MediaStreamTrack: getCapabilities() method

Baseline 2024

Newly available

Since ⁨October 2024⁩, this feature works across the latest devices and browser versions. This feature might not work in older devices or browsers.

The getCapabilities() method of the MediaStreamTrack interface returns an object detailing the accepted values or value range for each constrainable property of the associated MediaStreamTrack, based upon the platform and user agent.

Once you know what the browser's capabilities are, your script can use applyConstraints() to ask for the track to be configured to match ideal or acceptable settings. See Capabilities, constraints, and settings for details of how to work with constrainable properties.

Syntax

getCapabilities()

Parameters

None.

Return value

A MediaTrackCapabilities object which specifies the accepted value or range of values supported for each of the user agent's constrainable properties. Note that not every property appears on every track, the available members depend on whether the track is audio or video. This can contain the following members:

For both audio and video tracks:

deviceId: A string that identifies the capture device.
groupId: A string that groups related devices.

Note: For historical reasons, these two properties are strings instead of an array of strings like all other capabilities.

For audio tracks only:

autoGainControl: An array of booleans. If the source cannot do auto gain control, a single false is reported. If auto gain control cannot be turned off, a single true is reported. If the script can control the feature, the source reports both true and false.
channelCount: A range object, containing a min and a max property (both containing a non-negative integer), describing the supported number of channels.
echoCancellation: An array of booleans or strings indicating if echo cancellation is supported. If the source cannot do echo cancellation, a single false is reported. If the source can do echo cancellation, then the array starts with true. If the script can control the feature, then the array starts with true, false. Additionally, if the source allows controlling which audio sources will be cancelled, the array also includes the values "all" and/or "remote-only".
latency: A range object, containing a min and a max property (both containing a number), describing the expected amount of latency in seconds from when the sound starts to when data becomes available.
noiseSuppression: An array of booleans indicating whether noise suppression is available. If the source cannot do noise suppression, a single false is reported. If noise suppression cannot be turned off, a single true is reported. If the script can control the feature, the source reports both true and false.
sampleRate: A range object, containing a min and a max property (both containing a non-negative integer), describing the supported audio sample rate range.
sampleSize: A range object, containing a min and a max property (both containing a non-negative integer), describing the supported linear sample size range in bits.

For video tracks only:

aspectRatio: A range object, containing a min and a max property (both containing a number), describing the supported video aspect ratio range (width divided by height).
facingMode: An array of strings indicating the camera orientation. See MediaTrackConstraints.facingMode for supported values. On some devices, more than one facing mode may be reported; for example, in a high-end telepresence solution with several cameras facing the user, a camera to the left of the user can report both "left" and "user".
frameRate: A range object, containing a min and a max property (both containing a number), describing the supported frames per second range.
height: A range object, containing a min and a max property (both containing a non-negative integer), describing the supported height range in pixels.
width: A range object, containing a min and a max property (both containing a non-negative integer), describing the supported width range in pixels.
resizeMode: An array of strings that indicates how the user agent may derive the desired resolution from the camera resolution.See MediaTrackConstraints.resizeMode for supported values. The value "none" is always included.

For more information about what each property means, see MediaTrackConstraints.

Examples

The following snippet will result in the user being asked for permission to access their local camera and microphone. Once permission is granted, MediaTrackCapabilities objects will be logged to the console that detail the capabilities of each MediaStreamTrack:

navigator.mediaDevices
  .getUserMedia({ video: true, audio: true })
  .then((stream) => {
    const tracks = stream.getTracks();
    tracks.map((t) => console.log(t.getCapabilities()));
  });

An example capabilities object looks like this:

json

{
  "autoGainControl": [true, false],
  "channelCount": {
    "max": 1,
    "min": 1
  },
  "deviceId": "jjxEMqxIhGdryqbTjDrXPWrkjy55Vte70kWpMe3Lge8=",
  "echoCancellation": [true, false],
  "groupId": "o2tZiEj4MwOdG/LW3HwkjpLm1D8URat4C5kt742xrVQ=",
  "noiseSuppression": [true, false]
}

The exact contents of the object will depend on the browser and media hardware.