| Drew Stonebraker | 9fdab7e | 2019-05-29 20:55:55 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | # FAQ for WebView Users |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [TOC] |
| 4 | |
| 5 | ## What is WebView? |
| 6 | |
| 7 | WebView is a [system component of Android][1] which enables the apps you use to |
| 8 | show content from the web. Most apps you use every day use WebView in some way. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | ## How can I give feedback or report a bug? |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Let us know what you think and help improve WebView for everyone on Android. |
| 13 | Please file bugs and feedback at https://goo.gl/9qkbdn. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | ## How can I contact the WebView development team? |
| 16 | |
| 17 | You can reach out to the team through the [android-webview-dev Google group][2]. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | ## Why do I need to update WebView? |
| 20 | |
| 21 | WebView needs regular security updates just like your browser. We release a new |
| 22 | version every 6 weeks to make sure you stay safe while using apps on your phone. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | ## What’s the relationship between WebView and Chrome? |
| 25 | |
| 26 | WebView is built on top of the open source Chromium project, but it doesn’t |
| 27 | share any data with Google Chrome. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | In Android 7, 8, and 9 (Nougat/Oreo/Pie), WebView is built into Chrome. Because |
| 30 | they share so much underlying code, this saves space and memory on your device. |
| 31 | They still don’t share any data, however, and you can disable Google Chrome at |
| 32 | any time without impairing your device. When Chrome is disabled, WebView will |
| 33 | switch to a standalone version which isn't combined with Chrome. |
| 34 | |
| Torne (Richard Coles) | d0f4f59 | 2019-11-22 22:28:18 | [diff] [blame] | 35 | In Android 10 (Q), WebView and Chrome still share most of their code to save |
| 36 | space and memory on your device, but now simply appear as two separate apps and |
| 37 | there is no longer any special behaviour when disabling Chrome. |
| 38 | |
| Drew Stonebraker | 9fdab7e | 2019-05-29 20:55:55 | [diff] [blame] | 39 | ## Are Chrome features like Sync or Data Saver available in WebView? |
| 40 | |
| 41 | No. Although WebView and Chrome share a package in Android N, O, and P, they |
| 42 | don’t share data and Chrome-specific features like Sync and Data-Saver aren’t |
| 43 | available inside of WebView. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | ## What happens if I disable WebView? |
| 46 | |
| 47 | We don't recommend that you disable WebView on your device. Apps which use |
| 48 | WebView are likely to crash or malfunction, and you won't receive important |
| 49 | security updates. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | If WebView is already disabled on your device and cannot be enabled, that is |
| 52 | normal: when Chrome is being used as the WebView implementation, the separate |
| 53 | WebView package is automatically disabled to avoid downloading redundant |
| 54 | updates. You never need to manually enable or disable WebView. |
| 55 | |
| 56 | [1]: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView.html |
| 57 | [2]: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!forum/android-webview-dev |
