Web Platform Deprecations with Associated WebView APIs

Introduction

Deprecating Web Platform APIs that change the behavior of an Android WebView API can cause compatibility risks to Android applications. Therefore these deprecations must follow the Android deprecation process before changes are made on the Web Platform.

Background

WebView

WebView is an Android component that allows developers to embed web content in their app. Since Android L, it is developed in the Chromium repository and gets updates through the Play Store. This means that it shares a lot of code with Chrome, and that a phone running Android M received updates from launch (2015) until WebView decided to drop support for Android M (2022).

This is different from how most of the Android framework works, where the code that shipped with a version of Android doesn’t receive updates outside of the Android release process. Android developers expect behavior changes to only occur with dessert releases.

WebView provides an Android API through android.webkit. Web platform related APIs are likely to be found in the WebSettings class.

The Problem

The problem occurs when a change is made to WebView that changes the behavior of (existing) Android applications. While the WebView team makes changes to WebView frequently, they are constantly aware of the potential ecosystem consequences.

On the other hand, changes to the shared Chromium code that WebView depends on are generally made by developers with less awareness of WebView, this is where unintentional breakages can happen and are hard to catch.

Android WebView API Deprecation Process

NOTE: This process is complementary to the Web Platform feature deprecation process.

Non-Googlers: Non-Googlers should have a Google Champion to assist with this deprecation. Many of the tools and processes required for working with the Android team on deprecations will not be available to developers external to Google. Reach out to chrome-wp-webview-deprecations@google.com on how to find a Google Champion if you don't have one already.

Googlers: Googlers should follow steps enumerated in the internal doc.

Contact

Contact chrome-wp-webview-deprecations@google.com for any questions on your feature deprecation.