Earlier this week, a number of Android users complained that various applications on their devices experienced errors and crashes, including in Indonesia. Apps reported to be affected include Gmail, Facebook, Amazon, Dana, Shopee, Line, and so on. The problem was apparently caused by the Android System WebView application, which is a component of the default application on Android devices. Google has now fixed the problem with an update, but what exactly is a WebView and what role does it play in Android? WebView allows application developers to be able to display content from web pages directly within the application. For example, when users want to open Gmail, users can do it in two ways. First by accessing Gmail.com in a browser. The second way is to open the application.
Well, this Gmail app on Android includes a WebView in its layout so that users can access the same Gmail content as on the web page. In addition to displaying content, WebView can also be used by developers to add browser functions to their applications so that they can open web pages and execute JavaScript like a browser.
“You can design a customized web page for Android devices, then implement a WebView in your Android app that loads the web page,” says the description of WebView on the Android developer site.
Previously merged, now separated
WebView was originally integrated with the Android operating system. As a result, application component updates will only be updated in conjunction with the latest release of the operating system. However, Google as the Android developer changed this scheme. When it released Android 5, Google separated the WebView component from the core operating system. Thus, WebView updates can be directly distributed through the Google Play app store, without having to wait for them to coincide with operating system updates. The separation of WebView from the operating system is good news for Android end-users,
This is because if a bug is found in the WebView component, Google can make fixes and distribute them through the Google Play Store quickly. Meanwhile, Android users immediately get the fix by updating the WebView automatically by their device or manually by visiting the Play Store.
That’s what Google did to solve the problem of Android application crashing because of WebView earlier this week, namely by immediately distributing the Android System WebView update to version 89.0.4389.105 and also the Chrome browser. “Updating Android System WebView and Google Chrome via Google Play will now resolve the issue,” a Google spokesperson said. To protect the device from attacks that might exploit the capabilities of the WebView, Google recommends that all Android users run the latest version of the operating system and update the WebView when requested by the device.
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