Network Information API

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

The Network Information API provides information about the system's connection in terms of general connection type (e.g., 'wifi', 'cellular', etc.). This can be used to select high definition content or low definition content based on the user's connection.

The interface consists of a single NetworkInformation object, an instance of which is returned by the Navigator.connection property.

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers

Interfaces

NetworkInformation

Provides information about the connection a device is using to communicate with the network and provides a means for scripts to be notified if the connection type changes. The NetworkInformation interface cannot be instantiated. It is instead accessed through the Navigator interface.

Examples

Detect connection changes

This example watches for changes to the user's connection.

var connection = navigator.connection || navigator.mozConnection || navigator.webkitConnection;
var type = connection.effectiveType;

function updateConnectionStatus() {
  console.log("Connection type changed from " + type + " to " + connection.effectiveType);
  type = connection.effectiveType;
}

connection.addEventListener('change', updateConnectionStatus);

Preload large resources

The connection object is useful for deciding whether to preload resources that take large amounts of bandwidth or memory. This example would be called soon after page load to check for a connection type where preloading a video may not be desirable. If a cellular connection is found, then the preloadVideo flag is set to false. For simplicity and clarity, this example only tests for one connection type. A real-world use case would likely use a switch statement or some other method to check all of the possible values of NetworkInformation.type. Regardless of the type value you can get an estimate of connection speed through the NetworkInformation.effectiveType property.

let preloadVideo = true;
var connection = navigator.connection || navigator.mozConnection || navigator.webkitConnection;
if (connection) {
  if (connection.effectiveType === 'slow-2g') {
    preloadVideo = false;
  }
}

Specifications

Specification
Network Information API
# networkinformation-interface
Specification
Network Information API
# connection-attribute

Browser compatibility

NetworkInformation

BCD tables only load in the browser

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also