-
I was just reminded (via @WebPlatformNews, patreon.com/posts/simes-newsletter-79346301, which is excellent!) that Facebook switched their in-app browser engine from the System WebView to a custom Chromium build that they bundle with their Facebook app. This is a bad idea. #InAppBrowsers 1/n 🧵Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 3 Retweets ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood 0
-
I wrote about this news before (see webventures.rejh.nl/blog/2022/in-app-browsers-are-tracking-you/#anchor--replacing-webview) but re-reading Meta's blogpost announcing the switch got me riled up all over again. 2/nOn twitter.com
-
Facebook argues that switching from System WebView solves the following problems: 1) it's not always up to date (= security) 2) apps that use it crash when it's updated (= stability) 3) the compositor does not run in a separate GPU process (= performance) 3/nPermalink On twitter.com
-
First of all: they're fixing a problem that they've created themselves. They insist on using an IAB while they *should* be using Chrome Custom Tabs (CCT). Using CCT immediately solves problem 2 and 3. 4/nPermalink On twitter.com
-
CCT uses whatever the user has chosen as their default browser to render web content in the context of the app - it was specifically invented to replace the need for System WebView (SWV). 5/nPermalink On twitter.com
-
Thus, CCT doesn't just solve 2 and 3, it actually brings your default browser (including history, autocomplete, passwords, etc). 6/nPermalink On twitter.com
-
CCT also ensures that the app can not access the web content you're engaging with. Which is probably the reason FB insists on *not* using it: webventures.rejh.nl/blog/2022/in-app-browsers-are-tracking-you 7/nPermalink On twitter.com
-
Regarding 1) it's not always up to date (= security): FB argues that people update the FB app, but not always the SWV-app. If I'd have to guess, I'd say that many of these users are trying to save bandwidth and/or limited data plan. 8/nPermalink On twitter.com
-
FB's solution for this is to add a ton of megabytes to the payload of their own app 🫠 If anything, this will probably ensure that people will postpone updating the Facebook app as well. 9/nPermalink On twitter.com
-
Also: They're actually comparing the Facebook app with Edge, Samsung Internet and Firefox. You know: actual browsers 🙃 10/nPermalink On twitter.com
-
Anyway, I have to round this up. If Facebook's intention was to solve anything, they'd switch to CCT. For some reason[1] they won't. [1] Could it be that they'd lose (much of) the ability to track users??! 11/11Permalink On twitter.com