Thread by @slightlylate

If we were able to ignore Apple's unconscionably low level of investment in WebKit, I think we'd all be upset that com.facebook.* is the new IE 6-11

Yes, Android's WebView can be used to make a browser. No, it is not functional without a *lot* of work:

developer.android.com/reference/andr…

Is FB doing that work? Like fuck it is.

"But why does this matter?" you might ask, looking at your GA logs.

What fraction of your mobile traffic comes from "Android Webview"? For most publishers, most of the time, that is largely FB's "In-App Browser".

We have to use scare-quotes here because _it is not a browser_.

On Android, Browsers are things that put intent filters in their manifest for all `http://` and `https://` view actions:

developer.android.com/reference/andr…

For many publishers, this is 20-30% of traffic (which is down for previous years thanks to ranking changes).

That's 20-30% of traffic that doesn't handle Push Notifications or PWA install or WebAuthN or pretty much anything in the Fugu roadmap:

developers.google.com/web/updates/ca…

What you, as a web developer, should understand about this situation is that Facebook is breaking the web for 20-30% of your traffic *because you aren't demanding they do better*.

Facebook gets away with this because you aren't making noise about it.

Could they staff a real browser team? Chose to use CCT or delegate to the user's default (real) browser? Sure. All of that is meeting or 5 away for the folks who go to work every day in Menlo Park.

Instead, they're hiding out in the shadiest, dankest corner of browser fuckery: subtly and pervasively undermining user choice about privacy and security while at the same time failing to compete *as a browser* when, in reality, they are the second most popular browser on Android

Facebook broke the web because it helped them.

You didn't push back.

Now the web is broken for most users, and, in particular, first-time-internet users.

What should we do about it? What will *you* do about it?

There are so many tech journalists who can't see past Apple's monopoly on Shit Rich People Do, then write think pieces about "what if FB made a browser?"

Hot tip from a browser engineer: FB makes a *wildly successful* browser, and it *sucks*

Sorry, "browser".