How to fix the Android WebView crashes

The past few days a lot of Samsung users have started reporting a bunch of apps started suddenly crashing on their devices. Thankfully it can be fixed – here’s how.

Reported on the 23 March 2021, a bunch of apps, seemingly random just started to crash. The most affected users seem to be users of recent Samsung phones such as the Galaxy S20 and S21, Note 20, A50 and A70, to name a few.

How to fix WebView crashes

The first method would be the temporary solution, if you quickly need to use an app.

Start by going to the main Android settings menu, then open “Apps & Notifications”. Scroll through the list and search for “Android System WebView” and tap it. (If the app is not there, check the three dots menu and select “show system apps”.)

Then, once you are in the App info overview screen, press the three dots menu and select “Uninstall updates”.

This won’t uninstall the application completely – it’s an Android essential system app. – but will remove any updates and roll back the version to the original version that came with your phone. While this isn’t the ideal solution, it’s a quick fix to get you quickly back up and running.

If you’re looking for the more permanent solution, we are happy to report, that Google quickly issued a hot-fix update in the early hours for the Android WebView App. It will be rolling out on the Play Store right now, but if you can not see it for some reason you can also download it on APK Mirror. The version you want to install is 89.0.4389.105 or newer.

Google responded by posting an update to the Google Workspace Status Dashboard. According to the post, this version of the app should fix the problems with other apps crashing that rely on this component. Please note: users who are already on the latest developer previews for Android 12 don’t need this as they’re running beta versions of Chrome 90, where WebView gets updated alongside Chrome.

[appbox googleplay com.google.android.webview simple]