Optimize WebView click behavior
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If your app utilizes
WebView
to display web content, you might want
to consider optimizing click behavior for the following reasons:
WebView
doesn't support custom URL schemes
which could be returned in ads if the click destination is to a separate app.
For example, a Google Play click-through URL might use market://
.
This guide provides recommended steps to optimize the click behavior in mobile
web views while preserving the web view content.
Prerequisites
Implementation
Follow these steps to optimize the click behavior in your WebView
instance:
Override shouldOverrideUrlLoading()
on the WebViewClient
.
This method is called when a URL is about to be loaded in the current
WebView
.
Determine whether to override the behavior of the click URL.
The code example checks if the current domain is different
than the target domain. This is just one approach as the criteria you use
could vary.
Decide whether to open the URL in an external browser, Android Custom
Tabs, or within the
existing web view. This guide shows how to open URLs navigating away from
the site by launching Android Custom Tabs.
Code example
First add the androidx.browser
dependency to your module-level build.gradle
file, typically app/build.gradle
. This is required for Custom Tabs:
dependencies {
implementation 'androidx.browser:browser:1.5.0'
}
The following code snippet shows how to implement shouldOverrideUrlLoading()
:
Java
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
private WebView webView;
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
// ... Register the WebView.
webView = new WebView(this);
WebSettings webSettings = webView.getSettings();
webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
webView.setWebViewClient(
new WebViewClient() {
// 1. Implement the web view click handler.
@Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(
WebView view,
WebResourceRequest request) {
// 2. Determine whether to override the behavior of the URL.
// If the target URL has no host and no scheme, return early.
if (request.getUrl().getHost() == null && request.getUrl().getScheme() == null) {
return false;
}
// Handle custom URL schemes such as market:// by attempting to
// launch the corresponding application in a new intent.
if (!request.getUrl().getScheme().equals("http")
&& !request.getUrl().getScheme().equals("https")) {
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, request.getUrl());
// If the URL cannot be opened, return early.
try {
MainActivity.this.startActivity(intent);
} catch (ActivityNotFoundException exception) {
Log.d("TAG", "Failed to load URL with scheme:" + request.getUrl().getScheme());
}
return true;
}
String currentDomain;
// If the current URL's host cannot be found, return early.
try {
currentDomain = new URI(view.getUrl()).toURL().getHost();
} catch (URISyntaxException | MalformedURLException exception) {
// Malformed URL.
return false;
}
String targetDomain = request.getUrl().getHost();
// If the current domain equals the target domain, the
// assumption is the user is not navigating away from
// the site. Reload the URL within the existing web view.
if (currentDomain.equals(targetDomain)) {
return false;
}
// 3. User is navigating away from the site, open the URL in
// Custom Tabs to preserve the state of the web view.
CustomTabsIntent intent = new CustomTabsIntent.Builder().build();
intent.launchUrl(MainActivity.this, request.getUrl());
return true;
}
});
}
}
Kotlin
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
private lateinit var webView: WebView
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
// ... Register the WebView.
webView.webViewClient = object : WebViewClient() {
// 1. Implement the web view click handler.
override fun shouldOverrideUrlLoading(
view: WebView?,
request: WebResourceRequest?
): Boolean {
// 2. Determine whether to override the behavior of the URL.
// If the target URL has no host and no scheme, return early.
if (request?.url?.host == null && request.url.scheme == null) {
return false
}
val currentDomain = URI(view?.url).toURL().host
// Handle custom URL schemes such as market:// by attempting to
// launch the corresponding application in a new intent.
if (!request.url.scheme.equals("http") &&
!request.url.scheme.equals("https")) {
val intent = Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, request.url)
// If the URL cannot be opened, return early.
try {
this@MainActivity.startActivity(intent)
} catch (exception: ActivityNotFoundException) {
Log.d("TAG", "Failed to load URL with scheme: ${request.url.scheme}")
}
return true
}
val targetDomain = request.url.host
// If the current domain equals the target domain, the
// assumption is the user is not navigating away from
// the site. Reload the URL within the existing web view.
if (currentDomain.equals(targetDomain)) {
return false
}
// 3. User is navigating away from the site, open the URL in
// Custom Tabs to preserve the state of the web view.
val customTabsIntent = CustomTabsIntent.Builder().build()
customTabsIntent.launchUrl(this@MainActivity, request.url)
return true
}
}
}
}
Test your page navigation
To test your page navigation changes, load
https://google.github.io/webview-ads/test/#click-behavior-tests
into your web view. Click each of the different link types to see how they
behave in your app.
Here are some things to check:
- Each link opens the intended URL.
- When returning to the app, the test page's counter doesn't reset to zero to
validate the page state was preserved.
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eAndroid \u003ccode\u003eWebView\u003c/code\u003e has limitations with click behavior, like opening links in external browsers instead of within the app.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThis guide provides steps to optimize click behavior by overriding \u003ccode\u003eshouldOverrideUrlLoading()\u003c/code\u003e in your \u003ccode\u003eWebViewClient\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can customize link handling to open links in external browsers, Custom Tabs, or within the \u003ccode\u003eWebView\u003c/code\u003e itself based on criteria like the target domain.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe guide includes code examples in Java and Kotlin to demonstrate how to implement this optimized click handling.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBy implementing these steps, you improve user experience and maintain the state of your web view content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["When using `WebView` to display web content, optimize click behavior by overriding `shouldOverrideUrlLoading()` in `WebViewClient`. Determine if a click URL's behavior should be overridden, considering factors like different domains or custom URL schemes. If needed, open the URL in an external browser or via Android Custom Tabs to preserve the web view state, as opposed to the default browser. The guide includes example Java and Kotlin code snippets, and steps to test page navigation.\n"],null,["# Optimize WebView click behavior\n\nIf your app utilizes\n[`WebView`](//developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView) to display web content, you might want\nto consider optimizing click behavior for the following reasons:\n\n- [`WebView`](//developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView) doesn't support [tabbed browsing](//developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/layout/webapps/webview#HandlingNavigation). Clicking a link opens the content in the default web browser.\n\n\u003c!-- --\u003e\n\n- `WebView` doesn't support [custom URL schemes](//developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/layout/webapps/webview#custom-urls) which could be returned in ads if the click destination is to a separate app. For example, a Google Play click-through URL might use `market://`.\n\n\n- [Google Sign-in](//developers.googleblog.com/2021/06/upcoming-security-changes-to-googles-oauth-2.0-authorization-endpoint.html) and [Facebook Sign-in](//developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/android/deprecating-webviews#deprecating-facebook-login-support-on-android-webviews) aren't supported in `WebView`.\n\nThis guide provides recommended steps to optimize the click behavior in mobile\nweb views while preserving the web view content.\n\nPrerequisites\n-------------\n\n- Complete the [Set up the web view](/admob/android/browser/webview) guide.\n\nImplementation\n--------------\n\nFollow these steps to optimize the click behavior in your `WebView`\ninstance:\n\n1. Override [`shouldOverrideUrlLoading()`](//developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebViewClient#shouldOverrideUrlLoading(android.webkit.WebView,%20android.webkit.WebResourceRequest))\n on the [`WebViewClient`](//developer.android.com/reference/kotlin/android/webkit/WebViewClient).\n This method is called when a URL is about to be loaded in the current\n `WebView`.\n\n2. Determine whether to override the behavior of the click URL.\n\n The [code example](#code_example) checks if the current domain is different\n than the target domain. This is just one approach as the criteria you use\n could vary.\n3. Decide whether to open the URL in an external browser, [Android Custom\n Tabs](//developer.chrome.com/docs/android/custom-tabs/), or within the\n existing web view. This guide shows how to open URLs navigating away from\n the site by launching Android Custom Tabs.\n\n\nCode example\n------------\n\nFirst add the `androidx.browser` dependency to your module-level `build.gradle`\nfile, typically `app/build.gradle`. This is required for Custom Tabs: \n\n dependencies {\n implementation 'androidx.browser:browser:1.5.0'\n }\n\nThe following code snippet shows how to implement `shouldOverrideUrlLoading()`: \n\n### Java\n\n public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {\n\n private WebView webView;\n\n protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {\n super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);\n\n // ... Register the WebView.\n\n webView = new WebView(this);\n WebSettings webSettings = webView.getSettings();\n webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);\n webView.setWebViewClient(\n new WebViewClient() {\n // 1. Implement the web view click handler.\n @Override\n public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(\n WebView view,\n WebResourceRequest request) {\n // 2. Determine whether to override the behavior of the URL.\n // If the target URL has no host and no scheme, return early.\n if (request.getUrl().getHost() == null && request.getUrl().getScheme() == null) {\n return false;\n }\n\n // Handle custom URL schemes such as market:// by attempting to\n // launch the corresponding application in a new intent.\n if (!request.getUrl().getScheme().equals(\"http\")\n && !request.getUrl().getScheme().equals(\"https\")) {\n Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, request.getUrl());\n // If the URL cannot be opened, return early.\n try {\n MainActivity.this.startActivity(intent);\n } catch (ActivityNotFoundException exception) {\n Log.d(\"TAG\", \"Failed to load URL with scheme:\" + request.getUrl().getScheme());\n }\n return true;\n }\n\n String currentDomain;\n // If the current URL's host cannot be found, return early.\n try {\n currentDomain = new URI(view.getUrl()).toURL().getHost();\n } catch (URISyntaxException | MalformedURLException exception) {\n // Malformed URL.\n return false;\n }\n String targetDomain = request.getUrl().getHost();\n\n // If the current domain equals the target domain, the\n // assumption is the user is not navigating away from\n // the site. Reload the URL within the existing web view.\n if (currentDomain.equals(targetDomain)) {\n return false;\n }\n\n // 3. User is navigating away from the site, open the URL in\n // Custom Tabs to preserve the state of the web view.\n CustomTabsIntent intent = new CustomTabsIntent.Builder().build();\n intent.launchUrl(MainActivity.this, request.getUrl());\n return true;\n }\n });\n }\n }\n\n### Kotlin\n\n class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {\n\n private lateinit var webView: WebView\n\n override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {\n super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)\n\n // ... Register the WebView.\n\n webView.webViewClient = object : WebViewClient() {\n // 1. Implement the web view click handler.\n override fun shouldOverrideUrlLoading(\n view: WebView?,\n request: WebResourceRequest?\n ): Boolean {\n // 2. Determine whether to override the behavior of the URL.\n // If the target URL has no host and no scheme, return early.\n if (request?.url?.host == null && request.url.scheme == null) {\n return false\n }\n val currentDomain = URI(view?.url).toURL().host\n\n // Handle custom URL schemes such as market:// by attempting to\n // launch the corresponding application in a new intent.\n if (!request.url.scheme.equals(\"http\") &&\n !request.url.scheme.equals(\"https\")) {\n val intent = Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, request.url)\n // If the URL cannot be opened, return early.\n try {\n this@MainActivity.startActivity(intent)\n } catch (exception: ActivityNotFoundException) {\n Log.d(\"TAG\", \"Failed to load URL with scheme: ${request.url.scheme}\")\n }\n return true\n }\n\n val targetDomain = request.url.host\n\n // If the current domain equals the target domain, the\n // assumption is the user is not navigating away from\n // the site. Reload the URL within the existing web view.\n if (currentDomain.equals(targetDomain)) {\n return false\n }\n\n // 3. User is navigating away from the site, open the URL in\n // Custom Tabs to preserve the state of the web view.\n val customTabsIntent = CustomTabsIntent.Builder().build()\n customTabsIntent.launchUrl(this@MainActivity, request.url)\n return true\n }\n }\n }\n }\n\n### Test your page navigation\n\nTo test your page navigation changes, load \n\n https://google.github.io/webview-ads/test#click-behavior-tests\n\ninto your web view. Click each of the different link types to see how they\nbehave in your app.\n\nHere are some things to check:\n\n- Each link opens the intended URL.\n- When returning to the app, the test page's counter doesn't reset to zero to validate the page state was preserved."]]