If you are using Android, no doubt part of you enjoys the platform do to the high degree of customization it can provide. From your launchers to text messaging apps, and even notification managers to the way your phone presents web content… Wait, that can be changed too?
As you may recall, Google separated the components of Android’s web engine from the operating system with Android 5.0 Lollipop. While technically 4.4 KitKat used the Chrome Browser’s WebKit engine, there was no easy way for the tech giant to provide updates to this without releasing an incremental version to Android itself.
If you are the lucky 1.2% of people to be running Google’s latest cutting edge OS, though, you are in for a treat. Newer versions of Chrome’s WebKit Engine often provide significant accessibility enhancements. For example, if you were to install the actual Chrome Beta app , you would have a better navigational experience with Talkback than you might using the current Chrome release.
A slight disclaimer however:
The Chrome Beta version of the browser also provides you with the latest support in web standards. This can be a double edged sword: While rarely might you find incompatible websites, the beta channel no doubt will be more strict to adhering with current web trends. Although running a beta version of web view or the Chrome browser usually does not make your device more buggy or create crashes, it is possible that some sites will behave differently (hopefully better) than they might on a regular release channel.
Joining the WebView Beta channel will give you all of the accessibility and usability enhancements found in Chrome Beta on a system-wide level, meaning that even apps such as Facebook or Twitter would exhibit a better experience. It is a simple process, though it might take a little time for your device to pull down the beta Webview update.
First,
Join this Google Plus community.
You can find more details on that page of what this is. If you have issues or problems to report, it might be a good place to voice them there as well.
Next,
Click on this PlayStore testing link
Join the testing form by clicking on the button there, and you are all set. It should also be noted that you can click on this same link if you ever want to leave the program. KitKat users, hopefully your Lollipop updates come soon!
