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)¶

On Dispose: When the ComposeWebView leaves the composition tree (e.g., navigating to another screen), webView.destroy() is called.
Cleanup: DOM storage and other resources are cleaned up to prevent memory leaks.

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(
    // ...
    onDispose = { webView ->
        // Additional cleanup if needed
        webView.clearCache(true)
        webView.clearHistory()

        // Note: webView.destroy() is called automatically after this block
    }
)