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Lifecycle Management

This guide explains how compose-webview manages the lifecycle of the underlying WebView instance and how it integrates with the Android lifecycle.

Automatic Lifecycle Handling

Managing the lifecycle of a WebView is critical for performance and preventing memory leaks. Standard Android WebView requires manual calls to onResume, onPause, and destroy.

compose-webview handles all of this automatically within the Composable.

1. Resume & Pause

  • On Resume: When your App or Composable comes to the foreground, webView.onResume() is called. This resumes JavaScript execution, timers, and any active layout processing.
  • On Pause: When your App goes to the background or the Composable is hidden, webView.onPause() is called. This suspends JavaScript and reduces battery consumption.

2. Destruction (Dispose)

  • Default (DestroyOnRelease): When the ComposeWebView leaves the composition tree, webView.destroy() is called.
  • Optional (KeepAlive): Keep the native WebView instance alive across composition exits/re-entries (Android/iOS only).
  • Cleanup: Resources are still cleaned up according to your selected release strategy.

Zero Boilerplate

You do NOT need to manually handle lifecycle events in your Activity or Fragment.

Manual Control

If you need to manually dispose of the WebView or clear its state before the Composable is removed, you can use the onDispose callback.

ComposeWebView(
    // ...
    releaseStrategy = WebViewReleaseStrategy.KeepAlive,
    onDispose = { webView ->
        // Additional cleanup if needed
        webView.clearCache(true)
        webView.clearHistory()
    }
)

When using KeepAlive, call destroy() at your actual ownership boundary (for example ViewModel.onCleared() on Android) to avoid leaks.