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What is the Android System WebView app. What is Android System WebView - Is it possible to remove it and how to do it

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If you open a section with system applications on the Android smartphone, you can see a lot of all kinds of applications, the name of most of which the user does not speak an even account of anything. For example, Android System WebView - What is it?

Android System WebView is a built-in software firmware required to view content inside any application. What does it mean? Suppose you launched the application of the social network. Stand on the link, click on it and ... in theory, a browser must be launched to open a link, for example, the same Google Chrome. Android System WebView serves as a browser inside the application - the link is started in it. Android System WebView is based on the WebKit engine.

What is it for? Of course, to save the device resources and an increase in the battery life of the smartphone. In short, the application is really useful.

Find it easy, for this go to the section with applications.

Call the menu and click "Show system processes".

Information about the application.

Is it possible to remove Android System WebView?

The Delete button on the application page is missing, so without superuser's right you can not do anything. But even if you have root rights installed, ultimately do not recommend it, nor freeze this application, since other applications where Android System WebView is used will not be able to work stably.

If you are experiencing any problems with the application, clean the cache or erase data in it.

But, again, delete Android System WebView strongly do not recommend.

At the last meeting, AndroidDevs MEETUP made several developers from the ICQ messenger command. My report was dedicated to Android WebView. For everyone who was unable to come to the meeting, the article on the presentation is published here. I will go on top of top strokes. Deep technical details and I will not give a lot of code. If you are interested in details, on the link at the end of the post you can download the application specifically written as an illustration, and everything is seen on the examples.

Questions and answers

Question: There is a CrossWalk project - this is a third-party implementation of WebView, which allows you to use fresh chrome on old devices. Do you have any experience, did you try to embed it?
Answer: I did not try. Currently we support Android starting from the 14th version and no longer focus on old devices.

Question: How do you struggle with artifacts that remain when drawing a WebView?
Answer: We do not fight with them, tried - it did not work out. This is not on all devices. They decided that it was not so much a blatant problem to spend more resources for her.

Question: Sometimes it is required to put the WebView in ScrollView. It is ugly, but sometimes required on the task. It is not encouraged, even somewhere is prohibited, and after that there are deficiencies in the work. But still sometimes it has to do. For example, if you draw a WebView on top, and under it draw some native component (which must be native according to the requirement), and all this must be performed as a single ScrollView. That is, at first, the user would see the entire page, and then, if he wanted, it would be valued to these native components.
Answer: Unfortunately, I can't answer you, because I did not come across such a situation. She is quite specific, and imagine the option when webview is needed to put in ScrollView, it is difficult for me.

Question: There is a mail application. There is a cap with recipients and everything else. Even in this case, not everything will be smooth. WebView has big problems when it is trying to determine its size inside ScrollView.
Answer: You can try to draw the sensitive part of the UI inside the WebView.

Question: That is, completely transfer all the logic from the native part in WebView and leave these containers?
Answer: Even, maybe it is not necessary to transfer logic, it is meant by the injection of Java classes. Logic can be left and called through the injected class. WebView can only be transferred to UI.

Question: You mentioned about the game in the messenger. Do they represent Web applications?
Answer: Yes, this is web pages with JavaScript inside WebView.

Question: Do you all make it just not to rewrite the games native?
Answer: And for this too. But the basic idea is to give third-party developers the ability to create applications that can be embedded in ICQ, and with this ICQ Web API interact with the messenger.

Question: That is, these games can also be played through a web browser on a laptop?
Answer: Yes. It can be opened in a web browser, and we sometimes directly in it and debug.

Question: And if Intent, let's say, in Chrome, block this toy, what problems will there be? If you do not write your webview, and use the services?
Answer: The problem is that in its WebView we can provide API through the Java-class injection, and using this API application will be able to directly interact with ICQ, send it various commands. Suppose the command to receive the name of the user, to receive chats that are open to it, send messages to the chat directly from ICQ. That is, from Chrome, send messages directly to ICQ will not work. In our case, all this is possible.

Question: You mentioned that you cut the data into pieces one megabyte. How do you collect them then?
Answer: We are not doing this now, because we do not have such a need.

Question: Enough one megabyte?
Answer: Yes. If pictures are more, then try to climb them. I said that if such a need exists, it can be a solution - cut and collect later in Java.

Question: How do you ensure the safety of applications in the sandbox? Do I realize that from javascript applications need to cause injected Java classes?
Answer: Yes.

Question: How will safety be ensured in this case, is it not allowed to access any system functions?
Answer:Right now, as the system is still quite young, we mainly use our own Web applications, and we completely trust them. In the future, all applications that will come to us will be administered, the code will be viewed, for this, a special Security Team has been highlighted. Additionally, a special system of permits will be created, without which applications will not be able to access some kind of information critical.

From the article you will learn

Many Android users often face such a phenomenon as Android System WebView. Some seen this name in the listed applications, others received a notification with such name. In this regard, questions arise: what is this application or process, why it asks to upgrade, how to remove or stop and many others. And if you read this article, then you are also interested in learn more about all this.

What it is?

Android System WebView - Android operating system service, which is pre-installed in it by default. It is necessary to view the pages on the Internet without launching browsers. Used to display the contents of the site inside applications. For example, you downloaded a program with news. All these news is loaded from the original sites, but are not displayed in the browser, but within this application itself. So, so that the principle of operation is possible, and the Android System WebView service is intended.

This application was first established in Android 4.2.2 and above, that is, there was no earlier versions. Also in the Google Play service, it applies separately and is constantly updated, so if you do not have it on your smartphone, you can download the new version from this service.

In general, many developers recommend using this application only if you have an android version 5.0 and higher, as it requires a certain amount of resources, thereby loading your device by excessive processes. Also support for versions below 5.0 has long been discontinued, but many hackers use the vulnerability found through this application to crack user smartphones.

What applications use Android System WebView

Some standard programs that are installed in your smartphone are using this service by default to display content, such as ICQ Messenger, Google Play Press, Puffin Browser and many others, so in general, we can say that this is an integral part in Android, which is necessary For correct data display in your smartphone.

But it all depends on the version of the operating system, which is used in your gadget. The fact is that starting with Android 7 Nougat, Android System WebView is no longer used and disabled by default. All options that it performed earlier is now duplicated in Google Chrome, Google's own browser. Also, part of the operations can be performed at all through developer applications, bypassing excess processes.

How to Delete Android System WebView

If you have Android below the seventh version, we categorically not recommended to delete this application from your smartphone, otherwise numerous malfunctions are possible, and you can only guess about the scale of consequences. As a rule, you will stop working all services related to weather, social networks, part of browsers. This is one point.

The second point is - even if you have the version above android 7, you need root rights. If you are sure that you do not need it, you can be removed in the following way:

If you decide to re-activate this service, it can be done by going on Google Play and downloading it.

How to activate Android System WebView in Android 7.0 and above

As we mentioned earlier, the default in this version uses a separate mechanism from Google Chrome, but if you need to enable the standard Android service, namely, Android System WebView, you can use one of the following ways.

First option

  1. Go to the "Applications" tab, find Google Chrome there and turn it off;
  2. Now go to Google Play and download the ASW application;
  3. You need to run any process that requires this application, for example, weather;
  4. Come into the application with the weather and the Android System WebView service will start automatically;
  5. You can check that it is activated, going once again in the "Applications". Even if the ASW was previously not in the list, it will appear.

Second option

Immediately clarify that this option is a bit more complicated, and sometimes problems arise with it. Resort to it only if it failed to perform actions with the first option.

  1. Go to "Settings", select "On the phone" and click on the "Assembly number" item;
  2. Click several times until the notification appears that you have become a developer. This means that you activated the developer mode;
  3. Now go to the item "for developers" and find the tab "WebView service" there;
  4. At this point, you can choose how to handle the opening of links within applications: through Google Chrome or Android System WebView.

Possible problems and solutions

Sometimes errors that are associated with this service can appear on the device. We described the most famous of them, and also provided you with ways to solve them.

An error occurred in the appendix

If you have such an inscription, you just need to clear the data. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Go to "Settings" of your smartphone and find the Android System WebView (or ASW) in the list;
  2. Click on this name and click the item "Clear Data", and then "Clear Cache";
  3. Also check that you have a free place in the phone's memory.

You need to update the component

This is another common problem, which can occur both in itself and when opening certain applications, for example, from Microsoft. To eliminate it, follow the steps:

  1. Go Google Play, find ASW there and update it;
  2. If the error is repeated (in this case, you have 100% android 7 and above), update Google Chrome, and the error will not appear more.

In the event that none of the described methods helped you, you have to make a complete reset to factory settings. Just be sure to create backup with data, since all information on the device will be deleted.

List lists of installed applications on their Android smartphone under you could stumble upon an application called Android System WebView. You tried to turn it on, but nothing happened. There are a number of quite logical questions: what is this application, is it possible to delete it, turn on or off? In this article we will try to answer these questions.

What is this Android System WebView?

So, first of all, we need to understand what this application represents and what functions it performs an Android smartphone. Android System WebView is this system program, in whose tasks include the following links and work with network content within various applications installed on the smartphone.

In general, a rather important application ... or it was before the output of Android 7. The thing is that since the seventh version of the Android, this application has been deactivated for the unnecessaryness: the fulfillment of its functionality has adopted Google Chrome and the applications themselves.

Is it possible to remove Android System WebView?

It turns out that it is not at all necessary on new Android smartphones and you can delete it? Well, technically, it is how desire it is quite possible to remove, but only if you have root access. However, do you need it? Removing this application, you will not get a huge increase to the available place on your device (the weight of the application is extremely small). By the way, if you still delete this application from the smartphone and want to return it, you can download the application from Google Play again.

How to enable Android System WebView?

Another question arises: is it possible to enable Android System WebView on Android 7 and above? Well, the answer is yes, it is quite possible. If you have a need to activate this application on your device, it is quite possible to arrange. So do the following:

  • go to the settings of the Google Chrome application and disconnect it;
  • set or perform an update of the Android System WebView application in Google Play;
  • now use this application, for example, by opening some kind of reference in the system;

As soon as you do this, in the Android System WebView application settings it will be indicated that it is in operation. Why did we turn off your Google Chrome? The thing is that they simply cannot work simultaneously. So if you decide to run again chrome, then Android System WebView will immediately stop your work - it's a note.