I see people say frequently that they don’t need to support older browsers because ‘everything auto-updates now’. This is a flawed assumption.
There are many reasons why someone might not have up-to-date browsers:
- Their device is too old. This is especially a problem with Apple devices, where the version of Safari is largely tied to the version of the OS.
- They never use their device long enough to trigger an update. I’ve previously had elderly tech-support clients who only used their computer sporadically for emails and banking and therefore didn’t receive updates because they weren’t using their computer long enough for new versions to install.
- They’re using a browser in an embedded context or on a ‘smart’ device, where there is no newer version available.
- Enterprise policies or restrictions don’t yet permit them to update their browser.
- They’re using a browser fork which lags behind in releases.
- They’re on slow/metered connections and have disabled background downloads to save money or bandwidth.
- Assistive technologies they require either lag behind in updates or aren’t supported in newer versions entirely.
- They’ve purposely disabled auto-updates for reasons of security.
- Interventions or censorship prevent them from reaching update servers.
- Their device doesn’t have the necessary storage capacity to perform an update.
- A device in a shared space like a library or school which doesn’t have the budget or capability to keep devices up-to-date.
- They’re running a portable browser from a USB or the like, which must be manually updated.
- They rely on a proxy-based browser which is outdated on the server-side.
You don’t need to support every browser version in perpetuity, but you should take a moment to consider that there are plenty of legitimate reasons folks won’t have the latest and greatest.
If you can, embrace progressive enhancement and graceful degradation.