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Google pushed a bad Android WebView update that crashes apps including Gmail

49 points by AbuAssar 6y ago

rektide 6y ago
still worth pointing own that library-izing chrome for Electron &c would fix 60% of memory complaint issues, and the remaining 40% issues are just fantastically bad web app design.
spicybright 6y ago
surprised pikachu meme
Black101 6y ago
LOL?
js2 6y ago
I'm responsible for mobile crash reporting at my company. Normally we see about 10-15 crash reports/second. We've been seeing over 1500 reports/second since about 2:30 PM US/Eastern. Good times.
- AbuAssar 6y ago
  what steps did your company take to mitigate this issue?
  - darig 6y ago
    Whiskey
- alpanka 6y ago
  Wait, you are saying 10-15/sec is normal?
  - js2 6y ago
    Across dozens of apps installed on millions of devices, some with year’s old OS and application versions that can’t or won’t update, and includes both foreground and background crashes, yes. The rate of crashes per application session is (exclusive of this event) very low.
vczf 6y ago
In my anecdotal experience, this is also happening with Chrome webview. My mother's Galaxy S8+ had app crash issues that didn't resolve until I both disabled Chrome and pinned Android System Webview to the factory version.
mdoms 6y ago
This is crashing Sync (the reddit app) and a parcel tracking app too.
1ark 6y ago
Personal and cynical anecdote. Great marketing! They got another beta tester for their WebView.
- alpanka 6y ago
  I know you are joking, but a lot of Google development is data driven. This means that a lot of decisions are done by A/B testing instead of proper analysis and design. This is most visible in UI stuff. If you wonder why Gmail or YouTube look or behabe differently every few months, that's the reason. Suffice to say, this confuses the hell out of less tech savvy users and the main reason some people feel uncomfortable with Android but can't really point on any particular issues.
azurezyq 6y ago
Experienced it. Unrelated apps suddenly began to crash. Just did an update to the webview and it seems to be working.
- philbarr 6y ago
  Yeah same here. Noticed it late last night UK time, multiple attempts at reinstalling webview made no difference. New update now fixed everything. So the faulty version was up for a good few hours?
merrvk 6y ago
What is QA?
alpanka 6y ago
If you have live update privileges on 2 billion devices, you need better QA than this.
- AbuAssar 6y ago
  I’m waiting for the post-mortem blog, if there is any.

49 points by AbuAssar 6y ago

still worth pointing own that library-izing chrome for Electron &c would fix 60% of memory complaint issues, and the remaining 40% issues are just fantastically bad web app design.

spicybright 6y ago

surprised pikachu meme

Black101 6y ago

LOL?

js2 6y ago

I'm responsible for mobile crash reporting at my company. Normally we see about 10-15 crash reports/second. We've been seeing over 1500 reports/second since about 2:30 PM US/Eastern. Good times.

AbuAssar 6y ago
what steps did your company take to mitigate this issue?
- darig 6y ago
  Whiskey
alpanka 6y ago
Wait, you are saying 10-15/sec is normal?
- js2 6y ago
  Across dozens of apps installed on millions of devices, some with year’s old OS and application versions that can’t or won’t update, and includes both foreground and background crashes, yes. The rate of crashes per application session is (exclusive of this event) very low.

vczf 6y ago

In my anecdotal experience, this is also happening with Chrome webview. My mother's Galaxy S8+ had app crash issues that didn't resolve until I both disabled Chrome and pinned Android System Webview to the factory version.

mdoms 6y ago

This is crashing Sync (the reddit app) and a parcel tracking app too.

1ark 6y ago

Personal and cynical anecdote. Great marketing! They got another beta tester for their WebView.

alpanka 6y ago
I know you are joking, but a lot of Google development is data driven. This means that a lot of decisions are done by A/B testing instead of proper analysis and design. This is most visible in UI stuff. If you wonder why Gmail or YouTube look or behabe differently every few months, that's the reason. Suffice to say, this confuses the hell out of less tech savvy users and the main reason some people feel uncomfortable with Android but can't really point on any particular issues.

azurezyq 6y ago

Experienced it. Unrelated apps suddenly began to crash. Just did an update to the webview and it seems to be working.

philbarr 6y ago
Yeah same here. Noticed it late last night UK time, multiple attempts at reinstalling webview made no difference. New update now fixed everything. So the faulty version was up for a good few hours?

merrvk 6y ago

What is QA?

alpanka 6y ago

If you have live update privileges on 2 billion devices, you need better QA than this.

AbuAssar 6y ago
I’m waiting for the post-mortem blog, if there is any.