@anon36556420, like I mentioned above:
- WebView is not a full browser.
- It’s a tool that apps can use to show limited web content inside the app itself.
- If there is no dedicated browser installed, and no system-level handling for general links, WebView alone cannot just “open links” from anywhere like SMS messages.
In a traditional smartphone SMS app, when you tap a link, the system usually needs to hand off the link to a browser app because that’s the job of a full browser.
- Kompakt’s SMS app does not have built-in WebView handling for links inside messages, so tapping a link will fail or do nothing unless you sideload a browser.
- Even if WebView exists on the system (because other apps use it internally), it needs an app to “host” it for opening links.
For me, in my experience, WebView popped up automatically at the airport Wi-Fi login page, but it won’t behave the same for an SMS link.
- When you connect to Wi-Fi networks that require login (called “captive portals”), the system (the operating system) detects it and launches a tiny internal WebView window specifically to load the login page.
- It’s a system-triggered behavior, not user-triggered.