Crosswalk alternatives

Hi,

Intel has stopped maintaining the crosswalk webview , So… is there any alternatives for the android platform.

Hi, I haven’t seen such a beast as an alternative. Their reasons do look pretty good.

For android users it could be prudent to bundle crosswalk for older devices like pre 5.x and just use the internal browser for anything after that.

Out of curiosity what are you getting for using crosswalk other than he stock webview? Compatibility with older devices / windows phone support / specific css features???

html5 videos don’t play without crosswalk, especially videos served from the server, so I’m stuck with crosswalk.

Bummer.

Have you had a go with a plugin?

Yes, i have tried that plugin, my app is a video chat and livestreaming app, so there are no local videos being played, so the above plugin doesn’t work.

@codiqa100031834 in one hand I’m agree with you, in the other, xwalk increase the general performance of the app even on terminal where android > 5 (like on my Nexus 5X, the app is smoother with xwalk as without)

I was under he impression that plugin could play streamed videos??

I do agree with that, however if there’s no support then you’re using it on a wing and a prayer.

Certainly on my Tesco Hudl 2 running Android 5.x it doesn’t feel so different to be the differentiator, not to mention adding on (in my real world tests) about 1.5 seconds on the initial loading time.

Just chiming in here…

Crosswalk being “done” is kind of a good thing. For the most part, it’s only “really” needed on Android 4x and lower.
Since android 5+ updates the webview independently from the rest of OS, you know you’re users will have the most up to date version of Chrome webview.
Android 4.4 has chrome webview, but it is rather old compared to the latest chrome.
The way I see it you could do one of the following.

  1. Keep using crosswalk, it’s not broken right now, but will fall behind as time goes on.
  2. Target 5.0 and up of Android. Global market share for android is showing that most of the world is on at least 5.0.0. Which is great! Though check your usage stats and see what your analytics say about device/os usage.
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@codiqa100031834 I’m agree that using XWalk in the future isn’t the right pass, therefore the question of OP about alternative.

Last time I removed Xwalk to try a usability comparison between with or without crosswalk was on a Nexus 5X running Android 6 and I really had the overall feeling that without it, the app was generally speaking less fluid/responsive/user friendly…but well, of course that was just a feeling so I’ll try again

Please share your findings. You have an interested audience.

Good to know re the webview being upgraded separately to the OS. I thought that was the case but wasn’t entirely sure.

On the front of android targeting I know it’s a little more work but Google Play allows you to create several apk’s for different OS versions so you could have the best of both a worlds. 4.x with crosswalk and > 5.x without. Lovely small bundle

I did try it, maybe i didn’t implement it properly, all my videos are playing from a blob url, I’ll have to check.

@codiqa100031834 you are right, my apologies. I tested my app again, after having removed XWalk on a Samsung Edge/Android 6 and my Nexus 5X/Android 7.1.2 and in both case, I’ve to say, my app was smooth (I’m using Ionic 2.3.0 with Angular 4) respectively didn’t noticed that much difference as my app with XWalk.

Since I’m targeting mostly users with Android >= 5, I most probably gonna ship now my app without XWalk from now.

So yep, thx @codiqa100031834 and @mhartington