Broken HTML5 history chrome

[jzaefferer]

Summary:

Especially mobile browsers don't implement the HTML5 history API properly: The API itself is there, but the chrome doesn't updated properly.

Platforms:

• Stock browser on Android 3/4, Blackberry Playbook, probably others

How to reproduce:

1. Call history.pushState and observe changes in the addressbar, or the lack thereof
2. If it changed, use whatever back button is available, and look for changes

Reduced Example:

Interactive test with Browserscope integration: http://jquery.bassistance.de/historytest/

Bug Tracker ticket(s):

• Android ticket

Workarounds:

None - browser chrome issues can't be detected nor fixed with JavaScript.

My unconfirmed suspicion: The html5 history API landed in WebKit at some point, and eventually made it to all the forks. Implementors of those forks had no proper way to test their implementation, so are likely not even aware of the addressbar issues, as it requires manual testing to see if the address changes or not. From within JavaScript, the API works fine and does its thing. iOS 4.1 had the same issue (or at least very similar) as Android and the Playbook now have...