Embedding a newer version of WebKit with Android app

5
votes

I am developing an Android app using web technologies and the CSS transitions (quite essential to the functionality of the app, since they're responsible for scrolling and swiping pages) are quite sluggish. According to information found on the internet, CSS transitions are not hardware accelerated unless transformed 3-dimensionally. I found many articles saying that I should put "-webkit-transform: translateZ(0);" to my animated elements.

However, the Webkit in older Android versions (below 3.0) doesn't support 3D transformations.

Can I embed a newer version of WebKit with my app?

1
androidcsshtmlwebkit

1 Answers

3
votes

Can I embed a newer version of WebKit with my app?

In theory, perhaps.

You would have to completely rewrite WebKit to use something that the NDK supports for output (e.g., OpenGL) and embed it in your app. I estimate that this will take >100 developer-months, so if you have a large team and matching budget, you are welcome to try this. By the time you complete the work, the "older Android versions" will be obsolete, and you will not need the code.

Hence, from a practical standpoint, either redesign the apps such that CSS transitions are no longer "essential to the functionality of the app", or limit your app to Android 3.0+ and wait for the Android user base to catch up.