What is the engine of Android native browser? Wiki says that Android used WebKit before 4.4 and Blink for 4.4 and further versions. Is it right statement? Thanks in advance.
The default browser on Android is Google Chrome. This uses the Blink layout engine. For AOSP installations without the Google Apps, the default browser is the old "Browser" app that uses Webkit.
other third party browsers like Firefox uses Gecko, Opera uses Blink, Dolphin uses Webkit, and there are probably others. Additionally, also Samsung and HTC install different (non-Chrome) browsers on their phones. I do not know what they are, or what engine they use.
similar question answered you can see here
I had a similar question. Below is what I found.
1. Wikipedia article
List of features in Android:
Web browser
The web browser available in Android is based on the open-source Blink (previously WebKit) layout engine, coupled with Chromium's V8 JavaScript engine. Then the WebKit-using Android Browser scored 100/100 on the Acid3 test on Android 4.0 ICS; the Blink-based browser currently has better standards support. The old web browser is variably known as 'Android Browser', 'AOSP browser', 'stock browser', 'native browser', and 'default browser' (from the time it was always the default). Starting with Android 4.4 KitKat, Google has begun licensing Google Chrome (a proprietary software) separately from Android, but usually bundled with (what most device vendors did). Since Android 5.0 Lollipop, the WebView browser that apps can use to display web content without leaving the app has been separated from the rest of the Android firmware in order to facilitate separate security updates by Google.
2. HTML5test's slides
The Android Browser
ANDROID 4 DEVICES
ALSO COMMONLY SHIP WITH
GOOGLE CHROME
DEPENDING ON YOUR DEVICE
GOOGLE CHROME COULD BE
AN EXTRA BROWSER
THE DEFAULT BROWSER
THE ONLY BROWSER
OR NOT THERE AT ALL
ANDROID 4.4 SHIPS
WITH A NEW WEBVIEW
BASED ON
CHROMIUM 30
BUT NOT THE SAME AS
GOOGLE CHROME
THE CHROMIUM BASED WEBVIEW
WILL BE UPDATED REGULARLY
ANDROID 4.4.3 → CHROMIUM 33
ANDROID 5 → CHROMIUM 37
IN FACT ON ANDROID 5
THE WEBVIEW CAN BE UPDATED
INDEPENTENTLY OF THE OS
3. Release Notes on WebView
Android 4.4 KitKat
Chromium WebView
Android 4.4 includes a completely new implementation of WebView that's based on Chromium. The new Chromium WebView gives you the latest in standards support, performance, and compatibility to build and display your web-based content.
Chromium WebView provides broad support for HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. It supports most of the HTML5 features available in Chrome for Android 30. It also brings an updated version of the JavaScript Engine (V8) that delivers dramatically improved JavaScript performance.
In addition, the new Chromium WebView supports remote debugging using Chrome DevTools. For example, you can use Chrome DevTools on your development machine to inspect, debug, and analyze your WebView content live on a mobile device.
The new Chromium WebView is included on all compatible devices running Android 4.4 and higher. You can take advantage of the new WebView right away, and with minimum modifications to existing apps and content. In most cases, your content will migrate to the new implementation seamlessly.
Android 5.0 Lollipop
Chromium WebView
The initial release for Android 5.0 includes a version of Chromium for WebView based on the Chromium M37 release, adding support for WebRTC, WebAudio, and WebGL.
Chromium M37 also includes native support for all of the Web Components specifications: Custom Elements, Shadow DOM, HTML Imports, and Templates. This means you can use Polymer and its material design elements in a WebView without needing polyfills.
Although WebView has been based on Chromium since Android 4.4, the Chromium layer is now updatable from Google Play.
As new versions of Chromium become available, users can update from Google Play to ensure they get the latest enhancements and bug fixes for WebView, providing the latest web APIs and bug fixes for apps using WebView on Android 5.0 and higher.
Android 7.0 Nougat
WebView
Chrome + WebView, Together
Starting with Chrome version 51 on Android 7.0 and above, the Chrome APK on your device is used to provide and render Android System WebViews. This approach improves memory usage on the device itself and also reduces the bandwidth required to keep WebView up to date (as the standalone WebView APK will no longer be updated as long as Chrome remains enabled).
You can choose your WebView provider by enabling Developer Options and selecting WebView implementation. You can use any compatible Chrome version (Dev, Beta or Stable) that is installed on your device or the standalone Webview APK to act as the WebView implementation.
Multiprocess
Starting with Chrome version 51 in Android 7.0, WebView will run web content in a separate sandboxed process when the developer option "Multiprocess WebView" is enabled.
...
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I can't seem to find anything definitive about whether WebRTC (or some subset of features) is supported in Oculus Browser 12.0, and I don't have access to one to test myself.
According to the Oculus Browser 12.0 release notes, it uses Chromium version 86. According to the WebRTC Wikipedia page, Chrome has supported WebRTC since 29. So that seems promising. But caniuse.com says that it's only supported in 87 (unless I'm reading that wrong...). It's unclear to me what the relationship is between Chrome, Chromium, and Chrome for Android. Just because it's "supported in Google Chrome", does that mean it's supported on all platforms? Are Chrome for Android and Oculus Browser basically same thing for the purpose of which APIs it supports?
Thanks in advance!
WebRTC does work in Oculus Browser.
I'm not sure why caniuse does not have data for Chrome for Android before 87. WebRTC was implemented in Chrome for Android in 2012 and shipped in 2013. Here's the old launch bug for WebRTC on Android in the Chromium bug tracker.
Google Chrome and Oculus Browser are different browsers, but they share a lot of code from Chromium. One browser supporting feature X does not guarantee that the other browser does, but it is usually the case.
If an API is not core to your experience, it is good to use feature detection and degrade gracefully if an API is not implemented on a browser you're on.
I have written a webview app which opens a web url. However the experience is just like when I have opened it in the default web browser of my Samsung S3 phone (android ver 4.2) which is very poor (e.g. google map cannot be displayed). Is there a way to force the webview app to use other browsers that default one, for example using Chrome browser that i installed in my smartphone?
With Android 4.4, the WebView was switched to be based on the Chromium project. Prior to that it was an Android's specific implementation of WebKit. With Android 5.0 the WebView is now updatable without OS updates through the Google Play Store.
https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/webview/overview
If you want consistent behavior in your WebView across multiple versions of Android you'll need to include your own browser engine. Once such project is Crosswalk.
What is a difference between intel xdk, appmobi, and crosswalk?
Apache Cordova apps use the default WebView control in Android.
Change default webkit on Apache Cordova - Android
So for Android 4.4, the WebView is using Chromium 30, and will never be updated (on 4.4).
http://www.mobilexweb.com/blog/android-4-4-kitkat-browser-chrome-webview
Does the "Chrome Apps on Mobile" version of Apache Cordova, package a Chrome Runtime with it to use for rendering? (please say yes)
https://github.com/MobileChromeApps/mobile-chrome-apps
The answer is no. The "Chrome Apps for Mobile" use the default WebView just like the normal Apache Cordova.
Do mobile chrome apps run in chrome?
The default system WebView’s are as follows:
OS: Mobile Safari WebKit based. Lots of web-platform overlap with Chrome, but not exact and diverging slowly.
Android 4.3 or older: Legacy Android WebView. Dated and occasionally buggy, but still fairly performant on certain tasks.
Android 4.4: Chrome based WebView. This initial release brought a slew of modern web apis, and enabled remote web
inspector. However, it also introduced some regressions, is stuck
at Chrome 30, and didn't bring all features, such as WebGL and
WebRTC.
Android Future: Since the first launch of Chrome based WebView, it was announced that work is ongoing to make the WebView
auto-update just like the Chrome Browser does.
Here's the good news quote from May 13th, 2014 from the same answer quoted above:
Excitingly, a significant portion of our recent work on
cordova-android has been on bundling a tip-of-tree chromium based
“webview” alongside your app, thanks to the Intel Crosswalk project (https://crosswalk-project.org/).
This would mean you ship your app to the Play Store together with your
very own modern build of Chromium webview. Best yet, it will work all
the way back to Android 4.0. Expect announcements on how to try it
yourself in the next month or so!
Is it possible today for a native Android and IOS applications use WebGL?
It looks like Android WebView and IOS UIWebView (except for iAd) do not support WebGL, correct?
What other libraries (not browsers) support WebGL on Android and IOS? It would be great to have some examples.
Safari in iOS 8 now supports WebGL and Chrome in Android offers partial support. Unfortunately the stock Android browser does not yet offer support, though that appears to be coming. Source: http://caniuse.com/#feat=webgl
As you have mentioned, WebViews would be the way to go to utilise this new tech.
iOS 8 supports WebGL in the WebView, there are 2 WebViews available in iOS8, UIWebView and WKWebView, both supports WebGL that can be included in a native app. WKWebView has a faster JS engine which performs 2X-10X better than UIWebView
Android WebView does not support WebGL yet (atleast until v4.4.4), however you can use a custom WebView as part of the app to support WebGL, Crosswalk runtime can be used for a WebView in Android native app, which supports on Android 4.x versions and supports WebGL, WebAudio, WebRTC and more...
I need to display WebGL graphics in my webview. Is there any way to modify Android WebView to enable WebGL. If yes, How?
WebGL was not supported in WebViews before Android Lollipop. In KitKat, Android switched to Chromium as the native WebView implementation, but it is locked to Chromium 33, with no WebGL. In Lollipop, WebView is updated via the Play Store, and now supports WebGL. (source: https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/webview/overview)
Trying to extend WebView to support it is next to impossible.
One thing you might consider, is use CSS 3D transformations instead of WebGL, those are supported on Android ICS and forward, see http://caniuse.com/#feat=transforms3d
WebGL is not supported in current Android webview, you can however use crosswalk-project which is a web runtime that supports WebGL and package it in a android app along with your WebGL app. The latest Intel XDK supports building Android apps with crosswalk runtime.
You can view WebGL on new Android devices using the Chrome Beta app or Firefox beta app. The only device I have tested and this worked on is the Asus Nexus 7 tablet running Android 4.2.2.
My Motorola Razr running Android 4.1.2 does not support WebGL with google Chrome Beta.
Not sure if this directly helps.. but FYI.
Although it is not possible to enable WebGL for Android WebView, there is an option to have native apps using WebGL for rendering using CocoonJS by Ludei (www.ludei.com). They even have a demo app in Google Play to show some known WebGL demos running even in Android 2.3 devices.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ludei.demos.webgl
Even running on OUYA!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypyqkAo1jgo
I have chrome version 28.0 on OS 4.2.2 WebGl is not enabled by default you need to enable it by typying chrome://flags/ in seach bar just the way shwn in pic below
Once you have enabled web gl relaunch chrome and you will be able to run most of three.js experiments . I have shared screenshots for few :-
I also tried everything on webview but I was unable to set webgl flags. Probably it is not possible to use webgl in webviews .