THE ANDROID BROWSER

IF YOU THINK BROWSER TESTING
ON DESKTOP IS diFFICULT


YOU'RE GOING TO
HAVE A BAD TIME
ON ANDROID


EVERY BROWSER
RENDERS AND
ACTS DIFFERENTLY

THERE ARE MANY
DIFFERENT BROWSERS
ON ANDROID


AND MANY VARIATIONS
OF THE SAME BROWSER

ANDROID USED TO SHIP
WITH A WEBVIEW BASED ON

WEBKIT


MOST BROWSERS
INCLUDING THE DEFAULT BROWSER
USE THE WEBVIEW

THE WEBVIEW IS UPDATED WITH
MAJOR ANDROID UPDATES


2 → 3 4

BUT THEY WILL ALSO
GET BUGFIXES WITH
MINOR UPDATES OF ANDROID

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

CAN IT GET ANY MORE COMPLICATED?


YES

THE OLD WEBVIEW
WAS NOT VERY GOOD


DEVICE MAKERS
IMPROVED
THEIR webview

"IMPROVED"

SO WE NO LONGER HAVE
ONE WEBVIEW FOR
EACH ANDROID VERSION


BUT

ONE FOR SAMSUNG,

AND ONE FOR HTC,

AND ONE FOR ...

DID YOU KNOW
SONY ERICSSON SHIPPED A

WEBGL ENABLED bROWSER 

RUNNING ON ANDROID 2.3?

WebGL on AN
Xperia Arc S
RUNNING ANdroid 2.3



THESE WEBVIEWS HAve
BETTER STANDARDS SUPPORT


BUT ALSO EXTRA BUGS

WHAT KIND OF BUGS
CAN YOU EXPECT?


Hardware accelerated transitions flicker

Video and audio codecs are not
detectable using canPlayType

Gradients are not rendered smooth,
but use very large steps

WHAT KIND OF BUGS 
CAN YOU EXPECT?


The onscreen keyboard sometimes
pops up on top of the field you are
editing

Inconsistent events generated for
input fields

WHAT KIND OF BUGS 
CAN YOU EXPECT?


Some modifications use a
different default viewport


And many other
rendering differences

WHAT KIND OF BUGS 
CAN YOU EXPECT?



Unfortunately, the process 

com.android.browser has stopped

SOMETIMES THEY ENABLED
FEATURES IN WEBKIT
THAT WERE StilL 
UNDER DEVELOPMENT


JUST TO SAY THEY HAD
BETTER HTML5 SUPPORT
THAN OTHERS

IT GETS WORSE...

SAMSUNG sHIPPED AN
IMPROVED WEBVIEW
ON THE GALAXY S3


WHICH WAS UPDATED
SEVERAL TIMES 

THE GALAXY S4 USES
THE SAME WEBKIT BASED
WEBVIEW


BUT THE SAMSUNG BROWSER
NO LONGER USES THE WEBVIEW

THE BROWSER OF THE
SAMSUNG GALAXY S4
IS BASED ON

CHROMIUM 18


AND LATER UPDATED TO CHROMIUM 28

BUT NOT THE SAME AS GOOGLE CHROME

THE GALAXY TREND 3 WAS
RELEASED SIX MONTHS LATER


STILL USES THE
WEBKIT BASED BROWSER


THE BROWSER OF THE
GALAXY NOTE 3 
IS ALSO BASED ON 

CHROMIUM 28


ALMOST IDENTICAL TO THE GALAXY S4


ALMOST

WEbAUDIO API


samsung GALAXY S4

YES


SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3

NO

SAMSUNG DEVICES
RUNNING THE SAME
VERSION OF ANDROID


DIFFERENT BROWSERS


and even worse...

HTC ALSO SHIPS
A MODIFIED WEBVIEW

BUT OBVIOUSLY NOT THE SAME MODIFICATIONS AS SAMSUNG

THEY HAVE BEEN IMPROVING
IT WITH EACH NEW
VERSION OF ANDROID


UP UNTIL VERSION 4.3

HTC DEVICES WITH
ANDROID 4.4 HAVE THE NEW

CHROMIUM WEBVIEW

ON ANDROID 4.4
the HTC SENSE BROWSER
STILL USES THE same

MODIFIED
WEBKIT WEBVIEW

FROM ANDROID 4.3


THERE ARE
OTHER ANDROID BASED
SYSTEMS TOO

FIRE OS

AMAZON KINDLE FIRE AND
AMAZON FIRE PHONE

THE KINDLE FIRE 
SHIPPED WITH
THE DEFAULT 
ANDROID WEBVIEW


1 ST GENERATION → ANDROID 2.3

2 ND GENERATION → ANDROID 4.0

3 Rd GENERATION → ANDROID 4.2

the default browser
FOR FIRE OS IS CALLED SILK

SILK WAS BASED ON WEBKIT


SILK IS CURRENTLY
BASED ON CHROMIUM 31


BUT NOT THE SAME AS GOOGLE CHROME

THE 2nd and 3rd generation
kindle fire SHIP WITH 
AN optional SECOND WEBVIEW


AMAZON WEBVIEW

BASED ON CHROMIUM 25


BUT NOT THE SAME AS GOOGLE CHROME

ALSO NOT THE SAME AS SILK

ALSO NOT THE ANDROID 4.4 CHROMIUM WEBVIEW

The UPCOMING 

FIRE PHONE

WILL USE THE 
AMAZON WEBVIEW
BY DEFAULT

AND WHAT ABOUT THE 

NOKIA X?

THE NOKIA X PLATFORM 
IS BASED ON ANDROID

IT SHIPS WITH THE DEFAULT
WEBKIT BASED WEBVIEW

NOKIA X
ALSO THE  NOKIA X+  AND  XL

ANDROID 4.1


NOKIA X2

ANDROID 4.3

 NOKIA BROWSER 
IS BASED ON 

CHROMIUM 27


AND WAS QUICKLY

UPDATED TO CHROMIUM 30


BUT NOT THE SAME AS GOOGLE CHROME

AND WITH THE RELEASE OF
THE NOKIA X2 IT WAS REPLACED WITH

OPERA

ANOTHER CHROMIUM BASED BROWSER

MICROSOFT HAS CANCELLED
ANY FURTHER PLANS
FOR THE NOKIA X PLATFORM

TL;DR

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS

"THE" ANDROID BROWSER

AND JUST LIKE THERE IS
NOT "ONE" WEBKIT


THERE ALSO IS
NOT "ONE" CHROMIUM


@HTML5TEST

CREATED BY NIELS LEENHEER


VERSION 1.2

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