Microsoft Develops WebView2 To Control Web-Based Apps on Windows 10

Microsoft is developing WebView2 which is an alternative to the electron framework. It will control web-based applications from consuming more RAM & batteries.

Many desktop programs, including Spotify and Discord, are built using web technologies and typically use significantly more system resources than true native apps. 

Microsoft has been developing a replacement for the Electron framework, which is used by the majority of web-based applications, and it is now coming out on Windows 10.

According to Microsoft, the WebView2 runtime is now available on all Windows 10 PCs operating the April 2018 Updates or higher. 

Prior to this, in order to use WebView2 on Windows 10, programs had to package the complete runtime, which resulted in larger and more complicated downloads. 

The feature was originally included in Windows 11, though. The feature might become a more prominent option for web-based programs now that it will be installed on even more PCs.

Electron, which is based on the same engine that runs Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and other browsers, is used to create a variety of desktop programs, including Slack, Discord, Skype, Spotify, Visual Studio Code, and numerous others. 

Cross-platform application development has become much simpler thanks to the framework, but Electron programs are famously CPU and memory-consuming, which makes computers sluggish and reduces laptop battery life.

For Windows 10 and 11, Microsoft has been working on “WebView2,” which is primarily designed for Windows programs that must integrate web pages (like login forms). 

Microsoft Teams for Windows 11 is a WebView2 application, although WebView2 can also run full programs by itself, similar to Electron.

There are several benefits to web-based apps thanks to WebView2. Applications don’t have to bundle the full engine with their programs because the runtime is already present in Windows 11 and 10; this reduces file sizes and download periods for upgrades. 

Apps will benefit from efficiency and battery life enhancements from updated versions of WebView2 if they utilize the bundled runtime (development teams can still opt to pack a particular version if they want).

WebView2 isn’t widely used in applications yet, but if it spreads to millions more PCs, it may start to gain popularity as a replacement to resource-intensive technologies like Electron. 

More RAM-efficient and battery-saving apps would be helpful for everyone.