XHTML Basic

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XHTML Basic is an XML-based structured markup language primarily designed for simple (mainly handheld) user agents, often found in mobile devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, pagers, and set-top boxes..

XHTML Basic is a subset of XHTML 1.1, defined using XHTML Modularization including a reduced set of modules for document structure, images, forms, basic tables, and object support. XHTML Basic is suitable for mobile phones, PDAs, pagers, and settop boxes.

XHTML Basic was once intended to replace older technologies like WML and C-HTML as more compliant user agents were developed. However, with the rise of HTML5 as the dominant web standard, XHTML Basic has been largely supplanted. HTML5's rich feature set and cross-device compatibility have rendered separate mobile-specific languages like WML, C-HTML, and XHTML Basic unnecessary. Today, HTML5 provides a unified platform for creating websites that work across all devices, making XHTML Basic largely irrelevant in modern web development.

One significant advantage of XHTML Basic over WML and C-HTML is that XHTML Basic pages can be rendered differently in web browsers and on handheld devices, eliminating the need for creating two different versions of the same page.

The initial specification for XHTML Basic was released in 2000. In 2006, the specification was revised to version 1.1, incorporating six new features to better serve the small-device community. The latest update of the specification by the W3C has been performed in 2018.^[1]