How does WebView work in a mobile device? (starts a new browser?)

Question

I'm new to android. I have a question related to WebView. It's not clear to me how WebView works.

When we use a WebView, does the mobile start a new browser in order to load the URL (even if the url is online or locally stored on the mobile)?

Cause, I would like to create a native android app (test.apk) with WebView and its's not clear to me if the app starts from the browser or from an inline View.

Any tutorial or example would be very helpful

Thanks

Answer 1

A WebView is a view that displays web content right inside your app. It does not have fancy stuff like bookmarks or a history view, but you could build a full featured browser around a WebView. Imagine a WebView as a view that displays a web page.

If you want to start an external web browser app, you can use an Intent to let the system find a suitable app to handle your url.

Answer 2

Webview is :

• View that displays web pages.
• Provides no browser-like widgets, does not enable JavaScript
• Uses WebKit rendering engine to display web pages and includes methods to navigate forward and backward through a history, zoom in and out.

Check Android Webview for detailed information.