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How to Use Custom Chrome Tab in Android

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Editorial,  2 min read,  3.1K views, updated on Sept. 17, 2023

Chrome Custom Tabs gives apps more control over their web experience and make transitions between native and web content more seamless without having to resort to a WebView.

Chrome Custom Tabs allow an app to customize how Chrome looks and feels. An app can change things like:

  • Toolbar color
  • Enter and exit animations
  • Add custom actions to the Chrome toolbar, overflow menu and bottom toolbar

Chrome Custom Tabs also allow the developer to pre-start Chrome and pre-fetch content for faster loading.

To use custom chrome tab in Android, you first need to include the following dependency in your build grade file.

compile 'com.android.support:customtabs:23.4.0+'

Sync the project after adding the dependencies. Now you’re good to go.

 public static void launchChromeTab(Activity activity, String url) {
        CustomTabsIntent.Builder builder = new CustomTabsIntent.Builder();
        builder.setToolbarColor(ContextCompat.getColor(activity, R.color.colorPrimary));
        builder.setSecondaryToolbarColor(ContextCompat.getColor(activity, R.color.colorPrimaryDark));

        // set start and exit animations
        builder.setStartAnimations(activity, R.anim.slide_in_right, R.anim.slide_out_left);
        builder.setExitAnimations(activity, android.R.anim.slide_in_left, android.R.anim.slide_out_right);

        CustomTabsIntent customTabsIntent = builder.build();
        customTabsIntent.launchUrl(activity, Uri.parse(url));
    }