Do older versions of Android upgrade the chrome webview?

Question

Does the webview component within Android get upgraded with system updates on on older versions of Android? Meaning, if I have a device that is running Android 4.4 Kitkat, and I have run all the system updates, will the webview in fact be at a much more recent version? The reason I ask is I am building a webapp that needs to run within a supported version of the webview component.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Updating the WebView through Play Store is a feature new in Android 5.0 (and in Android 7.0 this component was folded into Chrome itself, eliminating the separate Android System WebView app). Older versions of Android have a version of WebView that can only be updated through a system update.

According to developer.chrome.com:

The WebView shipped with Android 4.4 (KitKat) is based on the same code as Chrome for Android version 30. This WebView does not have full feature parity with Chrome for Android and is given the version number 30.0.0.0.

The updated WebView shipped with Android 4.4.3 has the version number 33.0.0.0.

The Android 4.4 WebView is based on Chrome, while older versions were based on WebKit.

In https://caniuse.com they indicate which features you'll be able to use in "Android 4.4 browser".