WebView

What Is a WebView?

Webview is the browser surface embedded in a native app. Instead of sending users to Chrome or Safari, the app embeds a window to load and display web pages without users leaving the app shell.

A webview lets product teams containerise and reuse their web experiences on iOS, Android or desktop. Point the webview at a URL and show that page in your app as if it were another native screen. Content, layouts and logic stay on the web side, while navigation, login, and push notifications remain in the native app.

On the web, you typically embed external content using an iframe. This concept is replicated in a native app using a webview.

How Product Teams Use WebViews

Webviews are used in many rapidly evolving apps or those relying on web tooling:

* Reuse of existing features. Both the site and sections of the mobile app (e.g. account pages, dashboards or help centre) run on the same web codebase.

* Faster updates. Marketing pages, support content or community sections can be changed on the server without needing to ship a new build of the app.

* Experiments and rollouts. Teams can A/B test web layouts or copy, while the app only hosts a container.

WebView, Iframe and Native UI

Webview and iframe address the same basic problem—loading a web document by URL—but in different environments:

* An iframe resides inside a web page in your browser.

* A webview resides within a native app and injects a browser into that app.

* Pure native UI screen: This is the specific platform UI component; it does not render any HTML.

In many products, the same social layer appears as an iframe on the website and as a webview in the mobile app. Users see one consistent community chat or watch party experience, even though the host environment is different.