Gmail, Amazon, Yahoo Mail Apps Crashing for Several Android Smartphone Users and WebView Is to Blame

Android users around the world are reporting an unusual error with apps on their smartphones. According to users on Twitter and other social media platforms, apps including Gmail, Amazon, Yahoo Mail, DuckDuckGo browser, and more have been crashing despite rebooting the system or reinstalling the apps. Google has confirmed that the error is caused due to Android System WebView that lets Android apps display web content. On Google’s Workspace Cloud Status Dashboard, the company has said that it is working on a fix. The software giant states that affected users can use Gmail’s web client instead of the Gmail Android app. “There are no issues currently impacting Google Workspace services,” the company adds. Google has not revealed the exact error that is causing Android System WebView to fail, which in turn is impacting apps on the smartphone.

According to downtime tracker DownDetector, several users around the world started facing errors with Gmail around 4 PM IST on March 22. More reports started coming in at around 4 AM IST earlier today and peaked around 10:23 AM IST. 76 percent of Android Gmail users claim (via DownDetector) that they are facing errors with log-in. The rest of the users are unable to receive messages or attach files. Similarly, Amazon started facing errors at around 2 AM last night and peaked at 10:27 AM today morning. Yahoo Mail started facing problems at around 9:30 AM. Readers must note that DownDetector includes combined data for the app for Android and iOS as well as web client, therefore, it is not clear whether the downtime data is entirely for Android devices.

Meanwhile, several companies and OEMs also addressing the issue on their social media platform, with a possible workaround. Samsung US adds that Samsung phone users can uninstall WebView to fix the problem temporarily. Galaxy phone users need to go to Settings > apps > tap the three dots in the top right corner > show system apps > search for Android System WebView > select Uninstall updates. You can also check out the photo illustration of steps by 9to5Google here. DuckDuckGo has too taken to Twitter to address the issue. “We’re aware of reports of apps crashing on Android including DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser. This is caused by a Google update which they’re working on and a fix should be released soon,” the company said.

As mentioned, Google says it is aware of the issue on Android smartphones and it is soon coming with a fix.

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