@javascriptcommon/react-native-webview 13.18.1 → 13.18.3

package/android/src/main/java/com/reactnativecommunity/webview/RNCWebView.java

@@ -95,10 +95,53 @@ public class RNCWebView extends WebView implements LifecycleEventListener {
         // reactTag resolution.
         if (enabled) {
             EMBED_INSTANCE = this;
+            keepRendererImportant();
             startKeepAlive();
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Tell Android this WebView's renderer must NOT be demoted when the WebView
+     * stops being visible.
+     *
+     * The renderer is a separate process (com.google.android.webview:
+     * sandboxed_process0) and its importance is inherited from us. The platform
+     * default is RENDERER_PRIORITY_IMPORTANT with waivedWhenNotVisible = TRUE:
+     * the moment the WebView is off screen the renderer drops to a cached
+     * process, Android's freezer suspends it — no JavaScript, no network, no
+     * decoding — and the system may then kill it outright.
+     *
+     * For a browser that default is right. For an embed player it is exactly
+     * backwards: this invisible WebView IS the audio source, and "screen off" or
+     * "app in the background" is precisely when it must keep working. Captured
+     * from the system log on a Pixel 6a (2026-08-05) while playback was stuck:
+     *
+     *   ActivityManager: freezing 21392 com.google.android.webview:sandboxed_process0
+     *   ActivityManager: sync unfroze 21392
+     *   ActivityManager: freezing 21392
+     *
+     * The symptoms all follow from it: a media element left at readyState 0 /
+     * NETWORK_EMPTY (frozen mid-load), no events coming back (the injected
+     * script cannot run), a page that ends up about:blank (the renderer was
+     * killed), and playback that stops "after a while" in the background. It
+     * also explains why the keep-alive alone was not enough — that runs in the
+     * app process and calls evaluateJavascript, which merely queues against a
+     * renderer that is frozen.
+     *
+     * Scoped to the embed WebView for the same reason as the keep-alive: an
+     * in-app browser or a consent dialog has no claim on this.
+     */
+    private void keepRendererImportant() {
+        if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.O) return;
+        try {
+            setRendererPriorityPolicy(WebView.RENDERER_PRIORITY_IMPORTANT, false);
+            android.util.Log.i("RNCWebView", "embed renderer pinned IMPORTANT (not waived when hidden)");
+        } catch (Throwable ignored) {
+            // Some OEM WebView builds refuse the call; losing the guarantee must
+            // not cost us the WebView itself.
+        }
+    }
+
     public boolean getContentBlockerEnabled() {
         return this.contentBlockerEnabled;
     }

package/android/src/main/java/com/reactnativecommunity/webview/RNCWebViewClient.java

@@ -341,7 +341,10 @@ public class RNCWebViewClient extends WebViewClient {
 
         description = descriptionPrefix + description;
 
-      if (!topWindowUrl.equalsIgnoreCase(failingUrl)) {
+      // getUrl() is null until the first navigation commits, so an SSL error on the very first load
+      // arrives with no top-level URL at all. That load IS the top-level navigation: report it as one
+      // instead of dereferencing null on the UI thread.
+      if (topWindowUrl != null && !topWindowUrl.equalsIgnoreCase(failingUrl)) {
         // If error is not due to top-level navigation, then do not call onReceivedError()
         Log.w(TAG, "Resource blocked from loading due to SSL error. Blocked URL: "+failingUrl);
         this.onReceivedSubResourceSslError(

package/package.json

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
     "Thibault Malbranche <malbranche.thibault@gmail.com>"
   ],
   "license": "MIT",
-  "version": "13.18.1",
+  "version": "13.18.3",
   "homepage": "https://github.com/react-native-webview/react-native-webview#readme",
   "scripts": {
     "android": "react-native run-android",