HTML fullscreenchange DOM Event: Reference and Examples

When someone interacts with a webpage, the browser sends events to the relevant JavaScript code. The fullscreenchange event happens when an element enters or leaves fullscreen display.

When fullscreenchange happens

An element enters or leaves fullscreen display.

You can listen for it using addEventListener(). That keeps event handling separate from HTML attributes such as onclick and works well with modern code organization.

A small working example

<button id="demo-target" type="button">Fullscreen target</button>
<p id="event-status" role="status">Waiting for fullscreenchange...</p>
<script>
    const eventTarget = document;
    const eventStatus = document.getElementById("event-status");

    if (eventTarget) {
        eventTarget.addEventListener("fullscreenchange", (eventDetails) => {
            eventStatus.textContent = "fullscreenchange event received";
            console.log(eventDetails.type, eventDetails.target);
        });
    }

    document.getElementById("demo-target").addEventListener("click", async () => {
        try {
            await document.documentElement.requestFullscreen();
        } catch (fullscreenError) {
            console.log(fullscreenError);
        }
    });
</script>

Reading the code

The browser listens for fullscreenchange on the relevant target. When the event occurs, the callback receives eventDetails, updates the status message and logs the event name and target in Developer Tools.

Trigger requestFullscreen from a user gesture; support and permissions matter.

Try it in your browser

Open the page, show the Console panel, and follow this test: Trigger requestFullscreen from a user gesture; support and permissions matter. Then change one thing in the example and observe whether the event still fires.

Common Beginner Mistakes

• Expecting fullscreenchange to fire without its required user action or browser condition.
• Trigger requestFullscreen from a user gesture; support and permissions matter.
• Adding repeated event listeners without considering cleanup or unwanted side effects.

Key Takeaways

• fullscreenchange reports an element enters or leaves fullscreen display.
• addEventListener("fullscreenchange", ...) listens for the event on the appropriate target.
• Trigger requestFullscreen from a user gesture; support and permissions matter.