What is Android System WebView?

What is Android System WebView?

Android System WebView is the web engine other apps borrow when they need to show a web page without opening your browser. A store app's checkout page, the terms screen in a game, a help article inside a banking app, an email written in HTML: when an app draws content like that inside its own window, it usually hands the job to WebView.

Google builds WebView from Chromium, the same open-source code base as the Chrome browser, and ships it on every phone that carries the Play Store. App developers call it through Android's standard WebView interface instead of packing a browser engine into each app. That arrangement saves storage and memory, and it means a single security fix to WebView protects every app that uses it.

You will almost never open WebView yourself. It has no icon and nothing to configure. It shows up in two places: in Settings > Apps once you turn on the option to show system apps, and in the Play Store's list of updates, where it appears often.

Can I disable it?

You can force it off, but you should not, because apps that show web content will crash or show blank screens without it. Google's WebView documentation says plainly that disabling it is not recommended, that apps relying on it are likely to malfunction, and that a disabled WebView stops receiving security updates. Many phones grey out the Disable button for this reason.

There is one case where a disabled WebView is normal. On Android 7, 8 and 9, Chrome can serve as the phone's web engine, and the separate WebView app is switched off automatically so the phone does not download the same updates twice. If you see "Android System WebView: disabled" on a phone that old, leave it alone.

What you can safely do from its App info screen:

• Uninstall updates returns WebView to the version that came with the phone. This is the standard fix when a fresh update makes apps misbehave; the Play Store will offer the update again later.
• Clear cache removes stored web files without changing anything else.

If you want to see which web engine the phone is using right now, Developer options has a "WebView implementation" entry, and ADB can show the same thing:

adb shell dumpsys webviewupdate

Does it drain battery or data?

Not on its own: WebView only works when an app asks it to draw a page, so its battery and data use follow the apps that open web content. A news app, a shopping app with live offers or a social app with embedded posts can keep a web page busy in the background, and that work can show up under WebView or under the app itself depending on the phone.

The other reason it appears in data lists is updates. WebView is one of the larger downloads in the Play Store's update queue, and it updates as often as Chrome does. If you limit Play Store updates to Wi-Fi, those downloads will not touch your mobile data.

If WebView sits near the top of the battery list day after day, open the battery screen's per-app view and look for an app that runs constantly in the background. Restricting or updating that app usually fixes it.

Why did it just update?

It updated because Google releases WebView on the same schedule as Chrome, roughly once a month, with smaller security fixes in between. The updates come through the Google Play Store like any other app, which is why WebView turns up in your update list so often.

Those updates matter more than most. WebView renders content from the open web inside apps you trust, so security fixes need to reach every phone quickly. Shipping it through the Play Store means a fix does not have to wait for your phone maker's next firmware release.

On Android 7 to 9 with Chrome serving as the engine, the update arrives as a Chrome update instead, and WebView itself may not change.

Which packages are behind it?

Two package names are used for WebView, plus Chrome on older Android versions:

• com.google.android.webview is the version Google ships through the Play Store on phones with Google apps. This is the one you see on nearly every phone sold with the Play Store.
• com.android.webview is the open-source build that ships on phones without Google apps and on some custom or older system images. It does the same job.
• com.android.chrome served as the web engine on Android 7, 8 and 9, which is why WebView appears disabled on those versions.

Only one package acts as the engine at a time. Android keeps a fixed list of packages that are allowed to fill this role and falls back to another one on the list if the chosen package is removed or broken.

If something goes wrong

The quickest fix for apps that suddenly crash or show blank pages is to update both WebView and Chrome in the Play Store, then restart the phone. That is how Google resolved the March 2021 incident, when a faulty WebView update made Gmail and many other apps crash for several hours until a fixed version reached the Play Store.

If a new update is the problem and no fix has arrived yet, roll back instead: open Settings > Apps, show system apps, choose Android System WebView, open the menu and pick Uninstall updates. Restart, and the phone runs the factory version until the next update.

If WebView was disabled by mistake on Android 10 or later, turn it back on from the same App info screen, or with ADB:

adb shell pm enable com.google.android.webview
adb shell cmd package install-existing com.google.android.webview

If Developer options shows the wrong engine selected, you can set it back from the command line:

adb shell cmd webviewupdate set-webview-implementation com.google.android.webview

A web page that looks wrong in only one app is usually that app's problem, not WebView's. Clearing that app's cache, or updating it, is the next thing to try.