WO3 thin films fabricated by glancing angle deposition (GLAD) are proposed as excellent electrochromic coatings with favorable ion diffusion. A similar to 500-nm film prepared by GLAD had a relatively large transmittance modulation. The crystallization structure, surface morphology, chemical state, optical and electrochromic properties of WO3 thin films were systematically characterized upon annealing treatment. Compared with annealed WO3 porous nanostructured films, the amorphous as-deposited films exhibited a high coloration efficiency and stable reversibility. Furthermore, the GLAD WO3 films exhibit the tunable angular selectivity under illumination with p-polarized light because of the birefringence, which could extend the application range of nanostructured films in the electrochromic field. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.