Need a suitable app for selecting a WebView

[HarriBuh]

Since this app is only meant to make it easier to select an already installed WebView, I'm missing an app for the first, more important step: actually installing a WebView and getting it to work on Android (17).
I had managed to do this on earlier Android versions using a Magisk module (name unknown); however, development on it has been discontinued.

So this app here is currently of no use to me at all.

[neoblackxt]

Thanks for the feedback — but there may be a misunderstanding about what this app does, because the "first step" you describe is actually exactly what AnyWebView provides.

AnyWebView is not just a picker for WebViews that already work. Stock Android only accepts WebView providers that are either system apps or signed with a hard-coded Google/OEM signature, which is why installing e.g. a Mulch/Vanadium/Cromite WebView APK as a normal app does nothing on its own — and why those old Magisk modules had to shoehorn the APK into the system partition. AnyWebView (an Xposed module) removes that restriction: it hooks the framework's WebView provider list and registers every installed package that declares a WebView library, carrying its own signature so it passes the framework's validity checks. Install the WebView APK like any other app, enable the module, reboot, then pick it in developer settings. No system-app installation needed — that is the whole point of the project.

What it does NOT do: it does not supply a WebView itself. You still need to obtain a WebView provider APK somewhere (Android System WebView, Mulch, Vanadium, Cromite, ...). If that is the step you were missing, fair enough — but shipping WebView binaries is out of scope here.

On Android 17 specifically: I have no Android 17 device to test on either, so this is theoretical analysis, not a guarantee. I checked the current AOSP master branch (what Android 17 is built from): every internal interface this module relies on — SystemImpl.getWebViewPackages(), the WebViewProviderInfo constructor, and the signature/system-app validation in WebViewUpdateServiceImpl2 — is unchanged, and these internals have been stable since Android 7 (2016). So the "no need to be a system app" property should still hold on 17. Worst case, if Google changes something before release, the module simply has no effect and the system falls back to the stock provider — since v1.4 it cannot cause a boot loop.

If you (or anyone) get to try it on Android 17, a report in #21 would be very welcome.