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Non-Chromium browser picks also don't swap out the system webview, meaning that if you click say, a link in Slack/Discord/whatever other app, you still end up w

Non-Chromium browser picks also don't swap out the system webview, meaning that if you click say, a link in Slack/Discord/whatever other app, you still end up with the Chrome browser anyway. That's why I mention the system webview in the first place; it's a super insidious browser that solves a meaningful issue ("Electronification", where every desktop app is now running Chromium is solved by it's presence) but conveniently also grants full control back to Google, overriding other browser changes. (I once read some stats about this - system webviews are the majority of browser traffic on phones nowadays, because app developers love them; they can be tracked (the Google system webview reports back data to the main app about user behavior - IIRC the one Apple offers for non-browser apps is more of a black box though) and analyzed to see where users go from their apps, which helps with things like user profiling for advertisements). Given that Android lets vendors force it to Google's implementation on a kernel level, it's also very much an avenue Google doesn't want users to figure out to change or to have competing implementations for.

jwells89 3y ago
> (the Google system webview reports back data to the main app about user behavior - IIRC the one Apple offers for non-browser apps is more of a black box though) That's correct, SFSafariViewController does not afford app devs any usage information whatsoever, is run out-of-process, and uses separate cookie/localstorage/etc from both normal app webviews and Safari proper making tracking more difficult. Also unlike Android's Chromium webview, SFSafariViewController utilizes the content blockers and extensions the user has installed unless the user specifically requests otherwise, so there's still some level of ad/tracker blocking happening.
pests 3y ago
You forget another important need for system webview. It's handled differently but don't forget we've trained users to type oAuth login credentials into random browser popups. The alternative is each app adding their own (potentially malicious) web view which is hard to confirm is safe.

jwells89 3y ago

> (the Google system webview reports back data to the main app about user behavior - IIRC the one Apple offers for non-browser apps is more of a black box though) That's correct, SFSafariViewController does not afford app devs any usage information whatsoever, is run out-of-process, and uses separate cookie/localstorage/etc from both normal app webviews and Safari proper making tracking more difficult. Also unlike Android's Chromium webview, SFSafariViewController utilizes the content blockers and extensions the user has installed unless the user specifically requests otherwise, so there's still some level of ad/tracker blocking happening.

pests 3y ago

You forget another important need for system webview. It's handled differently but don't forget we've trained users to type oAuth login credentials into random browser popups. The alternative is each app adding their own (potentially malicious) web view which is hard to confirm is safe.