
}
Interactive exampleOpen the canonical MDN source to run this embedded demo.

Specifications

SpecificationsStandards references are available on the canonical MDN page.

Browser compatibility

Browser compatibilityCompatibility data is available on the canonical MDN page.