ΒΆ Android Compatible Websites

The browser is based on WebKit which makes it very similar to the iPhone's browser, both in terms of user experience and the underlying tech.

There are a number of sites who provide a mobile version of their site for users that have the iPhone user agent string. Very few of these sites, with the exception of Google services, are up with the times enough to detect that the Android UA string means they can serve the same content and have the user see something that looks close to, if not excatly the same as, the iPhone.

For Android early adopters, there is light: an API that gives you three options for the Android UA:

I think this is mildly entertaining. It's also really handy, but unfortunately this is just the Java API for writing a WebView (the object that does the real work below the Browser API). What we really need is this to be exposed to the UI for the user to select.

I attempted to take the Browser code from the Android Open Source Project, ASOP, but it depends on a bunch of non-public APIs (Hello Windows, this is the 1990s calling!).

Another option is the 'Steel' application, a browser available from the Android market. It's got some cool features, but is less polished in other areas. Unfortunately it's not Open Source. It does have a UI for changing the UA string, in the settings.

I've tested it to work with the following iPhone (but not Android) specific sites: