CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cordova
Jim Jimsons
Jim Jimsons

Reputation: 1

Cordova in-app-browser engine

After some investigation it seems that the in-app-webview in Cordova actually ships a browser in the APK. Is this correct? If yes, which browser engine and version is this running on? I cannot find this information anywhere. Seems also rather important for (security) updates and the likes

Upvotes: 0

Views: 768

Answers (1)

DaveAlden
DaveAlden

Reputation: 30356

Is this correct?

No. By default, Cordova uses the built-in system webview.

On iOS, it uses built-in UIWebView (deprecated as of iOS 12) or you can use the newer (built-in) WKWebView by installing cordova-plugin-wkwebview-engine.

On Android 4.4 and below it uses the old (built-in, non-updating) Android system webview; on Android 5+ uses the (built-in, self-updating) Chrome webview.

Because the Android 4.x system webview is buggy and non-updating, the Crosswalk project arose, which does bundle a Chromium webview with the APK. The idea being to give more modern webview capabilities and better performance on old Android 4 devices. The downsides are increased APK size (~20Mb), installation size (~80Mb) and memory usage.

There is a Cordova Crosswalk plugin which enables Crosswalk to be used as the webview by Cordova apps.

However, the Crosswalk project is now deprecated and no longer maintained so as you rightly point out, it will not get security updates or new features (e.g. service workers).

So unless you care about supporting Android 4.x, don't use Crosswalk.

Upvotes: 3

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