Credit: David Imel / Android Authority
- Google has outlined the reasons for the wave of Android app crashes last month.
- A problem with the WebView configuration was the main cause.
- Google plans to improve the rollout measures for WebView and Chrome to address future issues.
It’s been almost a month since Android users faced random app crashes, thanks to an issue with Android System WebView. Now Google has finally provided details on how and why this important Android system process brought the operating system to its knees.
In a statement released this week by Google’s Workspace team (via 9to5Google), the problem was traced back to “the experimentation and configuration technology of Chrome and WebView”. This affected apps’ ability to properly display web content, leading to crashes of Gmail and other Google apps.
The solution required distribution of updated Chrome and WebView binaries; these new releases have been made available for distribution through Google Play for automatic and manual updates, ”the statement continues. A new update to WebView was available a day after the crashes were reported. Chrome also received an update immediately afterwards.
While the problem was immediately fixed, Google wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It promised to take measures to mitigate future WebView related app crashes. These include improving deployment policies, “speeding up” WebView and Chrome updates in the Play Store, and implementing a “safe mode” for WebView. The latter ensures that WebView reverts to a previously known working state if problems arise.
As mentioned by Google, the recent updates of Chrome and Android System WebView fix the app crashing problem. So if you still find some apps crashing on your device, consider updating these services.