Credit: David Imel / Android Authority
- Google has detailed the reasons for last month’s crash of Android apps.
- A WebView configuration issue was the root cause.
- Google plans to improve its WebView and Chrome launch measures to alleviate future issues.
It’s been almost a month since Android users faced random app crashes due to a problem with the Android WebView system. Now, Google has finally issued details on how and why this key process of the Android system brought the operating system to its knees.
In a statement issued this week by the Google Workspace team (via 9to5Google), the issue was traced back to “Chrome and WebView setup experiment and technology”. This has affected the ability of apps to display web content correctly, blocking Gmail and other Google apps.
“The fix required the distribution of updated binaries for Chrome and WebView; these new versions have been made available for distribution via Google Play for automatic and manual updates “, the statement continues. A new WebView update was available the day after the crash was reported. Chrome also received an update immediately.
Although the issue has been fixed quickly, Google wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again. He promised to implement measures to mitigate future blockages of WebView-related applications. These include improving launch policies, “accelerating” WebView and Chrome updates in the Play Store, and implementing a “safe mode” for WebView. The latter will ensure that WebView returns to a previously known working state if problems occur.
As Google mentioned, recent updates to Chrome and the Android WebView System fix the issue of blocking the app. So if you still find that some apps are crashing on your device, consider upgrading these services.