Web platform features explorer - escape() and unescape()

This feature is discouraged — TC39 included the escape() and unescape() methods in Annex B of the ECMAScript specification, which covers JavaScript features with "one or more undesirable characteristics and in the absence of legacy usage would be removed."

For more information, see: https://tc39.es/ecma262/multipage/additional-ecmascript-features-for-web-browsers.html#sec-additional-ecmascript-features-for-web-browsers

The escape() and unescape() built-in Javascript methods encode and unencode strings using percent encoding, where certain characters are replaced by hexadecimal escape sequences.

Status

Discouraged

MDN documentation

Specifications

ECMAScript® 2026 Language Specification (#sec-escape-string), from TC39 (Ecma International).

Browser support

Chrome 1 Released on 2008-12-11
Chrome Android 18 Released on 2012-06-27
Edge 12 Released on 2015-07-29
Firefox 1 Released on 2004-11-09
Firefox for Android 4 Released on 2011-03-29
Safari 1 Released on 2003-06-23
Safari on iOS 1 Released on 2007-06-29

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