Google App indexing for Android & Apple

[Ronaldo Assis de Moreira]

I did ask this question on https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-developers/uFaEAEq4ALY but maybe it is more appropriate to ask this here.

We would like to build new apps (Android & Apple) for our site, we are interested in implementing Google App indexing in those two app but we are not 100% sure what is the right way to do that, I mean the app development itself.

The site that we want to create an app for, is responsive and look good on smartphones; for Apple app, for example, we have the possibility to create a "webview" that basically show the site in a web view element (in-app browser), this look good and its well done, but the question we have is in term of Google App indexing, we understand that most probably google can't access IOS app and crawl the app itself (Maybe in Android, google can actually crawl the content of the app itself) but we are not sure how Google will do this and we are not sure if a "webview" is the right way to do this and if Google is "OK" with "Google App indexing" and "webview" or it has to be an app that take the content from some source and "build" app pages.

The question we have is about what is the right way to develop an Android & Apple with Google App indexing, is a web view good enough or this is something to avoid when developing an app with Google App indexing.

[Ronaldo Assis de Moreira]

HI,

[Rosa Wu]

Hi Ronaldo,

Thanks for your question. Having webviews in your app will not affect Firebase App Indexing, so definitely feel free to use them in your app.

Rosa

[Ronaldo Assis de Moreira]

Thank you, we are planning to take our website mobile view and use it with webviews in a app, so basically the app is the website mobile view, our website mobile view is very well done, we are not sure if this is something that google will approve?

[Rosa Wu]

Hi Ronaldo, 

Using webviews in your mobile app is perfectly acceptable.

Rosa