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Native Browser interop

Overview​

The Avalonia WebView component provides cross-platform web content rendering capabilities by utilizing native platform web view. However, sometimes you need to access platform-specific APIs that aren't exposed through the Avalonia WebView abstraction layer.

This document explains how to obtain native handles and perform interop with the underlying browser implementations on each supported platform.

Getting handle​

To access native browser functionality, you first need to obtain the platform-specific handle from your WebView control.

For WebView Controls​

Use the TryGetPlatformHandle() method on your WebView instance:

if (myWebView.TryGetPlatformHandle() is IWindowsWebView2PlatformHandle handle)
{
    // Cast to platform-specific interface and use
}

For WebView Dialogs​

Use the TryGetWebViewPlatformHandle() method on your WebView dialog instance:

if (myWebViewDialog.TryGetWebViewPlatformHandle() is IWindowsWebView2PlatformHandle handle)
{
    // Cast to platform-specific interface and use
}

Interop​

Windows​

Avalonia's WebView on Windows supports two adapters:

  • WebView2: Modern Chromium-based Edge (recommended)
  • WebView1: Legacy Edge (fallback for older Windows 10 installations without WebView2)

Both adapters operate with classic COM interop. IDL definition files can be found in the Microsoft.Web.WebView2 nuget package (in case of WebView2), Windows SDK (in case of WebView1) or on the internet.

Recommended Approach: Use the new [GeneratedComInterface] attribute for fast, trimmer/AOT-friendly COM interop.

Alternative Solutions:

public interface IWindowsWebView2PlatformHandle : IPlatformHandle
{
    /// Returns COM handle to the ICoreWebView2 [76ECEACB-0462-4D94-AC83-423A6793775E] COM interface
    IntPtr CoreWebView2 { get; }
    /// Returns COM handle to the ICoreWebView2 [4D00C0D1-9434-4EB6-8078-8697A560334F] COM interface
    IntPtr CoreWebView2Controller { get; }
}
public interface IWindowsWebView1PlatformHandle : IPlatformHandle
{
    /// Returns COM handle to the IWebViewControl [3F921316-BC70-4BDA-9136-C94370899FAB] COM interface.
    IntPtr WebViewControl { get; }
}

MacOS/iOS​

Recommended Approach: Use official .NET Xamarin.Native macOS/iOS bindings for strongly-typed wrappers. Typically using NSObject.GetNSObject<WKWebView>(IntPtr, false).

var wkWebView = NSObject.GetNSObject<WKWebView>(handle.WKWebView, false);

Alternative: Use objc_msgSend P/Invokes for direct native API access (more control but harder to maintain).

public interface IAppleWKWebViewPlatformHandle : IPlatformHandle
{
    IntPtr WKWebView { get; }
    IntPtr GetWKWebViewRetained();
}

GTK Linux​

GTK interop provides direct access to WebKitWebView but requires careful thread synchronization.

Important: All GTK calls must be executed on the GTK thread. Use GtkInteropHelper.RunOnGlibThread from the Avalonia.X11 assembly (included with Avalonia.Desktop).

The provided WebKitWebView IntPtr can be used directly with WebKit P/Invokes from the official WebKit reference.

public interface IGtkWebViewPlatformHandle : IPlatformHandle
{
    IntPtr WebKitWebView { get; }
}

Example Usage:

GtkInteropHelper.RunOnGlibThread(() =>
{
    // Your WebKit P/Invoke calls here
});

Android​

Use official .NET Xamarin.Android bindings for the easiest managed wrapper access.

Refer to the Android.Webkit.WebView documentation for usage details.

public interface IAndroidWebViewPlatformHandle : IPlatformHandle
{
    IntPtr WebKitWebView { get; }
}