Static method

A static method (or static function) is a method defined as a member of an object but is accessible directly from an API object's constructor, rather than from an object instance created via the constructor.

In a Web API, a static method is one which is defined by an interface but can be called without instantiating an object of that type first.

Methods called on object instances are called instance methods.

Examples

In the Notifications API, the Notification.requestPermission() method is called on the actual Notification constructor itself — it is a static method:

let promise = Notification.requestPermission();

The Notification.close() method on the other hand, is an instance method — it is called on an specific notification object instance to close the system notification it represents:

let myNotification = new Notification('This is my notification');

myNotification.close();