VisualViewport

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since August 2021.

The VisualViewport interface of the Visual Viewport API represents the visual viewport for a given window. For a page containing iframes, each iframe, as well as the containing page, will have a unique window object. Each window on a page will have a unique VisualViewport representing the properties associated with that window.

You can get a window's visual viewport using Window.visualViewport.

Note: Only the top-level window has a visual viewport that's distinct from the layout viewport. Therefore, it's generally only the VisualViewport object of the top-level window that's useful. For an <iframe>, visual viewport metrics like VisualViewport.width always correspond to layout viewport metrics like document.documentElement.clientWidth.

Instance properties

Also inherits properties from its parent interface, EventTarget.

VisualViewport.offsetLeft Read only: Returns the offset of the left edge of the visual viewport from the left edge of the layout viewport in CSS pixels.
VisualViewport.offsetTop Read only: Returns the offset of the top edge of the visual viewport from the top edge of the layout viewport in CSS pixels.
VisualViewport.pageLeft Read only: Returns the x coordinate of the visual viewport relative to the initial containing block origin of the top edge in CSS pixels.
VisualViewport.pageTop Read only: Returns the y coordinate of the visual viewport relative to the initial containing block origin of the top edge in CSS pixels.
VisualViewport.width Read only: Returns the width of the visual viewport in CSS pixels.
VisualViewport.height Read only: Returns the height of the visual viewport in CSS pixels.
VisualViewport.scale Read only: Returns the pinch-zoom scaling factor applied to the visual viewport.

Instance methods

Also inherits methods from its parent interface, EventTarget.

Events

Listen to these events using addEventListener() or by assigning an event listener to the relevant oneventname property of this interface.

resize: Fired when the visual viewport is resized. Also available via the onresize property.
scroll: Fired when the visual viewport is scrolled. Also available via the onscroll property.

Examples

Hiding an overlaid box on zoom

This example, taken from the Visual Viewport README, shows how to write a simple bit of code that will hide an overlaid box (which might contain an advert, say) when the user zooms in. This is a nice way to improve the user experience when zooming in on pages. A live sample is also available.

const bottomBar = document.getElementById("bottombar");
const viewport = window.visualViewport;

function resizeHandler() {
  bottomBar.style.display = viewport.scale > 1.3 ? "none" : "block";
}

window.visualViewport.addEventListener("resize", resizeHandler);

Simulating position: device-fixed

This example, also taken from the Visual Viewport README, shows how to use this API to simulate position: device-fixed, which fixes elements to the visual viewport. A live sample is also available.

const bottomBar = document.getElementById("bottombar");
const viewport = window.visualViewport;
function viewportHandler() {
  const layoutViewport = document.getElementById("layoutViewport");

  // Since the bar is position: fixed we need to offset it by the visual
  // viewport's offset from the layout viewport origin.
  const offsetLeft = viewport.offsetLeft;
  const offsetTop =
    viewport.height -
    layoutViewport.getBoundingClientRect().height +
    viewport.offsetTop;

  // You could also do this by setting style.left and style.top if you
  // use width: 100% instead.
  bottomBar.style.transform = `translate(${offsetLeft}px, ${offsetTop}px) scale(${
    1 / viewport.scale
  })`;
}
window.visualViewport.addEventListener("scroll", viewportHandler);
window.visualViewport.addEventListener("resize", viewportHandler);

Note: This technique should be used with care; emulating position: device-fixed in this way can result in the fixed element flickering during scrolling.

Specifications

Specification
CSSOM View Module # the-visualviewport-interface

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser