- Android Jelly Bean and newer: Download ChromePublic.apk
- Android Lollipop and newer: Download ChromeModernPublic.apk
- Android Nougat and newer: Download MonochromePublic.apk
- use Chromium branding in more places
- enable dubious Do Not Track feature by default
- disable navigation error correction by default
- disable contextual search by default
- disable network prediction by default
- disable metrics by default
- disable data reduction proxy promotions
- add DuckDuckGo search engine
- Chromium: use startpage searchengine by default
- Chromium: disable strict mode
- disable first run welcome page
- disable autofill by default
- disable hyperlink auditing by default
- mark non-secure origins as non-secure
- stop enabling search engine geolocation by default
- hide passwords.google.com link when not supported
Support for h264 encoder is not added for legal reasons
AOSP Source uses AOSP Browser until Android 6 by default. AOSP Browser is absoloutly not up to date and should not be used on any roms these days because of it's security holes.
On Android 6+ it is ok to use a lightweight Browser which is using systems Webview implementation (as long as your system still gets security updates). If you have access to Rom source and compiling the Rom yourself you can find an updated Chromium-based WebView Implementation below in the "Information for Developer".
On Android 4 and older you should use a Browser which comes with it's own, updated, Webview. (Currently there's no good way to update WebView on Android 4.)
You can use this repo to add Chromium prebuilt into your Rom. Please read below information.
Add Chromium to your build config once you have cloned this repo into your Rom source:
# Chromium Browser
PRODUCT_PACKAGES += \
Chromium
(e.g. inside your device.mk)
On most roms you can avoid adding Chromium to your device config. Most Roms support an easy way to add more packages - you only need to create
vendor/extra/product.mk
and add call the PRODUCT_PACKAGES from there.
Here's an example of an local_manifest you can use:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<manifest>
<remote name="andi34"
fetch="https://github.com/andi34/" />
<project path="vendor/extra" name="android_vendor_extra" remote="andi34" revision="m" />
<project path="prebuilts/chromium-browser" name="prebuilts_chromium" remote="andi34" revision="master" />
</manifest>
CyanogenMod initial added support for an easy way to add more packages by the following changes:
- add a hook to add extra packages
- cm: Update use of vendor/extra
- Allow vendor/cyngn overlays to override vendor/cm overlays
You can adapt those changes to your rom source if it isn't supported yet.
- For Android 5 and below we are using ChromePublic.apk
- For Android 6 and newer we are using ChromeModernPublic.apk (we use an updated Webview Implementation, see below "Updated Chromium-based WebView")
To use prebuilt MonochromePublic.apk on Android 7+ you need to add chromium to frameworks/base/core/res/res/xml/config_webview_packages.xml (Your can also add it to your device overlay).
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- Copyright 2015 The Android Open Source Project
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
-->
<webviewproviders>
<!-- The default WebView implementation -->
<webviewprovider description="Chromium" packageName="org.chromium.chrome" availableByDefault="true">
</webviewprovider>
</webviewproviders>
Once that's done you need to modify the Android.mk to use MonochromePublic.apk.
Note: You can save some space while using ChromeModernPublic.apk and updating Webview inside your Rom source instead using MonochromePublic.apk, see below "Updated Chromium-based WebView".
On Android 5 ChromeModernPublic.apk can't be used as prebuilt without patching your Rom source:
Run these commands:
cd build
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andi34/prebuilt_chromium/master/patches/Lollipop/0001-Fix-Chrome.patch | git am -
Once that's done you need to modify the Android.mk to use ChromeModernPublic.apk:
LOCAL_SRC_FILES := ChromeModernPublic.apk
LOCAL_PREBUILT_JNI_LIBS_arm := @lib/armeabi-v7a/crazy.libchrome.so
LOCAL_PREBUILT_JNI_LIBS_arm += @lib/armeabi-v7a/libchromium_android_linker.so
- an updated Chromium-based WebView for Android 6 can be found here
- an updated Chromium-based WebView for Android 7 can be found here
You should use the updated WebView if you are compiling your Rom from source.
You can find the build instructions here to Checkout, Build, & Run Chromium for your OS.
Chromium for Android is compiled using the GN build tool. To match our build settings, set:
target_os = "android"
is_debug = false
symbol_level = 0
enable_nacl = false
remove_webcore_debug_symbols = true
in your GN argument file before building.
Support for h264 encoder is not added for legal reasons. If you like to compile Chromium yourself with h264 encoder support you need to extend your GN argument file with the following:
proprietary_codecs = true
ffmpeg_branding = "Chrome"
chrome_public_apk(ChromePublic.apk)minSdkVersion=16(Jelly Bean).- Stores libchrome.so compressed within the APK.
- Uses Crazy Linker.
- Shipped only for Android < 21, but still works fine on Android >= 21.
chrome_modern_public_apk(ChromeModernPublic.apk)minSdkVersion=21(Lollipop).- Uses Crazy Linker.
- Stores libchrome.so uncompressed within the APK.
- This APK is bigger, but the installation size is smaller since there is no need to extract the .so file.
monochrome_public_apk(MonochromePublic.apk)minSdkVersion=24(Nougat).- Contains both WebView and Chrome within the same APK.
- This APK is even bigger, but much smaller than SystemWebView.apk + ChromePublic.apk.
- Stores libchrome.so uncompressed within the APK.
- Does not use Crazy Linker (WebView requires system linker).
- But system linker supports crazy linker features now anyways.