Google App WebView Bug Causes MASSIVE Headaches

[Nimoy007]

Over the last couple days, key Google apps, including Google Search and Gmail, and some third-party apps have been non-functional for many Android users. The culprit seems to be Google's WebView app.

 

 

 

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A large number of Android users over the past few hours have been encountering continuous Gmail and other app shutdowns, with some finding that uninstalling Android System WebView will stop the crashing. (9 to 5 Google)

 

Over the last couple days, Android devices of all kinds were experiencing constant app crashes, both of Google's own first-party apps and some third-party apps that rely on Google's WebView system component app. The issue seems to have been related to updates with Google Chrome and a Google app called "WebView."¹ According to an official report by Google, the app crashes "affected a significant subset of users." It is currently unknown if every user with the update Chrome and WebView apps fell victim to the bug, but there were widespread reports from affected users of devices from different manufacturers, so it appears to not have been isolated to any particular incompatibility with devices.

 

To understand why multiple apps were affected by the bug, it helps to understand what the WebView app actually does. WebView is a vital part of the modern Android OS that allows apps to display web content while a user is in the app.² The WebView app is a code library that developers can leverage to build their apps. In programming, a library is a dev's version of a real, physical library. Instead of books, files and snippets of code that perform certain functions are made available to developers so that their apps can benefit from using code that is already written instead of having to reinvent the wheel. There are several reasons why a developer might want to use a code library. Among these are the ability to make apps more compact, easier and faster to develop, and perhaps most importantly to the developer--libraries allow for greater abstraction. Abstraction of code refers to the process of making code less specific to a certain task and generally also makes it more legible and easier to troubleshoot as well as faster to write. For example, if a certain section of code will be used many times in a program, a developer might define that section of code as a function, module, or the equivalent in whatever language the code is in. Now that the section of code has been defined, it can be referenced any time it is needed for its purpose. Often, such function definitions will be placed in separate files, and a collection of these is called a "library." Google's WebView functions as a library that developers from Google and other software companies can use to display web content while in the confines of a given app. Many apps that have interfaces that function like the Chrome app rely on this functionality of WebView. A bug introduced in the WebView app will affect any app that uses the affected code. Since users don't directly launch the WebView app, it can be hard to pin down the actual culprit of such a bug. Developers can't just rely on user reports of WebView crashing; they have to instead find commonality between the crashes to find the root of the problem.

Thankfully, with so many users and apps affected, Google was able to issue a fix within a day of the initial reports, which is to make sure that users' WebView and Chrome apps are up-to-date.^1,3,4 Initially, users were being advised to roll back the updates to WebView via the "Uninstall" button in the Google Play Store.³ This article's author personally attempted resolving issues on the six devices of various owners with five of the attempts being successful on the newest devices, and the one failure being on the oldest device (a Galaxy S7 Edge). It seems that another temporary remedy for some older devices that have the WebView app permanently disabled was to uninstall updates to the "Google" and/or Chrome apps. This disparity of resolution between devices of different ages could be related to how the integration of WebView in Android has changed over time.²

 

Android users are encouraged to attempt to update their Chrome and WebView apps via the Play Store and developers should report any further issues to Google via the Android Issue Tracker.⁵ If your device does not function correctly after updating the affected apps, please give details about your device in the comments below.

 

Sources

1. Google Workspace Status Dashboard: Gmail - Service Details
2. TechTarget: "What is Android WebView ? (sic)"
3. 9To5Google: "PSA: If your Android apps keep crashing, update ‘WebView’ and Chrome [Permanent fix]"
4. CNET: "Gmail and other Android apps crashing on phones: Here's Google's simple fix"
5. Android Open Source Project: "Reporting Bugs"
6. The article image is a composite image composed of a modified version of the WebView app icon and a modified CC licensed "bug" clip-art. The composite image was produced by the article's author and may not be used for commercial use without the owner's permission.

[Arika]

 

Never encountered this issue anyway

Edited March 25, 2021 by LogicalDrm

[Moonzy]

-sigh- android phones

 

 

[strajk-]

Huh...interesting...seems like I might have found the cause of my wife S10+ crashing of several apps then, couldn't find anything online about it for the past days.

What fixed it (temporarily) was completely cleaning the cache and storage of the application under settings, but would reoccur after 24-48 hours.

[leadeater]

48 minutes ago, strajk- said:

Huh...interesting...seems like I might have found the cause of my wife S10+ crashing of several apps then, couldn't find anything online about it for the past days.

What fixed it (temporarily) was completely cleaning the cache and storage of the application under settings, but would reoccur after 24-48 hours.

Same, had app crashes and uninstall/reinstall would fix for a bit then go right back to crashing.

[LogicalDrm]

*** Thread cleaned ***

 

From non-contributing stuff. We have status updates and meme thread for a reason.

[XWAUForceflow]

Yeah that one was nasty. I got hit by it Tuesday morning. Phone was pretty much unusable and I could see the battery draining. At first I deleted an app that had the issue first and restarted the phone several times. No luck, thankfully I found a tweet from Samsung I believe that described the problem and told people how to undo the update to the WebView App. That solved it for me using an Android One phone. Supposedly it's not fixed but I didn't update the app yet...

[pythonmegapixel]

And this, my friends, is why you NEVER leave automated updates switched on.

 

Let the store notify you about them and just update after a week or two, assuming no major bugs have been reported

[Nimoy007]

45 minutes ago, pythonmegapixel said:

And this, my friends, is why you NEVER leave automated updates switched on.

 

Let the store notify you about them and just update after a week or two, assuming no major bugs have been reported

Can I get an, "Amen?" Wish I could both 'like' and 'agree' to your comment.

I suppose the catch 22 of this is that if the least tech savvy people turn off updates, never update, then get hit with malware, that's a problem too...although far less likely.

Eh. At the very least, I'd always suggest your advice to tech-capable folks. It's the code I live by, after all.

I'd also add that I specifically back-up and rarely update the core software used for any physical hardware I own, i.e.: I don't often update the Sony Imaging app (for my mirrorless camera), the Kasa app (for my smart outlets), my security camera app, an app for a WiFi digital microscope, and I always back all of those up as well as any apps related to my Galaxy S3 Frontier smartwatch (the Samsung Pay and Bixby watch plug-ins especially).

[Doobeedoo]

The WebView is quite tightly integrated everywhere, no surprise.

[Mark Kaine]

What is this web view thing?   I have disallowed Google to make changes to my device... zero issues...  but yeah,  I probably don't have this app? (gmail working as usual too, so pretty terrible, but it's working)

 

 

9 hours ago, Nimoy007 said:

rarely update the core software used for any physical hardware I own

Same... I am of the opinion that a device will work best with the software it was delivered (you can kinda expect it to have been tested also, unlike any 'updates')

 

So unless they pay me (500-1000 per deed) I'm not gonna be beta testing, for free.

 

 

Edit:  eh, I have it, no issues though? 

 

[Nimoy007]

 

13 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

What is this web view thing?

Helps to read the article...

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   I have disallowed Google to make changes to my device... zero issues... 

I assume you mean you have set it so that the Google app can't "Change System Settings?" That makes little difference in most cases. That setting is primarily there so that apps can't turn on/off bluetooth, wifi, etc at will.

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Same... I am of the opinion that a device will work best with the software it was delivered.

That's not what I meant. As I said, I was referring to devices other than my phone that require an app to function. I do understand that viewpoint though, and it can be true in some cases.

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Edit:  eh, I have it, no issues though

That's good, looks like you got lucky or you don't update your apps. As stated, it was an issue with a recent update of WebView.

[Mark Kaine]

16 minutes ago, Nimoy007 said:

assume you mean you have set it so that the Google app can't "Change System Settings?"

Yeap... 20mb used since December 1, seems to be working ?

 

16 minutes ago, Nimoy007 said:

That's not what I meant

Ah, ok, I see.  Well it'll depend on the device...generally I'm more inclined to update when I know theres an easy way to undo said updates (so barely ever)

 

16 minutes ago, Nimoy007 said:

That's good, looks like you got lucky or you don't update your apps. As stated, it was an issue with a recent update of WebView.

Right,  i see now,  I'm also not surprised they fixed it quickly,  i mean it really seems like an important core app for many other apps and services. 

 

And yes, indeed, I need my phone to function so updating is just a tedious thing and needless risk to me. 

 

Though, I'm not entirely sure I think Google will still update things occasionally,  even though it doesn't have permission to do so. 

 

Edit: ah, it's like  .Net or vcredist...  hmm interesting (but makes sense I guess)

[Nimoy007]

Yeah, you've got the general gist of it. And yeah, it was definitely something Google had to prioritize, because, as you said, it's an "important core app."

And I agree. Even if (when) updating doesn't break functionality, I want my apps to update on my terms. I'd rather not have a processing hiccup in the middle of doing something important because "Package Installer" is spiking my CPU.