Microsoft's WebView2 for Windows 10 apps will be generally available by end of 2020

By Zac Bowden
published

WebView2 should improve the performance of web apps that adopt it.

Twitter PWA
Twitter PWA (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • WebView2 will be generally available by years end.
  • It allows web apps to adopt Chromium.
  • Should improve performance of web apps that adopt it.

Microsoft has today announced that WebView2 will be made generally available for C/C++ and .NET applications by the end of the year. WebView2 allows developers to provide full web functionality inside their Windows applications, decoupled from the OS so that apps are no longer locked to a particular version of Windows.

Unlike the first WebView, WebView2 is powered by the new Microsoft Edge and Chromium technologies, meaning developers can update their web apps to support the new rendering engine using WebView2 if they wish.

Hopefully, with WebView2 becoming generally available, web apps such as Twitter will be updated with the new web view which should provide better web page performance. Microsoft says that its engineers have contributed over 3,700 individual commits to the Chromium project, in areas from core accessibilty features to developer tools and browser fundamentals.

Zac Bowden
Zac Bowden
Senior Editor

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter: @zacbowden.