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

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

the chromIUM based webview
will be updated regularly

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 ...

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

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

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

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

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