Here are some of the most exciting and cutting-edge CSS features supported in modern browsers like Chrome (as of 2024–2025), especially relevant for creative and experimental designers:
What it is: Allows nested grid items to inherit the grid from their parent.
Why it’s exciting: Designers can now create deeply structured layouts with consistent alignment across components.
Browser support: Fully supported in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
What it is: Enables styling a parent element based on its children.
Why it’s exciting: It opens up logic-driven styling without JavaScript (e.g., highlight a <div> only if it contains a checked checkbox).
Browser support: Fully supported in Chrome and Safari; coming to Firefox.
What it is: Enables smooth animations between page or DOM state changes with minimal JavaScript.
Why it’s exciting: Seamlessly animate between views for a native app-like feel — all while preserving accessibility and performance.
Browser support: Available in Chrome and Edge.
What it is: Scopes styles to a particular DOM subtree without relying on class names.
Why it’s exciting: More modular and readable CSS without needing BEM or heavy selectors.
Browser support: Supported in Chrome and Safari.
What it is: Allows elements to adapt based on the size of their container, not just the viewport.
Why it’s exciting: Makes truly responsive components possible — a revolution for design systems.
Browser support: Fully supported in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.
What it is: Lets elements (like tooltips or modals) anchor themselves to other elements with native positioning logic.
Why it’s exciting: Reduces complex JS-based positioning logic for tooltips, dropdowns, and UI overlays.
Browser support: Experimental in Chrome; shipping more widely in 2025.
What it is: Enables smooth scroll-driven animations using the scroll-timeline property.
Why it’s exciting: Native parallax and timeline-driven animations — no JavaScript needed.
Browser support: Supported in Chrome and Safari.