Besides the fact that they can be insecure (and hackers can create fake networks to hack you), public Wi-Fi has another drawback. Sometimes, these public Wi-Fi providers ask you to register using a social media account, or by providing certain personal data. And this step is usually not easy, because the public Wifi connection page is not linked to Android’s autocomplete system.
In other words, if a public Wifi asks you to connect to your Facebook account, you will not be able to use Google Chrome’s automatic connection (which fills in the login and password fields for you), but will have to manually enter all the necessary information. But the good news is that according to an article from Android Authority, Google has finally looked into this problem.
Android Custom Tab vs WebView
The pages that appear when trying to access public Wi-Fi are called Captive Portals. And if it is not possible to use the information pre-recorded in Google Chrome (username, password, payment, etc.) on these pages, it is because they are displayed using an Android component called WebView, which is not linked to Google Chrome or the Google account.
But the good news is that according to Android Authority, Google is preparing to transfer Captive Portals to another component called Android Custom Tab which, for its part, allows you to take advantage of Android’s autocompletion system. Thus, the user would no longer need to enter the information already saved on Google Chrome manually.
However, it should be noted that currently, this functionality would not yet be deployed. However, Android Authority reporter Mishaal Rahman reportedly spotted this upcoming change to Android’s open source code. In addition, this change would be linked to Google’s “Mainline” project. And that means, in practical terms, that it should be deployed on older versions of the operating system, but not just on newer versions.
- Public WiFi networks can be dangerous, but on top of that, it can be difficult to connect to them
- Indeed, the pages which allow you to register on a public Wifi are not connected to the Google Chrome autocompletion system
- Therefore, if there is information to be entered, it must be entered manually each time.
- But Google would be about to solve this problem
