Social Media

Facebook Launching New In-App Browser For Android

Facebook is preparing to launch a new in-app browser on Android, replacing the standard Android WebView with a more stable solution.

Unlike other Android apps that open web links in an external browser of the user’s choice, Facebook opens pages in the app itself.

Facebook has identified an issue with how it handles external links, saying that users update the Facebook app more often than the software that runs the in-app browser.

An announcement on the Meta engineering blog states:

Our in-app browser for Facebook on Android has historically been based on an Android webview based on Chromium, an open source project that powers many browsers on Android and other operating systems.

… Over the past few years, we’ve noticed that many Android users are updating the Facebook app but not updating the Chrome and WebView apps, which can lead to security risks and a negative user experience. “

The company cites vulnerability to zero-day exploits and Facebook app crashes as major problems stemming from its reliance on Android System WebView.

To address these issues, Facebook has developed a separate Chromium-based webview that can be updated in conjunction with updates to the Facebook app.

Facebook lists several benefits of switching to a dedicated browser, including improved stability, security, and performance.

Benefits of a new in-app browser for Facebook on Android

protection

A custom in-app browser allows Facebook to roll out the latest Chromium security patches directly to users, which are installed when users update the Facebook app.

This helps ensure that users do not visit pages with outdated software, which could create security risks.

stability

Facebook says its custom browser solution should lead to fewer app crashes.

Updating Android’s WebView at the system level can cause apps to crash, as Android needs to make sure all WebView instances are stopped in order to be able to install the latest version.

Using a custom version of the WebView, exclusive to the Facebook app, means that Android no longer needs to crash Facebook when updating the System WebView.

performance

Facebook says its custom in-app browser improves performance in terms of viewing web pages and playing instant games via Facebook Gaming:

“Our WebView also improves rendering performance… Because we are able to restrict how a WebView is displayed within our applications, we can enable the GPU process of our WebView. This improves rendering performance and stability of web pages and instant games.”

Briefly

The above benefits may sound like technical jargon if you are not familiar with the Android operating system.

You should know that this change will improve security and performance and reduce app crashes when people view websites in the Facebook app.

Facebook isn’t the first app to use a dedicated in-app browser on Android. Mozilla, Microsoft, and Samsung all have their own versions, too.

The Company confirms that this change will not affect people’s privacy choices in identification services.


Source: Engineering in Meta
Featured image: Emre Akkoyun / Shutterstock

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