android – How to check if webview is available?
android, webview
Solution
Although @vsatkh pointed out that it is not necessarily needed to declare this feature as required, you can check the device’s feature compatibility as follows:
getPackageManager().hasSystemFeature("android.software.webview")
This method returns true or false.
Some additional information about Google Play’s filtering: Google Play only filters supported devices based on `<uses-feature>` elements declared in the manifest. `<uses-permission>` elements don’t affect Google Play’s filtering unless they imply a feature. `android.permission.INTERNET` does not imply any feature. Permissions that imply features are listed here: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html#permissions
Problem
Is there a way to check if webview is available on the device? Background: If I add `<uses-feature android:name="android.software.webview"/>` to the Manifest the number of supported devices on Google Play drops from over 12,000 to less than 6,000 devices. So I added `android:required="false"` to this feature. In case webview is available websites should be displayed inside the app otherwise launched in the default browser: ``` String mUrl = "http://www.example.com"; if (*** WHAT TO PUT HERE? ***) { WebView webview = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView); if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 24) { webview.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() { @Override public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, WebResourceRequest request) { view.loadUrl(request.toString()); return false; } }); } else { webview.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() { @SuppressWarnings("deprecation") @Override public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) { view.loadUrl(url); return false; } }); } webview.loadUrl(mUrl); } else { Uri uri = Uri.parse(mUrl); Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri); startActivity(intent); } ``` Edit (to make things clear): `<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />` is (and always had been) part of the manifest. It’s just the addition of `<uses-feature android:name="android.software.webview" />` which causes the drop of supported devices. There is someone having the same issue here: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37035282 (unfortunately not answered)