966: A Look Back at Web Dev in 2025
24 December 2025

966: A Look Back at Web Dev in 2025

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

About
Wes and Scott revisit their 2025 web development predictions, grading hits and misses across AI, browsers, frameworks, CSS, and tooling. From Temporal and AI coding agents to React, Vite, and vanilla CSS, they reflect on what actually changed, what stalled, and what it all means heading into 2026.


Show Notes



00:00 Welcome to Syntax!

866: 2025 Web Development Predictions





01:26 Temporal API will ship in the browser


03:33 On-device AI becomes common


06:14 WebGPU unlocks fast local machine learning

TypeGPU





07:10 Models will plateau


10:32 Is there an actual use case for video and photo gen AI?


13:27 Text to UI tools get really good


16:25 Framework choice will matter less


18:53 Web components in Standard Stack, Web Awesome takes off


21:37 AI browsers and Copilot Workspace-style tools will become normal


22:56 AI browsera will become inevitable, OpenAI will launch a browser


27:51 Relative color will feel fully “safe to use”


29:02 Vanilla CSS will make a comeback


30:33 Brought to you by Sentry.io



30:58 CSS mixins and functions spec solidifies

CSS Custom Functions and Mixins Module Level 1





33:25 Container style queries will ship everywhere

CSS if statements





35:40 Vertical centering jokes will stubbornly persist


36:20 VS Code will reach feature parity with Cursor



38:47 More VS Code forks will appear


39:46 React Compiler drops Babel



40:34 React server components will pop


42:17 Remix re-emerges as something new


43:17 React Native will have its time


44:21 TanStack Start and Tanstack will pop


45:46 SvelteKit gets more granular data loading


46:06 Local first apps will take off


46:43 Bun keeps doing “wild but loved” non-standard features, Bun will launch a platform-as-a-service


48:22 Vite stays king


51:07 Laravel will release a CMS


52:44 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs



Sick Picks


Scott: DARKBEAM Flashlight UV Black Light


Wes: WOOZOO Fan




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