In-app browsing using Embedded Web

In-app browsers can provide a full browser experience for your users, while letting them stay in the context of your app. This is most commonly used when you have a link or ad in your app which links to a web page. The web page can be opened in an in-app browser, as seen in Figure 1.

An in-app link in a red box, and an arrow pointing to another screen showing the link opened with a custom tab.
Figure 1. Clicking on an in-app link (left) and opening an in-app browser using a Custom Tab (right).

Both Custom Tabs and WebView are APIs available to power your in-app experience, but choosing which one is best for you depends on your use case. The following table shows some advantages of each:

Custom Tabs

WebViews

Out-of-the-box ready browsing for 3rd party content handled by the user's default browser. Most common for the majority of use cases.

Custom developer controlled browsing experiences. Typically used for more advanced use cases.
  • Ease of integration: Integrating Custom Tabs is the simplest and easiest way to provide users an Embedded Web browsing experience
  • Shared state: Reduced user friction when logging into sites given shared cookies and permissions model with the browser
  • More advanced UI control of the browser view
  • Be able to modify the contents of the web page itself
  • Deeper developer analytic insight into engagement / activity
  • WebView updates roll out to all devices and users consistently and globally

Although Custom Tabs are supported by a vast majority of browsers, some offer additional customization options. To learn more, see this Custom Tabs browser support comparison.

Additional resources

To develop web pages for Android-powered devices using WebViews or Custom Tabs APIs, see the following documents: