Microsoft Edge WebView2 hits general availability
Now developers can access the latest Edge web tech in their apps.
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What you need to know
After months of testing, Microsoft announced today that Microsoft Edge WebView2 is nowgenerally available, giving developers access to the latest Edge web tech within their apps. WebView2 uses the new Chromium-based Edge as a rendering engine for web-based elements withing apps. Moreover, it will stay updated alongside Edge to keep the rendering engine current.
If you’re unfamiliar with WebView, it allows developers to bake web elements via HTML, CSS, and JavaScript within their apps. WebView then uses Edge as a rendering engine to display that content within an app. Developers can even build native applications using a webview.
“This means that as a Windows app developer you will now have access to the latest web tech in both existing and new apps,” Microsoft said in its blog post announcing the WebView2 launch. “WebView2 lets you combine the ease and agility of developing for the web with the power of building a native desktop application.”
Going forward, Microsoft says that it plans to keep WebView2 updated alongside the major Microsoft Edge releases. The company plans to release a new SDK every six weeks, which it says will “generally align” with new releases to the Microsoft Edge stable channel. Pre-release SDKs will also continue to be available for developers to test out “experimental APIs.”
If you’re a developer, you can get started with the Microsoft Edge WebView2 controlerwith Microsoft’s documentation. If you haven’t tried the new Microsoft Edge, you can download the stable version now via theofficial Edge website.
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Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter@DthorpLand Instagram@heyitsdtl.
