Is there a way to detect if a browser window is not currently active?

Since originally writing this answer, a new specification has reached recommendation status thanks to the W3C. The Page Visibility API (on MDN) now allows us to more accurately detect when a page is hidden to the user.

document.addEventListener("visibilitychange", onchange);

Current browser support:

• Chrome 13+
• Internet Explorer 10+
• Firefox 10+
• Opera 12.10+ ^{[read notes]}

The following code falls back to the less reliable blur/focus method in incompatible browsers:

(function() {
  var hidden = "hidden";

  // Standards:
  if (hidden in document)
    document.addEventListener("visibilitychange", onchange);
  else if ((hidden = "mozHidden") in document)
    document.addEventListener("mozvisibilitychange", onchange);
  else if ((hidden = "webkitHidden") in document)
    document.addEventListener("webkitvisibilitychange", onchange);
  else if ((hidden = "msHidden") in document)
    document.addEventListener("msvisibilitychange", onchange);
  // IE 9 and lower:
  else if ("onfocusin" in document)
    document.onfocusin = document.onfocusout = onchange;
  // All others:
  else
    window.onpageshow = window.onpagehide
    = window.onfocus = window.onblur = onchange;

  function onchange (evt) {
    var v = "visible", h = "hidden",
        evtMap = {
          focus:v, focusin:v, pageshow:v, blur:h, focusout:h, pagehide:h
        };

    evt = evt || window.event;
    if (evt.type in evtMap)
      document.body.className = evtMap[evt.type];
    else
      document.body.className = this[hidden] ? "hidden" : "visible";
  }

  // set the initial state (but only if browser supports the Page Visibility API)
  if( document[hidden] !== undefined )
    onchange({type: document[hidden] ? "blur" : "focus"});
})();

onfocusin and onfocusout are required for IE 9 and lower, while all others make use of onfocus and onblur, except for iOS, which uses onpageshow and onpagehide.

this works for me on chrome 67, firefox 67,

if(!document.hasFocus()) {
    // do stuff
}

this worked for me

document.addEventListener("visibilitychange", function() {
      document.title = document.hidden ? "I'm away" : "I'm here";
});

demo: https://iamsahilralkar.github.io/document-hidden-demo/

This works in all modern browsers:

• when changing tabs
• when changing windows(Alt+Tab)
• when maximizing another program from the taskbar

var eventName;
var visible = true;
var propName = "hidden";
if (propName in document) eventName = "visibilitychange";
else if ((propName = "msHidden") in document) eventName = "msvisibilitychange";
else if ((propName = "mozHidden") in document) eventName = "mozvisibilitychange";
else if ((propName = "webkitHidden") in document) eventName = "webkitvisibilitychange";
if (eventName) document.addEventListener(eventName, handleChange);

if ("onfocusin" in document) document.onfocusin = document.onfocusout = handleChange; //IE 9
window.onpageshow = window.onpagehide = window.onfocus = window.onblur = handleChange;// Changing tab with alt+tab

// Initialize state if Page Visibility API is supported
if (document[propName] !== undefined) handleChange({ type: document[propName] ? "blur" : "focus" });

function handleChange(evt) {
  evt = evt || window.event;
  if (visible && (["blur", "focusout", "pagehide"].includes(evt.type) || (this && this[propName]))){
    visible = false;
    console.log("Out...")
  }
  else if (!visible && (["focus", "focusin", "pageshow"].includes(evt.type) || (this && !this[propName]))){
    visible = true;
    console.log("In...")
  }
}

A slightly more complicated way would be to use setInterval() to check mouse position and compare to last check. If the mouse hasn't moved in a set amount of time, the user is probably idle.

This has the added advantage of telling if the user is idle, instead of just checking if the window is not active.

As many people have pointed out, this is not always a good way to check whether the user or browser window is idle, as the user might not even be using the mouse or is watching a video, or similar. I am just suggesting one possible way to check for idle-ness.

The Chromium team is currently developing the Idle Detection API. It is available as an origin trial since Chrome 88, which is already the 2nd origin trial for this feature. An earlier origin trial went from Chrome 84 through Chrome 86.

It can also be enabled via a flag:

Enabling via chrome://flags

To experiment with the Idle Detection API locally, without an origin trial token, enable the #enable-experimental-web-platform-features flag in chrome://flags.

A demo can be found here:

https://idle-detection.glitch.me/

It has to be noted though that this API is permission-based (as it should be, otherwise this could be misused to monitor a user's behaviour!).

I reread the @daniel-buckmaster version I didn't make the multiple attempt, however, the code seems more elegant to me...

// on-visibility-change.js v1.0.1, based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1060008/is-there-a-way-to-detect-if-a-browser-window-is-not-currently-active#38710376
function onVisibilityChange(callback) {
    let d = document;
    let visible = true;
    let prefix;
    if ('hidden' in d) {
        prefix = 'h';
    } else if ('webkitHidden' in d) {
        prefix = 'webkitH';
    } else if ('mozHidden' in d) {
        prefix = 'mozH';
    } else if ('msHidden' in d) {
        prefix = 'msH';
    } else if ('onfocusin' in d) { // ie 9 and lower
        d.onfocusin = focused;
        d.onfocusout = unfocused;
    } else { // others
        window.onpageshow = window.onfocus = focused;
        window.onpagehide = window.onblur = unfocused;
    };
    if (prefix) {
        visible = !d[prefix + 'idden'];
        d.addEventListener(prefix.substring(0, prefix.length - 1) + 'visibilitychange', function() {
            (d[prefix + 'idden'] ? unfocused : focused)();
        });
    };

    function focused() {
        if (!visible) {
            callback(visible = true);
        };
    };

    function unfocused() {
        if (visible) {
            callback(visible = false);
        };
    };
};

Here is a solid, modern solution. (Short a sweet )

document.addEventListener("visibilitychange", () => {
  console.log( document.hasFocus() )
})

This will setup a listener to trigger when any visibility event is fired which could be a focus or blur.

my code

let browser_active = ((typeof document.hasFocus != 'undefined' ? document.hasFocus() : 1) ? 1 : 0);
if (!browser_active) {
 // active
}