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I worked on the front-end of a mobile/tablet online shopping tool for a big 5 automaker for about a year and a half. At the end of all of it, if anyone asks me

I worked on the front-end of a mobile/tablet online shopping tool for a big 5 automaker for about a year and a half. At the end of all of it, if anyone asks me what I recommend for mobile/tablet web development (and they usually don't because everyone presumes the standard is pixel-perfect app-like appearance/behavior), it's simple layouts that accommodate the idea that your CSS is a suggestion and lightly enhanced interaction with not-constantly-running JS... unless the product absolutely requires some other mode of interaction. There are a number of reasons for this, but one of them was exactly this problem with Android. During the time I was working with it I don't think we ever thoroughly cracked what signifiers would help us reliably reproduce reported issues... let alone fix them (you can detect a whiff of my desperation this time last year from this unanswered SO question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23142762/how-to-identify-factors-that-will-help-reproduce-web-rendering-bugs-for-android http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23142762/how-to-identify-... ). Not my problem anymore. Last I heard the new owners are planning to rewrite with more responsive design and using angular. Should be fun.

wldcordeiro 12y ago
It isn't just Android anymore. A project I worked on has been getting a lot of reports of layout issues on iOS for alternate browsers like Chrome. We have no issues with Safari but the alternates seem to throw some wrenches in the system.
- m_mueller 12y ago
  At least these aren't the default on any phone though, so their usage statistics should be relatively low.
- Gustomaximus 12y ago
  The worry with Chrome for me is not that these issues happen, but that they seem to be slow in fixing them. I'd hate to find Google have pulled resource now they have a dominant position in the browser market and will languish in the way older version of IE did.
- cloudwalking 12y ago
  Chrome on iOS does all rendering using the native iOS WebView. Rendering should be quite consistent with Safari (although JavaScript may be slower). Chrome differentiates by implementing their own network stack and browser "chrome" (tabs, history, favs, etc).
  - coob 12y ago
    JS is no longer slower than Safari since 8.0, if you use a WKWebView http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/03/ios-8-webkit-changes-finally-allow-all-apps-to-have-the-same-performance-as-safari/ http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/03/ios-8-webkit-changes-finally-a...
    - abraham 12y ago
      Which Chrome doesn't do. https://www.quora.com/Why-doesnt-the-new-Chrome-for-iOS-use-WKWebView https://www.quora.com/Why-doesnt-the-new-Chrome-for-iOS-use-...

wldcordeiro 12y ago

It isn't just Android anymore. A project I worked on has been getting a lot of reports of layout issues on iOS for alternate browsers like Chrome. We have no issues with Safari but the alternates seem to throw some wrenches in the system.

m_mueller 12y ago
At least these aren't the default on any phone though, so their usage statistics should be relatively low.
Gustomaximus 12y ago
The worry with Chrome for me is not that these issues happen, but that they seem to be slow in fixing them. I'd hate to find Google have pulled resource now they have a dominant position in the browser market and will languish in the way older version of IE did.
cloudwalking 12y ago
Chrome on iOS does all rendering using the native iOS WebView. Rendering should be quite consistent with Safari (although JavaScript may be slower). Chrome differentiates by implementing their own network stack and browser "chrome" (tabs, history, favs, etc).
- coob 12y ago
  JS is no longer slower than Safari since 8.0, if you use a WKWebView http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/03/ios-8-webkit-changes-finally-allow-all-apps-to-have-the-same-performance-as-safari/ http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/03/ios-8-webkit-changes-finally-a...
  - abraham 12y ago
    Which Chrome doesn't do. https://www.quora.com/Why-doesnt-the-new-Chrome-for-iOS-use-WKWebView https://www.quora.com/Why-doesnt-the-new-Chrome-for-iOS-use-...