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I have a mobile website, users user smart phone browser to access my site.

Now some users would like to have an Android App.

So is there any easy and fast way to create an Android App which will access the existing mobile website so that I can have an Android App without developing Android app?

Sato
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    You should get more feedback from your users about why they need an Android app. If they want a "native app", and know the difference between that and just a Web browser embedded within one, then they'll be disappointed. Also - what about the iOS people? – OneCricketeer Dec 09 '16 at 02:43

4 Answers4

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You would have to create a "wrapper" Android App. That is a native Android App with a Main Activity that contains a WebView with JavaScript enabled and some sort of navigation controls either on the mobile website or the native app (buttons or menu) but you could bump into problems such as:

  • Users being stuck in a particular page with no way to navigating back or forward.
  • Google is now more picky with the apps and they have policies to reject or ban apps that are only wrappers or point to external websites (kind of what Apple did for iOS)

Any case, you would have to create a mobile layout for your website or a make it responsive (special CSS and JS UI/UX that fits better on mobile devices).

Another alternative is to make your website compatible with PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS (https://developers.google.com/web/progressive-web-apps/) which is basically a Web app with some special elements that allow it to receive push notifications, put a shortcut or app icon on the device's home screen, etc.

Good luck! Hope this helped!

Oscar Salguero
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You can use android WebView. For more details you go through the link Android Webview

Swapnil
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Mick
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    No JS or limited JS support I guess? – Sato Dec 09 '16 at 02:36
  • @Sato - its essentially the android browser content area within a view on your app. So, yes JS. [Answer about enabling JavaScript](https://stackoverflow.com/a/7561674/199364) – ToolmakerSteve Nov 09 '18 at 11:06
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the only way to do that, using WebView on your apps or you need to create manually

Aldi Renaldi Gunawan
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You can put your code into Cordova and convert it into other IDE like android studio or eclipse .

reference:

Import Cordova project in Android Studio

Community
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Wol Lamoseu
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  • This question is about accessing a website from within an app. That is, the app acts like a browser app, showing website content within a view. As the other answers say, WebView is the solution. *Cordova* is for a different need: if you want to *design an app* using HTML, etc. That is, the HTML/CSS/JS will be part of your app download; the app is "self-contained", exactly as if it was developed using Java & resources, but instead it is developed using web technologies. – ToolmakerSteve Nov 09 '18 at 11:11
  • @ToolmakerSteve it could be both tbh. You can reuse everything you did in your website and use native packages if needed (it shouldn't in this case) via plugins. – Esteban Morales Jan 09 '19 at 03:34